It has long been a sore point for many a Scot, getting items delivered to the highlands often brings with it a much inflated price tag.

Many believe the high increase is unfair, Gordon Brown doesn’t and has been accused of “sticking his head in the sand” when it comes to a call for regulation.

An online petition started by Nairn businessman Terence Watson, which called on the UK Government to investigate “unscrupulous” charges levied by couriers and suppliers, attracted 3,382 signatures.

The prime minister said: “The application of price banding for different areas within the UK is a common practice and is based on the fact that greater costs are incurred by the operator to get the parcel to its destination.

“Two key factors are involved – the physical distances are greater, while the density in volume of the packages going to remote areas is smaller. Companies must be able to cover their costs to provide a sustainable business.

“These companies must however try to provide or secure the most cost-effective service to ensure their own competitiveness in their respective market.

“In such a commercial and highly-competitive environment, it is for private carriers and couriers and other companies who use or operate carrier services to review their own pricing structures in response to competitive pressures and market demands.”

MP’s and local people have accused Mr Brown of sticking his head in the sand and accuse his response as not bearing any relation to the severity of the problem. The issue they say is not that there are increases in charges, however that these increases are not in line with true cost increases. Furthermore there is a case of false or misleading advertising where prices are quotes for ‘UK Mainland’ with the Highlands cost surcharges hidden away in small print.

In the petition, Mr Watson, of Mannachie Grove, Forres, said delivery service charges to the north, were “restricting economic and social growth”.

Mr Watson, who is now going to pursue his campaign by contacting Which? and the Office of Fair Trading, added: “I’m not going to stop here because we should not be treated differently to the rest of the country.”

Interestingly as a publicly funded company, Royal Mail by law are required to offer delivery services to any part of the UK. In fact, if there is just one parcel to be delivered to a small farm in the middle of nowhere for example, they still have to make that delivery, regardless of the cost to the environment.

However, this is not the case for independant courier companies, they can choose which areas to deliver to in the highlands and furthermore can dictate the price they so choose.

It is an interesting debate, some may argue that Highlanders shouldn’t be treated differently and be charged differently where rates are advertised as “UK Mainland”, however, in reality the increase in work, costs and impact on the environment by taking these extra long journeys understandably will attract higher costs.

I doubt very much that Government will take any kind of action for some time on this issue. A compromised solution seems most appropriate to us, but how long would that take? That is the question.

As no doubt many of you will have seen, you can now search by keyword on the search pages.

We had a number of providers giving us feedback that they would remember what the actual shipment was but when they came back to the site, completely lost it amongst the thousands shown!

There is an ability to “watch a shipment”, and this is located at the top right of shipment pages. However, this new ability to search by keyword should really help. You can also type in the shipment id number here and it will take you direct to the shipment listing.

Keep an eye out for search by country which will launch soon also. We’re also tidying up the bid placement form, to make the process as quick and seamless as possible.

Hope you enjoy the changes.

To help our transport providers get the most out of Shiply, here are some of our top tips which helps you get more bids accepted!

1) Fill out your profile page

This is the space where we let you write about your business. It is your space to really sell your business and it’s uniqueness to prospective customers. Use it wisely. We have seen great profiles and we have seen some really awful ones!

Make sure you cover the fundamentals, how many employees do you have, how many vehicles, what year were you established etc etc.

You really have to look at your profile through your customers eyes. Would you choose the provider with a one sentence long profile or the one who has made an effort and uploaded their company logo, specified their insurance levels and written a professional, concise 6 paragraph long profile?

Spelling mistakes look sloppy, and customers will think your work will be too! So, be sure to run your profile page text through a spell check, like the one in Microsoft word.

2) Upload a photo to your profile

This makes a big difference. We recommend a photo of yourself, your team and/or your vehicle(s). Customers like to see the real people behind your company. Don’t miss out on this important element of your profile page.

3) Chase feedback!

Just like eBay, customers often never get around to leaving feedback after a transaction if all goes well. But you can bet your boots they will remember to leave negative feedback that one time something goes wrong.

Ensure you protect your feedback score and participation on Shiply by asking those customers who have not yet left you feedback to do so.

We do send out email reminders, however often a quick phone call, or better yet a request in person upon delivery usually does the trick!

4) Keep on top of open bids

There is nothing worse than having a bid accepted which you can no longer service. Keep on top of your current active bids on at least a daily basis. Better still, if you know the latest date upon which you can accept the order, please put an expiry date on your bid.

