Best & worst UK Delivery firms ranked in MoneySavingExpert poll

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MoneySavingExpert.com has once again run a survey asking 9,500 consumers to rank delivery firms based on their experiences during 2019. Conducted just after the Christmas and January Sales peak, the MoneySavingExpert poll asked people to rate the performance of all the major UK delivery firms, based on their own experiences with each company over the past year and it looks like DPD has topped the table for the seventh year running.

The results of the MoneySavingExpert poll can be found in the table below:

Major Delivery Companies
‘Great’ Score
DPD 63%
Collect + 61%
DPD Local 56%
Royal Mail 55%
Amazon Logistics 52%
UPS 42%
Parcelforce 41%
Fed Ex 41%
DHL 41%
UK Mail 29%
Hermes 29%
TNT 23%
Yodel 21%

 

The results haven’t fluctuated much since 2017 and again, results between premium express services and cheaper economy services may be skewed on perception rather than reality. One bad experience could keep a consumers idea of a delivery company bad for a while into the future.

DPD top the MoneySavingExpert poll

It’s no surprise that DPD are still topping the table. DPD are a market leader with their tracking notifications, one hour (reducing to 15 minute close to delivery) time slots, online Predict & Follow My Parcel services and an excellent tracking mobile app. They are also taking sustainability very seriously making it appealing to consumers who like to know what impact their parcel delivery service is having on the environment.

“To be voted the best in any business seven years running is an amazing achievement, but to do it in our industry, with the level of change we’ve seen over that period and the huge number of variables we deal with every day, is truly incredible.

“We never rest on our laurels at DPD. The investment in our service and our network continues this year as we lead the industry forward again, this time on sustainable deliveries. Our aim is for 10% of our fleet to be electric by the end of 2020, giving us the largest all-electric delivery fleet in the UK.”
– Dwain McDonald, CEO, DPD

16 Responses

  1. I always find the subject of couriers very interesting. Over the years we have used most of them with UKMail being our worst experience ever – within days of using them the parcels where taking 1-2 days longer to be delivered and I just wondered how other companies could deal with such a poor service – but they must be good for some companies or they wouldn’t exist.

    We have mainly used DPD for a few years and as you can see above we find them reliable and easy to deal with at the back end too. You can contact them easily for queries, but there are so few problems. However last year they introduced an £18 surcharge for items over 1m and although often these items just over were missed and we only send a small number of those items – £18 is a rediculous charge. A few of our suppliers use DPD and they don’t seem to get his charge – yet I was told it is for everyone. 5 meetings between March and November last year with promises it would be sorted and removed – within a week or two it would re-appear – yes maybe only 2 or 3 per week – but that is a lot over a year.
    Anyway, we have changed to Parcelforce as of two weeks ago who have a £2.20 charge for items over 1.1m and that works for us. Within two weeks we have already had more delays with parcels that in 3 months with DPD – but we shall see how it goes.

    Surely others must have this issue with the £18?
    The other couriers are starting to catch up with DPD on the technology front.

  2. cost is the big thing
    if we can save a few thousand a year, we will suck up a relative level of loss and non delivery

  3. @DaveP
    Parcelforce will do a good deal on up to 30Kg and up to 1.5m – they also do the 1 hour delivery window. So that could be worth a try.

    We are saving money compared to DPD – but we would move back in a heartbeat if they removed the £18 charge. I wouldn’t mind if it was maybe £2 – but where did they come up with that number from.

  4. I’ve switched over to DPD for many deliveries now from Hermes – they’re not always the cheapest, but I have taken so long trying to sort out late Christmas deliveries with Hermes and Parcel2go, I can’t be bothered with them anymore. It’s January 17th and they still haven’t arrived and nobody knows where they are. The 1 hour time slot from DPD has never been missed (unlike UK Mail on 5 occasions with the same parcel!) and I’m sure that the customers appreciate it.

  5. Hi Darren,

    £18 is their standard ‘bulk’ courier charge. I think they did change the paramaters around it last year, introducing the 1m limitation. Our local DPD rep tells us it is because it has to be manually moved around their DC as the state of the art automated system cannot handle 1m+

    Cheers

    Ian

  6. Is it fair to say that even though DPD come top, 63% is still not a ringing endorsement that delivery companies are ‘delivering’ a decent service? If our customer satisfaction rating was at 63%, I would be seriously concerned .

  7. It’s strange how people have such different experiences. We have moved back to Parcelforce after 10 years away from them and they have been superb. Issues with deliveries are less than 1% and they are easily fixed with excellent customer services.

    DPD were a big problem with us – admin and office staff couldn’t care less.

  8. Thanks for the head-ups on UK Mail. We’re looking for courier to deliver >2kg small/medium parcels (as RM at this point isn’t economical). Might look different direction now than UKM.

    And slightly off topic but still related to courier companies.

    We import a lot of small-ish (~20kg) parcels from Asia. We use DHL & UPS but have used ParcelForce too.

    DHL is probably the best, very quick but not quickest than UPS. They seem to be very reliable, no probs with import tax calculations, issues raised with CS get the attention/resolution etc.

    UPS is amazing – 34hrs to get our parcel from UAE to North Yorkshire!! The only downside is if you don’t track the parcel on time and pay duties before delivery then the UPS driver turns up with the parcel but cannot release it nor take payment (wthh!?) So it goes back to depot. We now have an UPS account so this should be automatic. Their CS is terrible. It takes weeks to resolve an issue with UPS so be warned.

    ParcelForce… Don’t even know where to start… The local driver is friendly. That’s about it. Each parcel can sit up to 10 days at customs for “revised charges” so usually the door-to-door delivery from our supplier is 2-3 weeks (compare with UPS!). If ParcelFarce needs your EORI number… they will put 2nd class letter in the post….. !!! They actually use 3rd-party custom clearance agents so we’re not using them to import from non-EU as it’s just headache. And it’s too slow to be viable option in 2020!

  9. All great posts and always this poll always starts a lot of debates. Can’t argue with DPD results again and they lead the way again in this survey. They do a lot of things right for sure and are great absorb shouting about it (why wouldn’t you!).

    The £18 is a manual charge as they certainly concentrate on a “perfect parcel” and (in theory) price our everything else.

    For clarity I work for Parcelforce, and we love the perfect parcel (naturally!) however we also take items up to 1.5m (small a smaller surcharge (£2.20 for items between 1.1m-1.5m.

    So if you have perfect parcels get in touch. If you have a mix of shapes and sizes, get in touch too!!

    Warren.

  10. I use Royal Mail for small and medium parcels, with some heavier items going via UPS.

    Royal Mail have successfully delivered approximately 10,000 parcels over the last decade without a single loss. Which is astonishing.
    UPS, with a smaller number of parcels, have also delivered without a single loss.

    Would I have enjoyed such a stellar delivery record had I used one of the couriers who pay their drivers so little that they are forced to drive their vehicles like they stole them, desperately banging on neighbours’ doors, or chucking parcels over fences?
    Probably not.

    The obvious keys here are uniforms, easily identifiable (and hence reportable) sign written vans, and a multi-layered commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their operations. Both RM and UPS score very highly in my book.

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