Could customers book couriers through mtvan?

This is really a suggestion for the admins. Apologies in advance if I ruffle a few feathers.

As I see it, the ideal way this industry would run is this:

1. Customer types in required delivery into an online booking form, like the mtvan customer booking form.
2. Booking form then gives the customer an automatic quote, based on the size / awkwardness of item and mileage.
3. Appropriate drivers are notified automatically by text as soon as they come in range, similar to the CX 'live tracking' system.
4. The first driver to accept the work (who meets the appropriate criteria) gets it.

• The customer benefits from the flexibility of direct access to couriers which we in the trade benefit from. They also wouldn't need to book in advance, because there's almost always somebody local looking for a delivery.

• Drivers benefit from local work at decent rates wherever they are.

This would be bad news for Courier Companies, as the middle-man process becomes entirely automated. There are a few other downsides of course (quality control, for example, would depend on each courier being properly assessed before becoming part of the system) but I can't help thinking it's the way forward. It's almost the way things work already, isn't it? If I had the appropriate techie skills I'd do it myself, but I think the mtvan admins are as well placed as anybody. The mechanisms are in place, it's just a question of joining up the dots.

(I expect I'm now going to be told why I'm wrong...! )

Interesting post. I've just tidied up the list for you as it didn't format correctly.

Interested to see other people's opinions.

I'm OUT.

I run my company as I wish and I charge what I see fit or want to charge for a particular job.

Words fail me... I think it would be wrong to allow customers access as described.

It will never work as not everyone requires or indeed wants a so called 'standard mileage' rate!

RAPID LIGHT TRANSPORT LTD. said:

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It will never work as not everyone requires or indeed wants a so called 'standard mileage' rate!

Perhaps if enough were happy with the rate? What if the rate were fairly generous?

What you describe is a neat way of optimising the available courier fleet on mtvan, so from the couriers' point of view would be good news in some ways.

I think that if you look at it from the customers' point of view, though, it doesn't tick a few essential boxes.

• Regular customers like a single bill. Unless mtvan billed the customer as part of the deal, there would be 100s of individual bills, one per job. If we did the billing, we'd be a courier company.

• Booking a courier is for many customers a distress purchase. They want a familiar voice on the phone reassuring them that their problem will be solved promptly and competently.

• Customers want someone to shout at when things go wrong, and someone they know they can demand a credit note from when the bill is wrong or when the stuff was damaged. That someone needs to be someone who they spend money with on a regular basis, and owe money to, so their concerns are listened to.

These are the reasons why we always say courier companies have little to fear from sites like Delivery Supermarket. There's just not enough customer service for business customers.

Website Admin said:

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RAPID LIGHT TRANSPORT LTD. said:

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It will never work as not everyone requires or indeed wants a so called 'standard mileage' rate!

Perhaps if enough were happy with the rate? What if the rate were fairly generous?

Nope

Can this idea test the waters in anyway?

How could you apply quality control to the customer? Would they have to register on mtvan first? Would it be payment up front? If you are talking about individuals, how do you do background checks? After the problems experienced by some unfortunate members recently I think this can of worms should be kept well and truly shut.

Whats wrong with people calling and booking? Its worked for years.

SMH said:

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Whats wrong with people calling and booking? Its worked for years.

Increasingly calling is not the preferred method to get in contact with people, especially when it's a 'can you give me a price' type enquiry.

Its a bad idea The less the end user knows about how the market is driven the better.

Sound like a right can of worms!

If the job goes wrong or cancelled on route will mtvan pay the call out fee?

There are loads of sites for end user/eBayers who want something for nothing, this will only attract the uninsured wide boy in his rusty old renault master doing it at the weekend for beer money.

I had a lady on the phone who had picked up the wrong suit case at the airport and had to swap it with someone in north London, pick up on Saturday within an hour Exeter (50 miles from me) go to north London wait and return to exeter all for £100 inc. VAT!

I'm out!

