For anything sold at a distance, the courier is part of your product. The customer does not distinguish between your business and the company that brought the parcel, and a bad delivery is remembered as a bad purchase.

Match the courier to what you actually send

Small, light and urban is a different problem from heavy, fragile or rural, and no single carrier is best at all of them. Most businesses end up with two: a main one, and a second for the consignments the first handles badly or expensively.

Ask specifically about the areas you actually deliver to. National coverage on a website frequently means an outlying area is subcontracted to somebody else, with different timelines and a different answer when something goes missing.

What to compare beyond price

  • Realistic transit times to your actual destinations, not the headline.
  • Collection cut-off — the time by which you must be packed, which shapes your whole afternoon.
  • Tracking your customer can use without phoning you.
  • Proof of delivery, and how quickly you can get it when a customer says nothing arrived.
  • What happens when it goes wrong — who you speak to, and how long a claim takes.
  • Insurance: what is covered by default, what the limit is, and what needs declaring.

The default insurance is usually not enough

Standard cover is typically a low fixed amount per consignment, well below the value of most business shipments. Anything worth more needs declaring and usually costs extra.

Work out what a lost consignment actually costs you, and insure against that rather than assuming the waybill covers it. This is the single most common gap.

Negotiate once you have volume

Published rates are a starting point. Once you are shipping consistently, ask for an account and a rate — carriers compete hard for regular volume and the difference is frequently substantial.

It is also worth revisiting annually. Rates drift, and a rate agreed three years ago at a much smaller volume is rarely still the right one.

Test before you commit

Send a handful of real consignments to real destinations, including a difficult one, before moving your whole operation. Time them, track them, and see what the experience is from the customer's side.

A carrier that performs well on the first ten is not proof, but a carrier that performs badly on them will not improve at volume.

General guidance on commercial practice, not legal or insurance advice. Check carrier terms and liability limits yourself.