courier companies for kit?

Im trying to get quotes to send some very heavy speakers (165kg in all, in three boxes) to a would-be buyer. The Royal Mail parcel service stops at 30kg per piece. Places like DHL and parcelforce are geared to rapid delivery and are quoting hundreds. Anyone have any tips?

 

speaker despatch

If your buyer is in the UK and for that kind of weight and number of boxes I would go for van hire, much less of a headache, should be available for 40/50 ish pounds a day (24hrs) plus diesel.

if you're too busy get a close friend or relative to do it, supervise and help load at your end, buyer helps at the other end ( or half way, if its 200 plus miles each way perhaps they would hire at their end and meet you half way?).

Much less hassle to hire a van and take control yourself.

I speak from experience

 

I'm currently looking at this as well as I need to get my 50kg amp back to Meridian for repair :-(

I'll let you know of who/what I find.


John

 

No, you are being quoted hundreds because 165 kg is a lot of weight and couriers charge by weight.

The guy who bought my Optimum glass rack has had to pay £40 to get it collected and taken up north and that was only 30 kg.

Also, how heavy is each box? Some companies have an item limit so that they only have to send one driver. Or if they have to send two, obviously they charge a lot more for it.

That's life. Might be cheaper to drive it there yourself

 

Driving would be the cheapest option - but I just don't have the kind of free time to get from Ipswich to Manchester and back, and the buyer can't do it either. The heaviest of my boxes is about 67kg and an awkward shape, which is just, just about handlable by me, but I'm sure health and safety regs would have two deliverers on it, hence the prices.. I'll carry on looking as well and post anything sensible for everyon's future reference.

 

there is a sticky on the top of the AVforums hardware classifieds section that discusses different couriour. Might be worth a read. Not sure it talks about good ones for heavy weight objects!
AVforums sticky

 

I use Quicksilver a lot, for both work and hi-fi things, and they're good:

http://www.quicksilverms.co.uk/

Don't know if you'll need to set up an account, but they don't have any weight limits (you pay for the privilege, however, but their prices are generally pretty reasonable).

-- Ian

 

That's the problem with most courier companies I've found in the past too when I've wanted to send heavy items. There's a single weight limit of 30kg, unless your're an account holder with them, but seeing as I don't run my own business or have a reason to hold an account with a courier firm it's a bit of a non starter.

Using a work's courier and you reimburings them could be an idea, but then if you've got bits of heavy equipment to ship how do you fit it into your car if you have a small one. Or what if you don't drive, which is the main problem some of us also face?

 

solved..

well the problem's gone away - given the difficulties, my buyer is going to drive over and pick them up. Which means I'll be in the market for some new, upmarket speakers, and no doubt picking everyone's brains for suggestions in a new thread...