How Not To Load A Lorry With Shopping Trolleys

It's Friday, so time for a video! This one had us in stiches here at the Shiply offices.

Trucker saves young boys life in runaway car

Quick thinking lorry driver Dyfrig Willis prevented catastrophe when he saw a runaway car heading down a hill through Evanstown in Gilfach Goch. A 4-year-old boy was inside the car and the handbrake had been released.

Spotting the immediate danger and hearing the screams of his mother Amy Morgan, Dyfrig planted his 15-ton lorry diagonally across the street. His quick plan did the trick and the car crashed into the side coming to a stop before careering down to the busy main road.

Ms Morgan, said: "He made such a difference to us but he seemed embarrassed by it all.

"It happened after I parked the car and as I got out I went to go to the other side and I heard a noise and the car was rolling past me.

"Dyfrig's lorry came up the hill and was driven in its path and we both tried to stop it but we couldn't and it went into the lorry.

Mr Willis said: "If the car had gone past the truck it would have gone down a huge hill and onto the main road.

"I don't want to think about what might have happened. It is such a big hill and it is as straight as a dart. It is about 30 degrees and pretty steep.

"I didn't think much about it. I made sure everybody was okay and exchanged details and went about my normal day.

"As I work for a builders' merchant, every time I turn up to a site, they are all on about it. I'm getting a bit of a ribbing."

Probably the best road block in the world........

A Carlsberg lorry yesterday shed it's load of kegs on a busy Suffolk road.

Passers-by said that the lorry took a sharp turn and a dozen or so kegs flew off in every direction.

Elly Henson, who was in the traffic next to the lorry when the kegs fell off, said: “The side of the lorry was made of material and it looked like it may have come undone and then they fell off as it went round the corner.

“The kegs were all over the road, there was a wall that had been smashed in and the local bus stop had also been hit.

“The whole junction was just covered in beer kegs.”

Miss Henson, of Saxmundham, added: ““I saw the lorry driver and he was just scratching his head.”

Luckily no-one was hurt, and the local drunk was on the scene within minutes to assess the spilt load.

HP Packaging Madness

HP have been put to shame, and rightly so, for these horrendous packaging efforts:

This one apparently contained a 10ft power cord! Arrived on a pallet!

This beast on a wooden pallet and in black wrapping contained one vanilla flavour PS2 mouse!!

Wow, that's another big box, when you get something like that you must be thinking that they've sent you a nice big desktop or server....... But no:

In fact it contained 17 of these smaller boxes each with 2 sheets of A4 protected also by foam!

Perhaps we've been a bit hard on old HP? Here's another effort from Amazon sending out a small hard drive (arrowed):

All in all, I'm sure we've all seen some ridiculous packaging efforts and perhaps we get a bit of a laugh out of some of them. However, for big corporates to be producing mass waste on this scale for us, is completely unacceptable.

Royal Mail phasing out bicycles

After more than 120 years, Royal Mail are said to be phasing out cycling postmen.

Instead of travelling by bike, postmen and women will travel to their patches by van and then deliver the post using trolleys which are manufactured in China.

This is very bad news for the supplier of Royal Mail bicycles - Stratford-upon-Avon-based firm Pashley Cycles, who have had the Royal Mail contract since 1971.

A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said: "Job losses and office closures will be a very real threat. Once deliveries are centralised, there will be no need for so many local offices."

A Royal Mail spokesman said the changes were needed to "deliver the mail as efficiently as possible".

He added: "We will continue to use a range of vans, trolleys and bikes where appropriate. There are no plans to phase out bikes completely."

On a side-note this horrible contraption was being trialled by Royal Mail. True, it is electric, and that is something which is to be encouraged, but just look at it! Even the bloke posing in the photo isn't so sure...

eBay Selling Tips For Postage & Packaging / Shipping

With eBay celebrating it's 10th birthday here in the UK and also offering 10 free listing days to thank the community, I thought I would write a little article on how to handle the P+P aspects of selling on eBay.

