FAQ's
A: SMC Express Couriers is owned and operated by Nick Andrews.
A brief life history:
Started working for interlink express in Bristol in 1983 as a motorcycle courier and moved between other courier companies including ICS and nightspeed until an arm injury stopped any long distance motorcycle riding and carried on as a courier in vans and trucks.
This led to running a vehicle recovery business for several years before a move to Salisbury and the formation of SMC Express couriers in 2007.
A: As we use motorcycles we can often keep up good average speeds, roadworks, traffic queues, city congestion is all a minor hiccup for an experienced motorcycle courier, in a van it means your package comes to a standstill.
If your package can be transported a large part of the way by motorway then an average for the whole trip of 60mph is a good basis to work out the time it will take.
Salisbury to central London(95 miles) in 90 - 120 mins.
Southampton to Bristol (80 miles) no motorway miles will usually take 100 - 120 mins
A: Anyone, some couriers turn away real people and just accept work from businesses, not us, we'll help out anyone who has a need for our services.
We can take that box of forgotten tablets to cornwall for mr joe bloggs or the multi million pound tender to london for a multi national blue chip corporation
A: Paying has been made as simple and painless as we could make it. We can accept cash, and most credit/debit cards (not diners or american express) including visa, mastercard, solo, maestro etc and online with Paypal
We can also set up an account for businesses and regular users with up to 30 days credit, payments from account holders by cash, cheque, postal order, BACS, Paypal or standing order
A: Well, as a guide you should use a route finder such as Autoroute, Tomtom or the AA web site to find the mileage and then multiply the mileage by £1.10, no need to add vat or most bridge tolls. The charge is one way only as we don't expect you to pay us to go home.
Please feel free to call for a price, we really don't bite and know that you are most likely going to phone around for the best price. (that'll be us probably)
Please note, we use Tomtom sat navs on bikes so this is how we calculate mileages. Google maps will plan a route for you but tells you Southampton to Bristol is 104 miles when in fact we would travel around 80 also Salisbury to Orpington acording to Google is 117 miles but in reality we would cover 129 miles. For a rough mileage, use this tool below.
A: Simply, because our service is so much faster, secure and generally much better all round.
Our couriers collect your package and take it directly to where it is going, it cannot get lost, doesn't get damaged or left in vehicles anywhere. Most packages are handed to the reciever in minutes or in a few hours over longer distances.
Parcel carriers collect your package, often thrown into a van with hundreds of other packages, squashed into trucks then shipped to the midlands to be sorted, kicked about and crushed before being sent to a depot local to delivery point the next day if you are lucky where it'll be put into another van and driven round until it finally, maybe reaches the address it is intended.
That is all of course if it doesn't get destroyed or "lost" by the carrier company who have already charged you more money for insuring your parcel against their incompetance and dishonest staff.
Quite simply, if it MUST get there, call us, we have never lost or damaged a customers parcel.
A: It's easy, simply call us on 01725 513182, 0800 0433475 or on mobile 07827 912080 to ask for a price, if you accept it (and probably will after phoning round) give us all the details required, like collection and delivery addresses, item size and weight (roughly) and anything else you think might help. Phone numbers are always good.
Q: More?A: SMC Express really do like to help and are not here to empty your wallet for the sake of it, (although we are a business and like to try to pay our bills on time just like you do)
If there is ANYTHING you think we may be able to help you with, just ask - simple as that, if we can help or do something that little bit extra or out of the ordinary we will usually do it.