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How does everybody charge for courier and packing?
I make quite a few estate agent photosigns, and other fragile signs in various sizes.
These are then sent off by courier round the country.Packing these signs in cardboard takes a long time, cutting and folding the cardboard, taping and writing the address legibly and filling the courier slip, sometimes making the packing more valuable than the sign itself.
And yet I only seem to charge for the courier – rounded up to the nearest ten dollars to cover the materials.I do this because I see the same everywhere, goods seem to be sent out with free packing.
Obviously you try to cover it with the quote, but this can make an estate agent sign seem very expensive.
Does anyone charge properly for this service with full disclosure to the client?
And if so what reaction do you get from the customer?Simon.
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1 Reply
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This is interesting, I’m just looking at revising my packing costs.
Packing properly is almost an art and can be very time consuming.I send a fair few signs out all over the country mostly foamex and ACM and usually charge a standard courier rate.
But the time it takes to wrap the signs along with consumables used if often ridiculous.Often a catch 22 situation, if you charge too much for postage or add the cost on the sign you may loose the business. But time is money and lately have spent to much time wrapping which just eats into the profit made on the signs.
I am going to introduce a minimum post and packing that I feel happy with and will compensate some of the time spent wrapping I will explain this to the customer if queried.
Tricky one with you Simon where your signs might not be high margin and competitors send carriage free.
Companies like Ashby obviously have all packing materials hidden in the price of the signs, would hate to think what they spend on polystyrene and shrink wrap.
Good topic for people who do send out signage
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