
Good Morning,
There is a reason for this so bear with me, but to be open about the costs involved I have made public this information on this thread regarding the costs involved with the last EIS proxy.
Income from 18 x £15 entrants was £270
DHL costs over the series was £76
Packaging costs for box and foam inserts etc £100
Medals £35
Return of cars £60
Balance -£1
In the past two years I have used DHL for the transportation between hosts because the the service was good in the 2021 and they were the lowest cost provider for "door to door" next day delivery service. Last year sadly the service was less than satisfactory for a "next day delivery" which could on a few occasions be up to a week, but to give them credit they continue to be the cheapest provider. The biggest issue has been getting a collection/delivery time assured (although a 1 hour time slot is advertised on the on line order form) this service in practise no longer existed during last year. So for some hosts and me this became a frustrating issue, when you can spend all day waiting for a collection that might come but on a few occasions was postponed until the next day
So I have been looking for alternatives, but there are not many, in fact only DPD looks to offer a direct comparable service and are highly rated in regard to service on the independent review website for delivery companies in general, being top of the league for service, whereas DHL had sunk to the bottom.
However the difference in UK mainland transport cost using DPD is currently +£5, which as you will obviously have seen that would potentially add another £40 to my expense bill.
We do have quite a few more entries promised for this years "Rally Slotting proxy" some 25 if everyone commits to their intentions, so that will help a great deal but as yet I am not sure if the current advertised prices (as for last year) will remain the same or be increased some time soon.
So I will make my mind up on the 1st February and set the price then based on the available information on the day, my feeling is to go with DPD with higher costs and maybe charge £17 per entry. I would be very surprised if DHL can maintain their prices for last year anyway, if they want to improve their service I think they will have to charge more.
But I will be grateful to hear from anyone regarding their own experiences, good or bad with respect to DPD versus DHL ?