Generally, parcels delivered by express couriers tend to arrive on working days and during office hours, but recently there has been an increasing trend for couriers to also offer a delivery service also at weekends or on holidays, or even with a time window extending into the evening.
The implementation of these services is due to two main reasons: on the one hand there is the consumer demand, who are often not at home during office hours on working days, and who therefore prefer to opt for delivery at the weekend or at a time when they are sure they can be reached, but on the other hand the market itself is moving in this direction, This is therefore a market trend, which is causing this service to become ordinary rather than exceptional.
However, we must also consider that in many cases it is a service only available in certain locations, often only in large cities, and which may still be subject to a surcharge compared to delivery during office hours. In this article, we will give an overview of weekend and late afternoon delivery services offered by various couriers, which can also be chosen to make parcel shipments with SpedizioneComoda.
When do couriers usually deliver
Before proceeding to list the delivery options beyond the normal working hours of couriers, let us first look at the working days and times when it is possible to have a parcel delivered. So, although there may be differences between different companies, couriers generally work Monday to Friday, about 09:00 to 18:00. However, there are special periods, for example around holidays, when the workload of couriers increases significantly, and in order to prevent warehouses from becoming saturated, the ordinary delivery service is extended to weekends and beyond the canonical working hours of weekdays.
However, this is not a service that can be booked by the recipient, but is simply a way of meeting the organisational and logistical needs of the courier company. The services that we will list in the following paragraphs, on the other hand, are offered by couriers in addition to the ordinary service, and can be booked by the recipient according to his or her needs, so that he or she is sure to be at home when the parcel is delivered.
In addition, it must also be considered that not all couriers offer the possibility of booking an evening or weekend delivery, and this is often the case because not all companies are structured in such a way as to be able to guarantee a solid and effective delivery network even at weekends, especially in small towns, which do not allow the cost of the service to be covered.
Couriers delivering in the late afternoon and at weekends
Many shipping companies have decided to implement late afternoon or weekend delivery as part of their services in order to meet the needs of their customers. These include the major companies in the logistics sector, which are used in most cases both when shipping between private individuals and when shopping online.
We begin our list by talking about SDA, which offers two additional services called By Saturday e Evening, which, as can be guessed from the name, serve to meet the needs of customers who find it difficult to be reached during the courier's normal working hours. Specifically, the first option provides for delivery on Saturdays, while the second option provides an additional time window for weekday deliveries, which runs from 18:30 to 21:00.
Also TNT has several such options, which it collects in the Time Critical Solutions, which allow shipments between private individuals to be organised to meet the needs of both the sender and the recipient. These services also include Friday collection and Saturday delivery, but this is an option only available in major Italian cities.
Similar is the Saturday Express Service offered by GLS, which allows you to request a Saturday delivery, but which is currently only available in certain locations, the list of which can be consulted on the courier's website. Similarly, also DHL allows the organisation of Saturday deliveries, However, this service is only available for major national and international destinations, and to check availability at the destination of interest, it is necessary to call the customer service department.
Finally, we find UPS, which has devised a whole line of solutions dedicated to those who wish to have their parcel delivered on a Saturday, and among these there are three different options, such as delivery Saturday Standard with delivery to a UPS Access Point, which requires the parcel to be left by a ups courier at one of the collection points, and in this case has the same price as ordinary weekday delivery. You can also choose delivery Saturday Standard at home, a paid option to receive the parcel on Saturday by the end of the day, or delivery Saturday express if you wish to receive your parcel on Saturday by noon.
So, to conclude, we see that there are many solutions offered by the major companies of international couriers to accommodate customers who find it difficult to be available during standard delivery times, but when choosing the company and the delivery solution, one must make sure that it is available for the location where the delivery is to be made, as well as always taking into account that this is in most cases a paid service, which has higher costs than weekday delivery.