5) Put information with your bid

Placing a bid with no additional information just looks a bit lazy, and customers notice this. Understandably they want to feel valued and like you have taken more than 2 seconds looking at their shipment request.

Be unique, tell the customer how you will carry out the work and any other information about your bid which will be helpful to them. Show that you care and that you want the job.

It is these little things which can mean the difference between 1st and 2nd place in any transport auction. Making that extra effort goes a long way.

6) Make use of custom email alerts

There are a few thousand shipments live on Shiply now, so sifting through all of them can take hours. Make use of the search filters to get the type of work which interests you, is along a similar route or is local to you.

Once you have a search criteria you are happy with, you can save it and have emails alerts sent to you daily with new shipments which match these.

This is an enormous time-saver!

7) Communicate!

Without a doubt the single most common reason for negative feedback on Shiply is poor communication. Negative feedback will cripple your account and you will find winning work on Shiply harder and harder. Excessive negative feedback will result in suspensions and even expulsion from the marketplace altogether. You only have one account and one chance on Shiply, you will not be given another, so work to protect your feedback score, it is so vital.

Remember, when your bid is accepted, the customer is waiting for you to contact them. Be sure to get the relationship off to the best start by doing this ASAP, don’t wait or expect them to call you.

Right from bid acceptance through to delivery, you must be contactable during normal business hours. If you are not, there must be a facility for them to leave a message and for you to respond in a timely manner.

We hope the above tips will help you get the most out of Shiply long into the future.

How well prepared is your transport company should a disaster strike?

Disaster recovery plans are something we at Shiply have had in place since the very early days.

You should always plan for the worst so that if and when the unexpected strikes, you are in a strong position to react quickly.

The importance of this was recently demonstrated by Australian courier firm Couriers Please. Whilst in Britain we haven’t seen anywhere near the level of natural disasters compared with Australia’s bush fires and flash flooding we do still have problems which arise, it’s a matter of when and not if.

You cannot plan for every eventuality, however ensuring the main boxes are ticked and you are prepared is critical regardless of whether you are a one-man-band or an international haulier operating hundreds of vehicles.

Couriers Please had their call centre in Homebush hit by a storm, wiping out their communications. At first they thought this would be restored in a few hours, it turned out to be 8 days! Imagine what that would be like here in the UK with BT!! You might be lucky to get connection back in a couple of months!

Using Couriers Please as a case study, they immediately forwarded calls onto their other call centres so customer service disruption was minimal.

And the flooding hasn’t been the last disaster, either. Alderson says there was another situation where head office burnt down and there have been other communication outages since.

“We knew exactly how to deal with it,” Alderson says. “What you think won’t happen, will.”

How would your business cope if your land line and Internet connection were wiped out? Do you have a backup plan to keep communication channels with your customers open? If your vehicle was involved in an accident, do you have access to other vehicles which could undertake the work? These are just some of the questions which are so vital. A couple of hours of thoughtful planning can really make a difference.

After all, would you rather plan now for 2 hours or work out how to recover when you are knee-deep in crisis and not thinking straight! It’s a no-brainer, everyone in the organisation should have access to these plans so that when the unexpected does strike you can react rationally.

“If you think you can beat the Stig, you could try on 25 August at The Raceway in London,” said Chris Saunders CEO of Transaid.

You can find more details at: http://www.transaid.org/transaid-week-auction—race-the-stig! and the auction itself kicks off at 11am on 29th June at: www.ebay.co.uk/transaid.

He says the charity relies on support from the industry and is grateful to all who help. “The auction includes many more exciting prizes and is a great way to increase our awareness within companies whilst raising money for our projects in Africa.”

Shiply have racked up another great award result at the 2009 National eWell Being Awards held in London’s Royal Society of Arts.

We were awarded the SME Innovation Award.

The National eWell-Being Awards, now in their seventh successive year, promote the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies. They are unique in celebrating the social, economic and environmental benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The aim is to identify the most innovative uses of ICT by local authorities, businesses, third-sector organisations and academic institutions.

Robert Matthams, Managing Director of Shiply.com, says: “We are delighted to already be winning awards for Shiply.com after just one year of trading. Our idea of enabling haulage firms to fill spare capacity certainly seems to have caught on and over 25,000 customers have already signed up. We are looking forward to seeing what year two will bring!”

