Arrow Blog

Are you drugged driving?

Should you get behind the wheel and drive if you have taken prescription drugs? Or over the counter drugs.

Can cold and flu remedies affect the way you drive?

Probably according to a recent survey by Autoglass. The survey showed that 8/10 drivers drive under the influence of drugs, with as much as 50% of them not realising because they had taken over the counter drugs or prescription drugs.

….admit to taking prescribed drugs  such as temazepam, diazepam and pain-killer Cocodamol, with sixty percent (60%) confessing they then get behind the wheel of their car without a second thought.

When it comes to over-the-counter medication, certain cold and flu remedies,  anti histamines and sleeping tablets are the most popular and worryingly a quarter (25%) take more than the recommended dose. After getting dosed-up, seventy three per cent (73%) then hit the roads. Source- Autoglass

It is essential for all drivers, as well as professional driver to make sure they are fit for work and capable of driving. Anti depressants and painkillers can alter the perception of the driver, making an accident more likely.

A driver can be still prosecuted for being under the influence of drugs, even if they are prescribed drugs.

What are the side affects of some of typical over the counter and prescription drugs?

  • Tiredness
  • Slow reactions
  • Not as alert to danger
  • Tremors, shaking
  • Dizziness
  • Blurred vision

If you are thinking of driving and you have a cold, be careful of what medication you are taking. If you are driving you may be better off taking nothing at all. You may not feel so great but you will be a lot safer than being over medicated and driving dangerously.

TV’s Dr Rosemary Leonard, comments: “The effects from medication can last for hours or even days and can vary from person to person; a driver may not even notice that they have been impaired until it is too late. A person’s driving ability can also be affected by the medical condition for which they’re taking the medicine. With cold and flu season fast approaching, more people will be turning to over-the-counter remedies in the coming months.”

“Taking alcohol and drugs together is even worse as their side effects may combine and impairment can be multiplied. It’s vital that anybody taking medication always reads the label first, it’s also essential that motorists feel fit to drive before getting into the car. If they experience any side-effects or feel unwell then they must not consider driving until the symptoms have passed.”

Medicines often state whether you can operate machinery or not whilst taking it, use this as a guideline – your car or van is machinery, you are still operating it.

Drive when you feel better is best option, it is better to be safe that sorry.

Kevin

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Check your tyres – Drive safe this winter

October is tyre safety month, so if you do one thing this October it should be to check your tyres. This year so far there has been 4,300 successful prosecutions of people driving with dangerous tyres.

Where the rubber meets the road, you gain traction. The tyre ‘grips’ the road and needs as much tread as possible. It also needs to be inflated to the correct level as well. Check your vehicles handbook or Haynes Manual for what it should be. If you have an iPhone there is even an app that will help Tyre Pressure iPhone app

It’s one job that everyone with a vehicle can do, with ease (along with topping up your screenwash). See the video to the right (Sarah made me do it, I insisted on wearing the hat though. A small rebellion.

A tyre should have at least 1.6mm of depth, and it should be uniform all around the wheel. If you have uneven wear you will still need to replace the tyre – weaknesses can lead to blow outs and punctures. Baldness even in a small place can lead you to skidding all over the place, especially on a wet road.

Some garages are offering free tyre checks,  if you are unsure of what to do pop in and let them take a look.

Safer driving starts with vehicle checks, before you even get behind the wheel.

Take care this winter.

Kevin

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Avoiding mistakes when booking a courier service

Everyone in business wants to save money and improve their bottom line. Yet when it comes to getting their goods delivered they are enacting Einstein’s definition of insanity; expecting a different result from doing the same thing, over and over again.

Saving your business money when it comes to courier services isn’t that hard, and a few simple steps will save you a significant amount of money and more importantly, keep your customers happy.

  • Make sure you get the right kind of courier service – if you don’t know, ask.
  • Make sure you have the dimensions of the items to be delivered.
  • Know the weight of the item
  • Know the collection and delivery postcodes

The right kind of courier service is essential if you are looking to save yourself money getting something delivered. If it’s fragile or high value you will need a same day courier service. If it’s low value and durable a parcel courier or the local post office are the better options.

Knowing the dimensions of the item to be delivered means you will avoid parcel surcharges when getting your goods delivered. In the small print of the parcel couriers terms of business are the details of their extra charges. If you have an account you may not notice how many surcharges you are incurring each month for overweight items, incorrectly packages items and other things. There is money in those details – check them!

Knowing the weight of the item is vital to saving you money. You may find you are paying extra for an over-sized item that may be cheaper to send by same day courier services compared to a parcel service.