Selling stuff on eBay can be quite a lot of fun, plus of course you can make some money. However, I've always found that once the fun part of watching those final few seconds tick down and the flurry of bids coming in has passed and you've received your cash, the ebay delivery is the part which actually requires some real effort which is often overlooked when your in the zone and typing up your description.

Not only do you have to make time to go to the local post office and stand in the queue behind the local busy body who's only really there for a chat, but you also have to package up the goods your selling and address it all up.

Suddenly, you start to think, hmmm was it all worth it?!

I think it can be, however, it pays as always to be prepared for it. Firstly, I would recommend that you research the actual cost of posting the item you are selling.

eBay actually have a really good "postage estimator" tool which I think works with Royal Mail. Also, of course Royal Mail also have one on their web site. There is nothing worse that getting your postage estimate hugely wrong and then having to fork that out yourself cutting into your profits.

So, once you have established how much your item is likely to send, I would recommend thinking quickly about the cost of packaging. It is often more than you would think, especially if you don't buy in bulk. Then also consider your time. Remember that you have to actually spend quite a bit of time, buying this packaging, packing the item up, driving it to the post office, waiting in line listening to the intrepid tales of Mrs Jones and her missing cat, ill uncle, broken fridge and replacement hip.

So, don't sell yourself short, setting your P+P costs right is important, so you can adequately compensated for your efforts whilst not ripping off your bidders!

Royal Mail, in conjunction with eBay, actually have a facility to print stamps online. So, this should certainly be something worth looking at. Especially if you can squeeze your item into a post box rather than queuing up.

Of course, if you are selling large, local collection only items on eBay. You might want to take a look at our ebay delivery service here on Shiply.

One final tip is this, as I learnt the hard way. It is far better to print off the delivery address direct from the PayPal or eBay receipt email. That way, it is exactly as the eBay user specified. There can be no confusion caused, mix-ups or bad handwriting (in my case!).

I hope these tips help any budding eBay sellers and hope that you make the most of the ten days free listings.

Pick Up A Parcel Down The Pub

A new web site called useyourlocal.com has been launched as a new way of picking up parcel deliveries that you miss at home!

The idea behind the scheme is that instead of having to constantly re-arrange parcel delivery or worse still queue up at your local sorting office, you can go and pick up your parcels from your local pub (whilst enjoying a nice cold one)!

We think it's great and are glad to see it is receiving lots of publicity and pubs signing up.

The last mile problem has long been an issue with parcel deliveries. There have been attempts in the past to have "safe place drop offs" such as local shops if your not in, however many of these have not really worked.

We think this new idea does have a really good chance of success and is great for local pubs as another way of attracting punters in mid-week for a social drink.

Nectar Start Up Of The Year Award Winner - Shiply.com

Shiply are delighted to have been announced as the Nectar business start up of the year.

Shiply.com was chosen as the national winner in the Start Up of the Year category of the Nectar Business Small Business Awards following a lengthy judging process by a panel of experts which included Karen Hanton, founder and CEO of toptable.co.uk, Guy Clapperton, small business journalist and regular contributor to The Guardian, Financial Times and the Sunday Telegraph, Charlie Humphreys, Head of Nectar Business and Richard Carvell, General Manager at Viking Direct, part of the Office Depot, Europe’s largest stationery business.

As the winner, Shiply.com will receive not only the recognition they deserve for all their hard work but also a prize fund of £2,000 and 50,000 Nectar points.

Charlie Humphreys, Head of Nectar Business which has founded the awards says: “We’re delighted to announce Shiply.com as the Start Up of the Year in the Nectar Business Small Business Awards. It’s staggering to see how successful the business has been in just 12 months and the business really stood out for its vision for business growth.

“Everyone who runs a small business, especially in the current climate, has to work extremely hard to get it off the ground and make a success of it. The awards have represented a fantastic opportunity to celebrate great business ideas, business practice and people and I would like to congratulate all the small businesses from across the UK that entered.”

We are honoured and flattered by the accolade. It is great to receive such awards as it not only helps us recognise what we have achieved so far, but how much more we can offer in the future.

Now, where to spend our 50,000 nectar points? Suggestions below!