It's a little bit like can we buy a washing machine direct from the manufacturer cheaper than a retailer, No is the answer because the manufacturer does not want the customer calling when things go wrong or a problem arises. It's worth it for the retailer because that is what they do, Just like courier companies, We do all the chasing to ensure a smooth service takes place and the customer is happy on completion.

Just look at the Anyvan thread for the point on customer service issue.

I too am OUT! It's ridiculous as Duncan would say.

Tim, you're right. What i'm proposing is that whichever website did this would effectively become a courier company, and could deal with anomalies and problems over the phone (if the customer wished) as a courier company does today. But the allocation of work would be automated.

Like i said, standards would have to be met so you wouldn't have the anyvan reliability issues.

The customer would pay the website upfront as soon as a driver accepts the work, and the driver doesn't go anywhere until there's confirmation of payment, so you don't have to worry about dodgy customers.

I see this a good for everybody. I said prices would be fixed by the website because they can be fixed at a decent rate, so we can stop competing with each other on price. And an automated system could deal with masses of business and only charge a very low commission (unlike the greedy lot on anyvan).

Your issue about regular customers is a fair point, Tim. I see this really as an antidote to anyvan, uShip etc where there are millions of non-regulars, and all the work is for some unfixed point in the future.

Hello Mr Camvan. If your have the desire for your business to serve end users then it is your job to gain this business. It is your job to mail shoot cold call employ a web company or more effectivly use a free lance sales person but it is not the job of an exchange site to take onthis . As already pointed out Anyvan looks a near disaster on the business plan of introducing end users mostly people that have no idea what is expected of a courier. In addition to this they are introcing customers to newbies that have no idea how to deal with customers. It looks like they just tell them to feck off when a customer tries to name a price! Quite funny I suppose!

Camvan As others have said this is a ridiculous idea.

Most of my customers would be horrified to have any Tom Dick or Harry turn up to collect their goods! The reason they choose us, when there are cheaper options already available, is the fact that they know me and the drivers, and know that they need not worry about the delivery at all.

I agree some customers would not bother who or what takes their goods, and are just looking for the cheapest, in most cases the market is already saturated with cheap non urgent options. [and some 2nd rate same day options too, :) ]

Guess theres a strong reaction against this.

And then another "exchange site" decides to do the same but at a lower rate?

You can't stop competition and you can't stop choice....thats why we all exist... Cos the customer decides who to use, what credit he wants, What price they're willing to pay, whether he or she likes the person on the other end of the phone...

Having the ability to book online is something we've had for a few years now, and it's something that's useful yes, but 99.9% want to talk to someone.

There will always be a two tier service level

We all offer the 1st, let Shiply and anyvan offer the 2nd

Capitalism ! Thats the word Rob I love that word

The retail side of the Same Day Courier industry is SERVICE driven.

That service demands an intimate knowledge of your customers needs and expectations - do you really want to go down the route of being a price whore just as the express parcel industry has become!

Theo, if what you're talking about is an upgrade to DeliverySupermarket/AnyVan/Shiply, then here's a slightly different take on it:

So it's work that most courier companies on here actively reject, ie householders wanting unwrapped breakable stuff moving from one end of the country to the other for less than most someday courier companies' minimum charge. The only concession this kind of customer makes is a reasonably wide collect and deliver margin.

Put this work together with the GPS tracking on the existing mtvan app, which already gives automated alerting of work close to your actual GPS position.

Then allow you the courier to add a personal rate table on mtvan, so the system can quote a rate for you to the end user, with payment by PayPal.

(And have a huge "I'm OUT/it's the most ridiculous business idea I've ever heard" button to it so people could opt out).

In other words, mtvan is still not involved in the transaction, so we're still not a courier company, but we do enable DeliverySupermarket end users to get instant time and price quotes from you for their courier work, and allows you to get a load near you.

Speed Couriers (Stansted Airport) said:

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And then another "exchange site" decides to do the same but at a lower rate?

You can't stop competition and you can't stop choice....thats why we all exist... Cos the customer decides who to use, what credit he wants, What price they're willing to pay, whether he or she likes the person on the other end of the phone...

