Couriers
Couriers can either be individuals or from a company, either way their job is to deliver mail, packages, pallets or message. They differ from the normal post service for a number of reasons, they are faster, safer, you can track your packages, and they offer an individual service, which means that you can alter their service to suit you and your deliveries. They are also specifically committed to delivery times and deadlines and your package has to be signed for when it reaches its destination not just posted through the letter box.
Due to the above extras that your receive when you use a courier's service you do have to pay more, this means that people only tend to use them when they have more than one package that needs to be looked after more carefully. Couriers tend to operate on all scales, this can be from regional to local, towns to cities or national to global, which is one of the reasons why couriers are so great, because they will deliver your package to near enough anywhere in the world.
Depending on the scale in which a courier company works on will ultimately affect the way in which they deliver, for example couriers that deliver on a city or town basis will often deliver on bikes or motor bikes. Courier companies that operate on a larger scale will deliver via Lorries, trucks, rail and planes. A number of courier companies operate on a just in time, JIT, basis, this means that one of their couriers will come out and deliver on a very a little as a minutes' notice to anywhere they are needed.
In the UK the popularity for 'same day' delivery first came about after the London Taxi companies started to deliver packages, when they saw the space in the market they then set up companies off their taxi firm that delivered on motorbikes. Then since the 1970s new smaller courier companies started to emerge throughout the country, this has grown into the courier industry that we have today with companies like; DHL, FedEx and APC Overnight.
A reliable courier service we found very useful are Mitchell Storage and Distribution, UNITS 47 & 48, The Warren, East Goscote Ind Estate, East Goscote, Leicestershire, LE7 3XA TEL 0116 260 4080