Knowing the collection and delivery postcodes is essential to getting an accurate price. London is a big city and you can pay more by not being specific.

Being accurate and being specific is the best way to avoid costly mistakes when you book your courier service. Remember this when you are looking to improve your bottom line and your customer’s delivery experience.

Kevin

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Blame it on the delivery guy – It all comes down to money

If you have a problem and next extra support or help for an item you have ordered, you tell them when you buy the item? Right?

Of course you do, a lot of people do this when they buy a large item, they inform the store of the problem (bad back, elderly parent signing, 300 flights of stairs) and if they are lucky, the shop makes note of this on the order form.

If they are lucky.

When your delivery van arrives, a guy starts to unload and you need help, you told them in the shop you needed help but the thing is – help costs money. You are left blaming the delivery guys for something they have no control over.

Deliveries are an expensive undertaking for many stores and warehouses, their biggest expenditure is staff, then the cost of transportation. In tougher times, staff cut backs are made and so are transportation cutbacks. Sometimes, the additional help request is passed on, more often it is not – it’s an extra cost and hey- they can blame it on the delivery man. It’s not the stores fault, the warehouses fault, it’s the delivery guys fault.

I was trying to explain this on facebook the other day, that as delivery people, we deliver what we are told and if we are asked for a two man team, then we provide that – that’s what will help your elderly parent get the goods in, or you with the bad back, or every person that lives at the top of 300 flights of stairs. Often what we are asked to do is deliver for a fixed price, regardless of the circumstances (square pegs and round holes?) and they rarely include a second person on delivery.

Partly this is the consumers fault, they are used to ‘cheap’ delivery but are not happy with what cheap delivery entails. We’re doing our best to educate everyone in the chain.

We also have the health and safety aspect, it was pointed out to me that delivery a pallet of goods would have been quicker for the delivery company if they had a two man team, well again, it comes down to money. The company booking the job doesn’t want to pay the going rate, they want a deal and that means something has to be cut, it has to be staff or fuel. If two people did the delivery that’s two days wages and double the delivery cost normally charged. It is cheaper for our customer to have one driver unload with their equipment, it may take a little longer but that is one set of wages less to pay.

So the delivery company will give the shop/warehouse several prices –

  • Two man team, dedicated delivery
  • Two man team, no fixed time
  • Delivery on a dedicated vehicle
  • Delivery on a specific schedule, a working driver

Guess which one is the cheapest? Did you say the last one? Given the choice of the 4 options, and the store knowing you have disabilities / no parking / no one home until lunch, they always go for the cheapest.

Trust me, in the 9 years we have been doing this, the only option they are interested in is the one that costs them the least, and regardless of what you say, as a customer you do baulk at paying a delivery price that is enough for every person in the chain to make a little money, including the delivery company.

Next time you are in a shop wondering why delivery costs are so high, remember, fuel, 2 men, no problems because when you have free delivery you have nothing but hassle, and everyone trying to cut their costs down. It sure makes it harder to deliver your goods how you would like them to be delivered.

Kevin

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The difference is in the delivery

I know it’s our company strapline, but it really is so true.

On Sunday I went to get my eyes tested. I specifically looked for a store that did a one hour service. If I have to go on the road without my glasses my license is no longer valid and I am driving illegally. I needed my bi annual eye test, and knew  that the service I required was the premium service and that I would have to pay extra for the glasses to be made to my prescription, so I went to Vision Express in Basildon.

They fitted me in and then did the testing. I needed new glasses so I chose them and then paid for them. After paying, the one hour premium service I was told would take two hours. Ok, so I took the family for a walk around Basildon.

I went back 2 hours later and got my glasses. They looked ok and I was happy until I tried them on. They didn’t fit over the ears and the lens didn’t look right. I queried the ear fitting and they were adjusted but they didn’t seem quite right. I had also bought a pair of driving glasses and were having them tinted for driving in the summer, so I said I would come back to collect the sunglasses on Tuesday. I also queried the bill, it appears I have been charged an additional £44 for services.

I asked what the services were, it’s only fair I had paid for them and I was told it was for the case. Expensive case and I had no choice, I had to pay it. I left the shop unhappy, the glasses did not feel right and I felt some what disturbed that a generic glasses case is ‘services’ and just added to my bill with no explanation.

When I got home I examined the glasses closer, the workmanship was shoddy and the lens were wonky. I need the glasses for driving, so I had to go back on Monday.

