Same Day Courier - how much does it cost?

Blog & News
One of the most frequently asked questions is how much does the Same Day courier cost? The reality is that it is a very variable price based on: 
  • Where are the goods going? 
  • What vehicle is required based on the size of the consignment? 
  • How quickly the goods need to be delivered? 
Once you have these three bits of information it is easy for us to give you a quotation.  There is a preconception that Same Day courier can be very expensive. This is not necessarily true. The reality is that sometimes the same day courier can be more cost effective than an overnight carrier. For example, of you have lots of boxes going to one place and they are quite heavy, or if it is a relatively local delivery to the collection point Same Day can actually work out cheaper than an Overnight carrier delivery.    The difference between Same Day courier and next day or overnight carrier is this. A Same Day courier will effectively chauffeur drive your consignment from collection to delivery. So only one courier ‘touches your stuff’ for want of a better description! When you input a consignment into an overnight network it passes though many hands - from our driver to a carrier driver, to a truck vehicle, to a hub and a conveyor belt, to another trunk vehicle to a local distribution depot to a final vehicle for the last mile. So, the more hands the more the more chances of something going wrong.   So the cost of sending the goods the Same Day is a bit like paying your Uber driver – it’s a mileage and waiting charge (loading for time delays in congested areas in London for example).  Its the same cost structure for every same day courier company in the UK whether they are delivering same day flower deliveries, or same day delivery of clothes and gifts – all local courier services will charge in the same way.  Also, as many of our clients do, you can get a day rate for a van and use it as much as you like for multiple deliveries so this can driver the cost per delivery down quite considerably.  The future of Same Day delivery we think will be shorter delivery mileages from local fulfilment centres – such as our very own Diamond Logistics network.  It's worth saying that that if something is very urgent and important - for example delivering print work to an exhibition, which is very time critical, and the delivery can be a little tricky - a Same Day delivery can save you time and money with a higher probability of being delivered right first time.  Same Day courier costs less than a taxi starting from about £1.30 a mile normally with a minimum charge from £20. This is dependent on vehicle. For an easy broad-brush cost, we have attached a handy tariff which you can download here for our Home Service Centres and National clients. To get your local tariff speak to your local Diamond site who you can find here.  Remember, as we have a variety of vehicles around the network, from motorcycles to small vans to long wheelbase transits, 7.5T and some much larger heavy goods vehicles, the reality is that the Same Day courier cost is very bespoke to the job requirements.  Find out more about our Same Day courier service and what it costs here 
Back to News & blog