Some photos of the evening itself are available to view here.

Over recent weeks we have received comments regarding transport providers bidding on shipments and then outsourcing this work to parcel networks such as DHL, ParcelForce etc etc.

Our stance on this always has been that this practice is perfectly fine so long as the customer is aware that this is the service they will receive.

In most instances for smaller, lighter parcel deliveries which are boxed, parcel networks do offer the best option in terms of price and minimal effect on the environment.

To make the process of specifying if your bid is for a parcel network service, we have added this as an option under your “Bid Vehicle” when placing bids. Please be sure to correctly specify this when placing bids on Shiply from hereon in.

We hope this clear differentiation between a parcel network service and a bespoke delivery service will allow for greater transparency between the services and bids on offer.

Despite the age-old stereotypes, you don’t have to be wearing a string vest and sport a beer belly to make it in the transport industry. In fact, there are more women HGV drivers than ever before!

When you think of the average long-distance lorry driver, preconceptions do naturally spring to mind. Lay-by’s, burger vans, yorkie bars……….

But, next time you are trundling along the motorway, take a look in the cab of a few HGV’s and you might be surprised. Women lorry drivers are on the increase in the UK. Much of this has been put down to new technology which make driving easier and female-friendly company policies from the likes of Asda.

Gary Benardout, Advantage HGV: “Twelve months ago, female drivers represented about 2 per cent of our customers,” says Gary Benardout, who runs the training company AdvantageHGV. “That has trebled in a year and the percentage is growing all the time. Any stigma associated with long-distance lorry driving is long gone. The industry is heavily regulated and the stereotype of the traditional middle-aged, Mars-bar munching male trucker is becoming a thing of the past.”

Kaz Horrocks works for TDG Logistics:

“I’ve never felt unsafe, though,” says Kaz. “There is a certain amount of curiosity from the men about why I’m driving a truck instead of working at a desk but, apart from the occasional snide remark, most of the guys are really friendly.”

The lifestyle is insular by nature but even more so for women. “There is a male camaraderie that I am excluded from,” Kaz says. “If I walk through a truck stop in a vest top, you can sense them watching — but I give as good as I get. It takes a particular kind of woman to drive a truck. It isn’t something that a supermodel is going to do — you have to be a tough cookie.”

Whilst the rise is sure to spark debate from male counterparts, some may like the female company in the lorry parks no doubt, some however may feel threatened in an employment area which is currently facing the worst layoff levels across Britain.

Billy Gilfoyle, 56, from Ellesmere Port in Cheshire can’t understand why women would actually want to work with HGV’s:

“I started in the Army,” he says. “I loved it — the feeling of freedom. There was camaraderie in those days. If someone broke down, you’d pull over to help. Not now. Every minute of a driver’s day is clocked by their bosses.

“I wouldn’t want my sister or daughter to be a driver. I’ve no problem with female truckers but it’s no job for work/life balance. One night you can be in Manchester, the next Newcastle. That’s not good for family life.

“The truck stops smell of aftershave and stale urine — horrible. Despite the number of female drivers, women aren’t catered for. There are one-sex loos and showers. I don’t know why anyone would want to do this job.”

It’s Friday, so you know what that means by now. We’ve scoured the web and found this video, it’s one of those one’s where you know you shouldn’t laugh but just can’t help it!

Seriously though, we hope he was alright!

The Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), and Department for Transport (DfT) have just launched a new database which details the fuel consumption of vans on the UK market.

The free service allows transport operators a facility to search and compare vans on the market and made an informed decision.

Vans make up about 15% of road transport emissions in the UK and these are rising at the highest rate of any road vehicle. If everybody buying a new van bought the most fuel efficient model in its class the average buyer could save up to 17% on both CO₂ emissions and fuel costs.

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said:

“It’s important to help motoring consumers make the right choice, both for themselves and for the environment.

“This database is good news for van buyers – it gives them access to emissions and fuel consumption information that could well shape the van they choose, as well as enable them to cut emissions and save money.

“At a time when the Government is working hard to create a stable financial environment to encourage long-term investment in the motoring industry this tool is also good news for van producers by stimulating interest and demand in the models they make.”

We think the database is a fantastic move forward. We understand that it is going to be some time until electric vans and more environmentally friendly fuels are available on the market in mass-scale. So, in the mean time, by giving transport operators easy, free access to the facts in a way which allows for easy comparison will help not only the environment but also profit.