Courier service in a transport company in brief
The term “courier” refers to a type of road freight transport. This service, often likened to express transport, refers to the delivery of parcels or goods in a short space of time. This fast transport can be done by the unit The whole truck is dedicated to your merchandise, for greater reliability, safety and, above all, to deliver to the recipient as quickly as possible. Messaging is most often used in sectors such as mass distribution and mass production… But you can also ask your carrier to deliver dedicated batches by courier for traditional distribution and other demanding environments.
The different types of messaging
There are different types of courier, depending on the weight of the goods and the delivery time.
- Monocoli courier: goods weighing less than 30 kg, delivery in more than 24 hours
- Standard courier: goods weighing less than 3 tonnes, delivery in 24-48 hours
- Fast courier service: goods weighing less than 3 tonnes, 24-hour delivery
- Express courier: goods weighing less than 3 tonnes, delivery in less than 24 hours
In all cases, courier services only concern shipments of shipments weighing less than 3 tons. Depending on the type of service selected, the delivery time can be as little as a few hours (the same day or the day after pick-up at the sender’s premises) to 48 hours.
To deliver the goods by courier, a network of transporters works day and night!
In order to be able to provide courier services and take charge of dedicated lots, a road haulier generally relies on a platform infrastructure: he works in a network and in partnership with other logistics players. This system echoes the services offered by Transports Goëvia with
Évolutrans
as part of the
Volupal
.
The success of parcel delivery by road relies on the ability to quickly sort goods, group them in cross-docking platforms (such as our
logistics warehouse
Volupal platform in Vayres) and transport goods to major distribution areas. All platforms synchronize to optimize incoming and outgoing flows: messaging is a real daily exercise!
The historical origins of the term "messaging
The origins of the term “courier” give us a better understanding of what this transport and logistics service is all about. Historically, the word echoed the messages we carried. Thus, messaging, as a structured activity, developed very early: from the very appearance and spread of writing in our societies! We can see the beginnings of message and parcel delivery as far back as Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.
The first elaborate messaging system dates back to the 6th century BC, under the Persian Empire. At the time, Cyrus the Great had created networks of post offices between which couriers travelled on horseback!
Courier services have come a long way over the years: today, they enable many professionals to meet their requirements in terms of delivery reliability and reduced lead times.
GUIDE
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Find out all our tips for preparing your goods transport and making loading, transport and unloading easier.
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