The pandemic has transformed the shopping habits of people all over the world. Like many Australians, if you have been shopping online during this period, then you have probably seen the phrase ‘local courier’ come up on your tracking pages. But what is a local courier? And what’s the difference between getting a local courier, and the average postal service? This article will review some of the critical information surrounding local couriers and shed light on some of the key terms you might encounter when tracking items you purchased online.
What Is A Local Courier?
A local courier is a term for the courier responsible for delivering your packages locally once they have been sorted at the appropriate facility. Local couriers are often run by smaller businesses and operate with an increased level of familiarity to the local areas they serve rather than massive networks used by more extensive postal services.
The benefits of a local courier are numerous. If you are only looking to send a shipment a few kilometres or within a metro area, it can be less expensive and more practical than using a larger service that may send the item further away from its destination for sorting.
When it comes to local courier services, Zoom2u works to connect customers with local couriers within close proximity. Booking with Zoom2u means choosing from a range of couriers based on nearby location, urgency of delivery, and costs.
What Is A Local Courier Facility?
A local courier facility is a delivery facility that receives and organises the delivery of shipments from one area to another. Typically, these packages are supplied by small local couriers or by businesses in the area such as supermarkets, clothing outlets or other smaller companies. Deliveries may arrive at this facility in the form of individual packages or more oversized pallets. For some business models, these pallets are unpacked at the local courier facility before being dispatched individually to customers.
Much of the organisation ensures smooth delivery happens at these local courier facilities. Packages are affixed with barcodes to scan and be sorted up with their vehicle routes. A local courier facility is typically frequented with cars, vans or smaller trucks to efficiently service many stops in a local area, rather than going between facilities. These local facilities usually act as a hub for same-day delivery services or within a few days for regional areas.
Summarising just what is a local courier facility would be a central location to provide service for package delivery to and from local areas. In many instances, these local facilities operate based on time-sensitive deliveries. So, these smaller facilities are performed on a much smaller scale to the more extensive warehouses for larger postal services. They are used with productivity in mind to handle, sort, redirect incoming packages to their destinations.
Courier Service v Postal Service
There are several differences between a courier service and a postal service. Postal services are shipping providers that are frequently operated by national governments and are more popular with private customers or businesses sending non-urgent, routine communications to partners and customers where time is not an essential factor in delivery. Australia Post is an example of a postal service.
Local courier services are typically private companies that facilitate the shipping and delivery of smaller parcels and essential documents. Many courier services will specialise in the type of product they deliver. Some will also offer a specific variety of shipping within the destinations these couriers service, for example, same-day local shipping or regional shipping. As the demand for faster, more efficient, and accessible delivery increases, local courier services are becoming more popular across individuals and businesses.
Types Of Local Courier Services:
Time-sensitive shipping: These sorts of services aim to deliver goods around the country, or even internationally within specific time frames, like between 1 and 3 business days and within particular hours during the day, many offering a window of delivery.
Local shipping: Local courier services focus on providing fast, same-day delivery for parcels and documents within the confits of a metro area or a centralised area. Zoom2U offers same-day delivery on many types of parcels and documents within major metropolitan areas of Australia’s biggest cities.
Differences between a local courier service and a postal service
Pricing
Postal services offer very basic delivery options, simple and for the most part affordable; the only service you are paying for is the shipping costs. On the other hand, Courier services provide fast and reliable delivery services at set rate, depending on the requirements of your delivery. Zoom2u provides accurate and reasonable quotes depending on the item you wish to ship and where it will be sent. And can offer more individual service based on the item.
Quality of Service
Despite the affordable shipping rates offered by the larger postal services, you often get what you pay for. Longer delivery times, haphazard tracking information, and poor customer service are commonplace in the larger postal service networks. With Zoom2U, our customer service team engages with our customers to ensure complete transparency about their parcel’s location and delivery time, even offering in-app live tracking and the ability to call your courier!
Locations Serviced
One of the few drawbacks of using a local courier service lies in its name; they often only service a local area. For documents or parcels that need to be sent internationally or to more obscure locations, more extensive postal services usually have the resources and connections to reach these places reliably. Zoom2u service Australia-wide. We have couriers across all major metro areas, and most regional areas too! If you’re looking for a courier in a specific local area, get onto Zoom2u and we’ll connect you to the nearest courier.
What Does ‘Delivery To Local Courier’ Mean?
The tracking stage “delivery to a local courier” indicates that the local courier nearest to you has picked the parcel from the centralised warehouse, scanned it, and loaded it on board the delivery vehicle for the daily delivery run. The company selects the particular routes these local couriers serve to conduct the most efficient servicing of a specific area. How far the location is from the warehouse, how many other packages are being delivered on the route, and the type of service selected by the sender all impact your delivery arrival after this tracking detail has been updated.
Pick The Most Reliable, Trustworthy And Efficient Local Courier Service
Getting your parcels to their recipients has never been simpler or more well-adapted than it is with Zoom2u. Our technology ensures your package gets to its destination on time and safely. Our state-of-the-art tracking enables you to see where your parcel is in real-time, talk with the courier, and receive helpful updates straight to your mobile phone.
Zoom2u is a highly flexible service and offers a wide array of delivery methods to best suit your purposes. Select from our VIP delivery service that takes your parcel directly to the destination without receiving other packages, or a 3-hour delivery when you need a quickly delivered in Sydney!
Are you in need of a specific type of delivery mode? Select the vehicle that your courier will use! If you have any issues with your order, our customer service team is here to support you, operating from 8 am to 9 pm (AEST) Monday to Friday, and 10 am to 4 pm (AEST) Saturday’s and Sunday’s.
Delivering your product shouldn’t be a gamble each time you use an unreliable delivery service. When you choose Zoom2u for your Sydney local courier needs, you’re selecting an Australian-owned, affordable, and reliable courier that’ll deliver your packages on time and without hassle.
