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Local Delivery
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Tracking - Trick or Treat?Many carriers now offer, with the aid of sophisticated and costly IT. The ability to track a parcel 'online'. This is carried out with a barcode scanner -not dissimilar to the one seen at the local Tesco Checkout - When you book a consignment, be it online, by consignment note, a pad, or with a carrier implant onto a flashdrive or diskette a consignment number is issued. This will appear on the label. This label carries all the information required to complete the delivery. A barcode is generated (See sample Label) This barcode contains all the information on the label and thus when scanned informs the depot at which stage of delivery the parcel is at. So, The parcel is collected from yourself. It may have a label attached or may have it first attached at the 'collection'/ depot. Either way its highly likely that the first scanning opportunity will be out of the collection depot onto the trunk vehicle en-route to the hub. Many Carriers, this includes ourselves, do not do this, The first scan opportunity in our network is on arrival at the hub. The parcel then travels along a conveyor belt and passes under a scanner which identifies the parcel and knows exactly which postcode its destined for. A tri-dimensional laser then measures the consignment against its weight to establish whether a cube weight should apply. In many cases the item fails to be scanned, The label may be on the wrong face of the parcel, The barcode has been damaged, The barcode is applied around a tube thus distorting its information, many reasons can result in this not happening….its commonplace. For exactly the same reasons, Your parcel may not be scanned out of the hub, Indeed the first actual scan may well be a manual scan into the local delivery depot. If at this point the label will not scan, an unreadable barcode discrepancy will be raised. This confirms the receipt of the parcel albeit with a damaged barcode. At this point you would have possibly the first confirmation of your parcels whereabouts. In theory the parcel would then be scanned onto the delivery vehicle, then scanned upon delivery. The recipient signing the device and his name input, along with the time recorded. A short time after this a POD is available online. Clearly, The scanning/Tracking option has lots of pitfalls. It sometimes just doesn't work. But it does for the carrier - You see instead of the Carrier taking a telephone call, reference your consignment, its highly likely you are online, trying to ascertain its position yourself…thus saving the carrier on customer services. It's a win win situation for the carrier. Indeed who is to say that although the parcel is out on the delivery van, the driver runs out of time, has an accident, calls when the factory is at lunch, or for some other reason is unable to deliver. The scanner doesn't tell you this… In reality, Tracking is possible, its not infallible. When it works its great, When it goes wrong -well, make your own min d up on that one.… But don't rely on it…Service is the key - tracking is just a flowering up of the process. Call us today on 01756 790565 |
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