Ever wondered what a package hears when being delivered? (Thought not!) Anyway, this is your answer.


A student at the Royal College of Art in London put a dictaphone inside a parcel and sent it off to Helsinki to find out “the sound of delivery”, as we call it.


Enjoy and have a great weekend!


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In today newspapers including the London Evening Standard, Sunday Sun, Mirror and The Independent as well as online news resources like Green Flag – Shiply has made a comment expressing strong opposition against the most recent fuel duty increase this Friday.


With this increase, the average price of unleaded fuel and diesel will be 115.7p and 118.6p respectively.


As the UK economy is still on the way to recovery, small companies in general and small to medium sized haulage companies in particular are struggling with finding extra work and keeping the costs down.


Our Managing Director Robert Matthams shared his thought: “This is a highly-competitive sector to operate in and one which has been particularly hard hit by the recession. Haulage firms were among the first to feel the pinch two years ago and many of them have found it hard to keep their heads above water, even as things have begun to improve.


“Now there’s the 1p per litre duty rise to hit them once again. The rise seems marginal, but that cost has to be met somewhere. It means higher overheads which could force some of the smaller firms – already teetering on the edge – to reduce staff, cut wages or even close down all together.


“In the last 18 months, the price of fuel has risen by almost 30p. So for a large lorry, the price in that period has increased by £300 a tank. That’s a huge additional overhead.”

A pensioner has made the headlines after making full and improper use of his mobility scooter to courier a carpet in Wincanton, Somerset.
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Hurtling along at 8mph, the elderly daredevil threw caution to the wind to move the hefty carpet roll. Despite this the man in question does appear to be wearing a fluorescent jacket – although that doesn’t stop it being any less dangerous!

The man behind the lens of the now infamous video, Gary McKenna, was a passenger in a car behind. Mr McKenna said: “We waited for him to come past, then we thought it would be funny to video it, because it was quite funny and out of the ordinary.”

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police has stated: “Because mobility scooters are not classed as a ‘motor vehicle’, legislation such as the unsafe carriage of goods or driving without reasonable consideration does not apply.”

The sat-nav is an invaluable tool to couriers the world over, helping them find the quickest route to their given destinations. But one white van man has made headlines by following its instructions to a fault. Robert Zeigler, the unfortunate courier, became stuck between a rock and hard place when his navigation system told him the shortest route was via a winding and weather beaten footpath through the Swiss Alps.

Taking the directions as gospel, Robert ascended the mountainside before becoming jammed and unable to turn-back. Out of options, Robert then phoned emergency services, who luckily sent a helicopter to airlift his van out of the sticky situation.

Speaking to the Austrian times, he said, “I was lost and I kept hoping that each little turn would get me back to the main road. In the end it told me to turn around but of course I couldn’t by then.” A local fire service spokesman added, “he claims he didn’t see any footpath signs. But you have to take your hat off to him. He must have been a pretty fair driver to get that far up a glorified goat track.”

You have the post in your hand but you have no clue where the nearest post box is. Those red pillars can often seem like they’re deliberately hiding from view or placed off the beaten track!

You would think that the first place to find your nearest post box would be the Royal Mail web site. Although through Royal Mail you can find your nearest post office even create your own personalised stamps, Shiply has discovered this simple tool was missing. Come on, this is 2010!

Through the Freedom of Information Act, some clever people* have indexed all the locations of post boxes across the UK. Using this we have built a neat post box finder tool to help you find the closest post boxes to your location – free.

So whether its a letter to your friend, a card to your nan or a small parcel, simply use the post box finder at http://www.shiply.com/postbox-finder.php. If you need to move something big that just won’t fit – use www.shiply.com to get delivery quotes from over 17,500 customer-rated transport companies.

Have you ever wanted to send out letters or birthday cards to your family and friends with your very own stamps? The new “Smilers personalised stamps” service from Royal Mail now lets you create you own First Class stamps and actually use them.