Having the ability to book online is something we've had for a few years now, and it's something that's useful yes, but 99.9% want to talk to someone.

There will always be a two tier service level

We all offer the 1st, let Shiply and anyvan offer the 2nd

Well put Rob. I agree that competition between 'exchange sites' would spoil it. That's where it would become annoying.

Tim Gilbert (mtvan.com Ltd) said:

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Theo, if what you're talking about is an upgrade to DeliverySupermarket/AnyVan/Shiply, then here's a slightly different take on it:

So it's work that most courier companies on here actively reject, ie householders wanting unwrapped breakable stuff moving from one end of the country to the other for less than most someday courier companies' minimum charge. The only concession this kind of customer makes is a reasonably wide collect and deliver margin.

Put this work together with the GPS tracking on the existing mtvan app, which already gives automated alerting of work close to your actual GPS position.

Then allow you the courier to add a personal rate table on mtvan, so the system can quote a rate for you to the end user, with payment by PayPal.

(And have a huge "I'm OUT/it's the most ridiculous business idea I've ever heard" button to it so people could opt out).

In other words, mtvan is still not involved in the transaction, so we're still not a courier company, but we do enable DeliverySupermarket end users to get instant time and price quotes from you for their courier work, and allows you to get a load near you.

That's even better. Genius!

For those saying 'the customer

RAPID LIGHT TRANSPORT LTD. said:

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Camvan As others have said this is a ridiculous idea.

Most of my customers would be horrified to have any Tom Dick or Harry turn up to collect their goods! The reason they choose us, when there are cheaper options already available, is the fact that they know me and the drivers, and know that they need not worry about the delivery at all.

It wouldn't be any Tom Dick or Harry. Like on anyvan / DeliverySupermarket etc, it's the customer's choice if they want to accept your offer of transport, which they would determine based on your profile and online feedback. So they'd still go through the same decision-making process, just without a voice on the phone.

I know the voice on the phone is important, but I don't believe it's the be-all-and-end-all of the industry. Surely the customer's interaction with the driver is just as important to their overall experience.

It's not a perfect solution, but as we know, this industry isn't perfect at the moment.

I'm aware that this wouldn't be a popular business model for everyone. Sorry for rocking the boat!

021 SAMEDAY said:

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The retail side of the Same Day Courier industry is SERVICE driven.

That service demands an intimate knowledge of your customers needs and expectations - do you really want to go down the route of being a price whore just as the express parcel industry has become!

I agree with the statement above... When I started out through the express parcel industry, finding work through the kind of easily accessible websites where we bid for work, it wasn't too long until I realised that on this customer sector the standards we're very low and the pay was poor... When running a legit company or just as a Legit Owner driver we all know that we have guidelines to follow in order to cover expenses and make a decent profit, most of the "Service providers" on these sites are carrying out delivery work illegally therefore they don't have the expenses we do... In my opinion you would be targeting this "low standard" customer sector with this new move and that would be disappointing fr all the legit Service providers... If you would like to make a move I would suggest you invest on a company that provides services on an ethical method, that's what builds a solid reputation, doesn't mater if you get less conversions than these other companies because your smaller solid reputation will leave us all lot more relaxed than if all you have to show is that you have more traffic and conversions than your competitors... That's our approach and it has worked very well for us... Best Regards to everyone...

It wouldn't be any Tom Dick or Harry. Like on anyvan / DeliverySupermarket etc, it's the customer's choice if they want to accept your offer of transport, which they would determine based on your profile and online feedback. So they'd still go through the same decision-making process, just without a voice on the phone.

I suppose if they aren't bothered too much who /when etc about their items and cheap is paramount, then it could work [which is what I said previously :)] as a 2nd level service.

As Speed Couriers said there will always be a 2 tier system, most strive I imagine for the 1st, as we do, and are not interested in the other.

This to me appears to be another "great" idea which will no doubt push end user rates in the wrong direction and besides that I quite like talking to people!

(I expect I'm now going to be told why I'm wrong...! ) Whats the verdict then Cam.

I admit defeat!

Never mind ;)