On Monday Vision Express admitted the lens were wonky and that was why they didn’t fit over the ears, slid down my nose etc.  They would replace them. They were happy to blame someone called Adam. They made a few phone calls and said could I come back Tuesday for the new glasses as they were out of stock on one of the lens. I wasn’t happy, this is the one hour premium service that I had bought here –

  • Only it wasn’t one hour, it was two
  • I was only informed of that after I had paid
  • I was now having to come to Basildon to have shoddy workmanship corrected
  • I was now having to come back a third time

Vison Express Basildon is apparently a franchise, well they need to look at their operations manual again – their delivery is appalling. They must be the worst retailers on the high street, they have turned getting glasses from a sprint into a marathon.

Tuesday I went back to the store and they had the glasses, the lens replaced after a 30 minute wait and then asked to come back. I returned 90 mins later to find my new glasses were still wonky, they had a bent bridge, but after waiting 30 minute more I was invited back to the store on Wednesday.

Let’s get this straight, premium service that so far still cannot  deliver after 2 days what I paid for.  What I have received is shoddy glasses, poorly made and asked to take more time off of work to get a pair of glasses that I need to drive. Vision Express must feel somewhat guilty they offered me another pair of glasses to the value of £60 to be made up. How do I know how long it will take me to get a decent second pair? I already have a tinted pair! How many more do I need? And I don’t want to be paying an extra £40 for a case for the ‘glasses to make up for the crap I have had to put up with’

I am not going back to the store until Saturday, you see they now have to get a new frame from Chatham as Thurrock didnt have one the same frame.  Some premium service this is turning out to be. No courier service to deliver the frames between stores, so I have to wait. They also have to wait for me, I am not taking another day off of work just so they can sort out their business practices.

Don’t promise a premium service and then fail to deliver it, the difference is in the delivery.

Kevin

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Same day courier services – 5 Reasons Courier Services Work

Courier services are an extremely important part of the day to day running of many businesses, regardless of their size. They deliver consignments reliably to make sure their client’s business runs smoothly. Some business contracts rely entirely on courier services to ensure important documents arrive on time for projects to begin efficiently and other businesses need to deliver important components in time for projects to stay on target (and within budget).

Delivering packages and consignments quickly and reliably are the key to many businesses success. In order for projects to complete on time certain parts and components need to arrive on time. In manufacturing; parts will often be ordered to arrive at specific times when they’re required, to save storage space. So getting that component on the right day means the project can complete on schedule, time and money saved all round.

In this blog we’ll look at 5 reasons that same day courier services work. Businesses have been using them for hundreds of years, and for some, they’re the life blood of the business. For example: catalogue and mail order companies rely on couriers to deliver orders to their customers.

1. Reliability
A business can be judged on its reliability. The more reliable it is, the more trustworthy it will be perceived. A business that is trustworthy will have many customers that will rely upon its services. If your business relies upon delivering orders to customers and clients then it is essential to be reliable. This means a delivery service that’s always on time and can be trusted.

2. Cost effective
Courier services work out far more cost effective than delivering an item yourself. Even if you just need a signature on an important document; delivering the document yourself is costly. Not only will it cost you in terms of fuel and wear and tear on your car, there’s also your time. Do you really have the spare time to deliver orders or documents yourself?

3. Projects complete on time
A courier service will deliver your consignments on time and in a reliable manner. This means that important projects will complete on time too. A building project may require components of a structure to arrive on a set date. The building project may contract experts to install the components for just one day. Therefore the components must arrive on schedule.

4. Customer satisfaction increases
By using a courier service your customer satisfaction will increase. Customers will be happy that their orders are delivered on time and professionally. Satisfied customers also do one very important thing; they spread a good word. Customers that are happy with your service will tell other people. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools to any business. So is customer retention.

5. Convenience
Outsourcing is a great way of expanding any business. So why worry about recruiting delivery drivers and purchasing delivery vehicles? It’s much cheaper to outsource the delivery of consignments and packages to a courier services company. They’ll have experience in time management to make sure your package gets delivered on time. They’ll also be insured to handle your package just in case it does get damaged in transit.

Whatever your same day courier needs, give us a call – we are happy to help.

Sarah

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Collecting and delivering a television set

By Same Day courier? By the parcel network? overnight delivery? Lots of choice, but which one is the best to courier your Television?

The Parcel networks, although the cheapest option, cannot take the weight of TVs. Even the new Plasma / LCD style screens come in over the cubic weight that a parcel carrier can take.

Another option is a overnight pallet service, where your TV would be strapped and shrink wrapped to a pallet and loaded, and transshipped several times before reaching you or your customer. This increases the chance of damage, and you never know for certain at what point that damage happened. 

