Instant quotes online

Question for techies...

Some courier firms have websites where the customer enters their delivery and collection postcodes, the kind of van they need, and then they get an instant quote (usually a nice fat one).

How do you go about putting one of these calculators on a website, and do you have to buy them?

Cheers.

Depends how complicated you wannit to be. Easiest is just to have google maps do the work. Just stick in the rate per mile and hey presto. Many do this BUT beware cos it don't work for London....so you need 2 x rates, Inner and Outer London....and that's where it starts getting more complicated...and more expensive. A good un will cost you £700+ unless you're a computer geek

My view, for what it's worth is if you're going to do it, do it properly.

Nothing worse than a customer doing an online quote, and then finding out its 50% higher in reality. They won't be impressed and you'll lose em for good

Ours is linked to our software so cost nowt.....not as user friendly as it could be, but it is accurate

Hmmm, this is the sort of thing that we could do and have talked about in the past.

CAMVAN, have you seen that we offer a simple customer booking system that integrates with mtvan on your site? Maybe we could offer quotes on there too if we come up with some kind of rate tables that you can set up.

Speed, you're website's pretty good! Do you mean that all your software cost nowt, or the pricing system was included in the price? Can I ask who did the design? I'm getting shoddy quality and customer support with Yellsites - so much so that I don't publicise my website because I know it'll only tarnish my image. (No point googling camvan! I had a previous trading name...)

Admin, I didn't know about this mtvan system. How does it work - do you mean the customer would post a job on my site and it would appear as an available load on mtvan? (My site isn't ready for this yet and I'm probably going to get a completely new one, but it might be worth planning for...)

No the software we use is from the states....no upfront costs, just a monthly fee.....by far and away the cheapest i've seen, and does exactly what you need....automated emailed pod's, automatic texts to driver with job details, invoicing, driverpay, sales reports, and once set up, all jobs priced correctly. Your customers can download an icon onto their desktop and book online, see their job history, quotes etc etc. And as you can see...you can link the quote and booking page onto your website too.

Website designed by us with a little help from a mate of a mate but hosrted by 1&1

There are plenty of cheap ways to set up a website...we have another for back up just in case that was done ourselves using Vistaprint...£8 ish a month

http://www.samedaynationwide.co.uk/

or there's Wix at £3 a month!!!..

The customer can place a booking with you on your site (i.e. submit their details, a new booking details or return and sign in to place another booking). The booking comes in to you on your unallocated page on mtvan and is not opened for bids. You can then get back to the customer, do the job yourself or open it for bids and sub it out.

You can find the option with more info along from the Dashboard option menu... www.mtvan.com/customer-booking-system

BSC is trying it out on his site at the moment... www.bsclogistics.co.uk/clients/

I am removing the online booking form from my websites. It is totally inadequate and nothing seems to be happening to improve it.

Try this... This works for me.. just add your values, refresh, and copy and paste the browser and stick it in your option tabs..

3D Courier Services said:

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I am removing the online booking form from my websites. It is totally inadequate and nothing seems to be happening to improve it.

As fancy as it is.. Its not for me.. I prefer to talk to the customer its a personal service, if you have the gift of the gab you have a sale, on that note, I have put my prices up and no one has battered an eyelid unlike before where you would hear silence then a gulp, then give some excuse to run it past there boss and gat back to you..

Gas Motorcycle Couriers said:

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Try this... This works for me.. just add your values, refresh, and copy and paste the browser and stick it in your option tabs..

I use this when im at home . Its a handy tool

I also have it on my smart phone..

Gary, could be quite useful on my Blackberry! How did you download it?

Forget that Gary, got it. Thanks.

Try this: [https://www.freelancer.co.uk] websites and tech stuff done at a fraction of the cost, The mtvan of button pushing!

Gas Motorcycle Couriers said:

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Try this... This works for me.. just add your values, refresh, and copy and paste the browser and stick it in your option tabs..

And if your clever like the man that designed that page you can even set different rates for amount of miles and for going into london... And it doesn't cost anything... But you have to be very well up on your html and google api's

Or if your really stuck and just need to give a quote theirs this basic tool

PB I dont bother with extra loading just cause its London.. I already charge enough for getting down their in the first place.. I dont want to frighten em off.. ;)