delivery to scotland

[Suki1312]

Used to use Royal mail all the time , Never a problem then they done away with standard parcels . Now costs you a lot more to send bigger parcels ie rods etc . Now use myHermes picked up from my door and tracked to its destination far cheaper than royal mail . Only buisness they get from me know is for stamps .

[Wildfisher]

It's horses for courses of course. At one point I used City Link  to carry our mail order plants, but sadly their prices went up and their service went down!   Of course unlike UK Royal Mail these carriers have no obligation to provide a level cost universal UK service, so if their prices or service bug you then just  don't use them.

As  a fly line supplier Royal Mail provides me with the ideal 1st class service that enables me to get the product to all UK customers next working day (or Saturday) as long as I get the order by about 2PM. This is done at a very reasonable cost, the customers love it and it saves them money. In 4 years only 2 packages have gone astray and one of those was during the Christmas mayhem. To be honest I cannot imagine a service that would suit me better and I cannot praise  it enough. It will be a very black day indeed for myself and other mail order suppliers if that service is compromised in any way.

[loch coulter]

the point i was trying to make was the discrimination of people who live in the north or any of the islands, nothing to do with royal mail but to do with companies that discriminate against regarding where you live, it almost amounts to a racial thing although not quite. :worms

[Wildfisher]

Don't use them.

[Inchlaggan]

Don't use them.

Limited options for many of us Fred.
Two options for you all to go take a look at-
1) Proxxon bench top tools. A German company, but Brimarc maintain that they are the UK distributor. They are also available via Axminster (phone for a quote if you are north of Edinburgh or on a remote island). There is a Scottish distributor - Brodies Timber- near Dunkeld (phone for a quote if you are outside Perthshire- I have a PH postcode but I sure ain't in Perthshire!). Hobby's UK also supply (you are on a remote island). Cheapest prices per item across the web (to date) are Chronos (around 10% less) with free delivery to mainland UK. One woodworking forum suggests that it is cheaper overall to buy direct from Germany.
2) A metalworking lathe. These things are way beyond Royal Mail at 120kgs in weight. The sort of machine I am looking at costs around £1,500. A trawl through the net and I am looking at delivery costs of over £200 (as opposed to £50 if I was in Edinburgh). Except Warco, who deliver free to mainland UK.

This is not a Royal Mail issue, nor an independence one. These folks have made a conscious decision about delivery charges based (as Sandy says) on a postcode system that was not designed for this purpose. Nor do their couriers actually pick up in South Scotlandshire and deliver to me. Most deliver to Glasgow, thence via Highland Haulage to Fort William and then it is down to two or three locals - as Fachan says AJG get most of the business because they are the best.

Best of the lot to date was the firm that charged an extra £50 for the Scottish Highlands plus a further £100 for driving from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyleakin (Skye is a remote island) delivery to the Isle of Wight was free.

They are taking the pish.

[Wildfisher]

When I lived in the back of beyond in Aberdeenshire (a lifestyle choice) my post code was AB33 XXX.     AB33 covered an area from just west of Aberdeen up to the summit cairn  of Lochnagar and beyond. Some carriers used by some suppliers wanted to charge huge amounts to deliver, some didn't. I used the ones who didn't. They  are private companies  they don't have a duty to you nor you to them. If you don't like them your only option is don't use them.  If that's not an option then that may well be very annoying, but  what can be done  to improve the situation?  My guess is nothing much.  I couldn't get mains gas or good broadband where I lived before, I moved and I can now. 

[Bobfly]

Just to chip tuppence worth in support of the excellent German postal service ---- which was privatised some years ago !!
:worms

[Wildfisher]

I sent a fly line to Italy  a few weeks ago  it took only 3 days!  :shock:

The ecstatic customer contacted me and could not praise Royal Mail enough.  :

[Inchlaggan]

I'll do Sandy's job for him! AB33 does not cover the summit cairn of Lochnagar, postcodes are not geographic in that sense.
I do not have a choice in which couriers deliver to me, that is the decision of the supplier. Such items that I produce can be sent by my carrier of choice- Royal Mail- were I to exceed their size/weight limits I would have to use a courier. As the majority of any potential market is south of Edinburgh it would be commercial suicide and misleading to headline my website with "Free next day delivery" (as many do- Screwfix) and then sneak in at the order completion page that I will be charging an extra £XX for deliveries south of Birmingham.
Tesco won't deliver to me, Asda will for £2.50.

[Fishtales]

AB is the district code for Aberdeen

33 is the area code for where you lived Fred

The main code is the next part which ties the code to the residences in that 100 house delivery area.

'For domestic properties the postcode refers to up to 100 properties in contiguous proximity (e.g. a short section of a populous road, or a series of less populous neighbouring roads). The postcode plus the number or name of a property is not always unique, particularly in rural areas. For example GL20 8NX/1 might refer to either 1 Frampton Cottages or 1 Frampton Farm Cottages, roughly a quarter of a mile apart. The postcode plus the first line of the address, however, is always unique (except where sub-properties occur).'

If couriers only use the first part of the code they don't know where you live, BT is the whole of Northern Ireland and ZE is Shetland, and the number is ,as you say, a geographical area. To get a proper address they need to use the rest of the postcode number as well as the house name/number and street name or it becomes nonsense.