We recommend that television collection and deliveries are an item that can be co-loaded onto a vehicle. This means that the vehicle has other items on it, there is a small risk of damage from the other items, but in the case of a correctly packaged TV set, that is minimal. We have never damaged one this way yet. Depending on the style of TV, depends on whether a two man team is needed. Our vehicles are equipped with sack barrows and tail lifts, so that only a huge boxed TV set would actually need two men, the rest can be delivered by our well trained drivers.

If you have bought a Television set from ebay and require us to package it for you, we can do that easily. We use recycled packaging, and we are happy to collect and deliver those large items like TVs and white goods, that are often just collect in person. Remember second hand good are not covered by courier insurance.

So, if it needs lifting and shifting, give us a call even if it’s just for free advice 0844 884 331 or 07816 528421.

Sarah

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#FF @BabsSaul a blog as to why you should.

As you know here at Arrow Light Haulage we rate our webmistress very highly, we treasure her and she is a valued member of our team. She now has such a deep understanding our our business, it’s goals and achievements that if anything happened to us, she could just slip into the driving seat and take over the business.

Last year we commissioned her to redo and brand the site, she worked on the blog first and that was featured in Roadtransport.com a great accolade to her skills and she only knew a fraction about us back then. We were also featured in another magazine and Babs worked on the advertisement that went with our story and revamped,  modernised our logo and sorted our branding out so it was consistent.

Since November 2008 she has had at least one website revision a week from my wife who changes her mind like the wind changes direction. The only constant was that Babs did the website. Sarah can be like a hurricane at times, blows right through your life and you are left with your house in tatters and the relief, exhilaration you survived the Hurricane without serious injury. My wife is very enthusiastic, supportive, dynamic and Babs has calmly and patiently put up with Sarah and gently steered her straight and the  same day courier website is just brilliant.

With the increased trend for branding that isn’t in your face, the new look site is clean, refreshing and uncluttered. Simple to navigate and shows our visitors who we are,  they can see from our video who they are dealing with and why they should do business with us. The branding is simple and exactly how Sarah likes it. Sarah isn’t finished tweaking it, and I hope Babs is sitting at home sipping a chilled glass of cider and deleting Sarah’s never ending stream of emails and continues steering us straight.

She is a huge huge inspiration to Sarah who idolises Babs like a sister (but she refuses to watch Strictly come Dancing just cos Babs does, phew) and has had a tremendous positive impact on our business.

Thank you Babs, your work is amazing. If you are on twitter, go and follow her, join in the conversation and get to know a very talented, gentle person with the patience of a saint.

Kevin Arrow

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The postal strike – how to use your courier

With the Royal Mail set to strike, small businesses across the country will be affected. Here at Arrow Light Haulage we have been thinking up some solutions as to how to continue business as best as possible and where a courier is essential.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, Parcel Force is not going to strike. That means the cheapest option for sending out parcels and packages under 5kgs is still available.

 

So if you are a business that sends out one or two parcels a day, and send your invoices by email and pay your customers by Bacs, you will be in a strong position to carry on business as usual.

Until the 14th of October, if you click the link above to book your parcel delivery through Parcel Force and type ‘new’ at the checkout, you will receive a 15% discount.

Secondly, as mentioned above. Use bacs to pay suppliers instead of posting cheques, it’s greener and far more efficient. If you are sending invoices, send them by email too. If like us you have to send additional documentation, scan and email that too. Again it’s greener, faster and far more efficient than the Royal Mail.

For companies that use direct mail for their marketing campaigns, have a look at other methods such as an email mailshots – think of the benefits to your carbon footprint as well as the traffic to your website and the ways to reach customers that may not respond to direct mail. If you need support for this we recommend business consultant Jeff Nutbeem, he can be found via his website – Rienne.co.uk.

You could be really old fashioned and pick up the phone and call the customers direct and send them a tailored email afterwards. More time consuming perhaps, but may have better results.

More importantly, when to use your courier.

Use them when you usually do –  for same day deliveries, for urgent items, for fragile items. You may think you need to use one for your every day mail service but the truth is, you can do a lot of it now via email, fax and instant messenger. These are often secure and safe, and if it really is that confidential you will already be using a courier to deliver it.

Sarah

PS if you need to send birthday cards either send them with a present, arrange friend to do it if they live nearby, send a video via email – think a bit creatively! The chances are this won’t be the last strike and we can find ways not to let it affect our businesses or personal lives.

Please note, we have used an affiliate service to obtain the codes and links for the Parcel Force discount.

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