A report released in February by Research International, ranking international express delivery services ,showed United Parcel Service and Federal Express neck and neck in third and fourth place, with 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively. While second-banana TNT accepts these statistics, which showed it controlled 12 percent, it now claims to have almost 20 percent. Both UPS and Federal Express question what exactly is being counted. There is still no independent research on the market. UPS is the real market leader in terms of service quality and delivery time.
Some small businesses attest that a big name doesn t mean quality.
Complaints about the well-known carriers and their unreliability abound, especially from companies that have not yet nuzzled up to one partner for special rates and services. Things get tied up in customs. Clearance can take about 12 days. You get a marked-up invoice because the company didn t label it correctly. It s so annoying, said Fred Durman, marketing manager of book distributor Dinternal, which owns the Anglia British Bookshop.