With the staggering growth in home shopping via the internet there is considerable interest in how e-retail goods purchased are subsequently handled and delivered to consumers home addresses. This survey will not only be of interest to carriers and shippers but also to fulfilment companies and other organisations interested in understanding the home delivery sector, such as IT suppliers for example.
The survey’s methodology was based on Triangle’s long established Domestic B2B Parcels Distribution Survey, with many questions focussed specifically on user experiences of parcel carrier performance in the fast growing B2C delivery sector. The survey was based on 450 interviews with shippers despatching 50+ parcels a month to home addresses in the weight range ½ kg to 30 kg requiring a delivery next day or within 2/3 days.
The 158-page report establishes user perceptions for a number of carrier ratings and descriptors both for the home delivery specialist operators and those largely B2B orientated express parcel carriers now extending their reach into the B2C sector.
Issues such as the provision of an alternative delivery location, the collection and notification of returns and the use of are examples of specific issues relating to home deliveries that are addressed in the report. One of the principal features of this unique survey is the benchmarking of carriers by their users so that, not only can the operators see their relative performances in easy to read benchmark charts, but in addition, shippers can utilise the information when sourcing or reviewing their service provider.
Royal Mail received the highest spontaneous awareness rating followed closely by Parcelforce Worldwide and FedEx. The competitiveness of the market is evident by the numbers of carriers covered and although the ratings showed some carriers performed better than others, the score gap betwen the highest and the lowest rated carrier was rather small.
Triangle’s “UK Domestic B2C Express Parcels Distribution Survey’ was first launched in 2008, with the 2012 being its 5th edition. Both these sector surveys are available as separate reports in addition to the overall ‘UK Express Parcels Distribution Survey’ 2012 edition.
Published on 08/08/2012
Triangle Management Services Ltd, founded in 1984, is today the pre-eminent independent specialist management services company within the global mail, express and logistics sectors. Triangle offers the following services to clients: Specialist media, Recruitment, Market Research, Consultancy, Conferences and Mergers and Acquisitions – all of which focus primarily on the mail and express industry sectors.
