Can you deliver inside a shopping centre's window?

Yes, and the window is the thing we plan the whole run backwards from. Give us the yard entrance, the slot time and a contact who will be there, and earlier in the day is better on a fit-out because the service corridors are clearer before the mall fills up. If the slot is tight, say so and we will send a smaller vehicle that gets through the gate faster.

Will you take the goods through to the shop floor?

With a crew booked, yes. The carry runs from the yard, along the service corridor and through the back of the unit, and that internal leg is often longer than people expect when they book. Give us the unit, the floor, whether the route has a goods lift and how deep that lift is inside, and we will confirm what the address needs at booking rather than finding out in a corridor.

What do you need besides the store name?

The yard entrance, the delivery window and a contact who will be there to meet the vehicle. The service roads around most centres run one way in places and the yards have their own entrances, separate from the public car parks, so the yard name on your delivery paperwork is worth considerably more to us than a postcode. A postcode will put a driver in the shoppers' car park.

Can you deliver to a high street shop with no loading?

Yes, and it is the most common version of this job. We come in with a smaller vehicle, agree a time, and need the door open with somebody there when it pulls up, because the vehicle cannot stand and wait on a restricted kerb. Where there is living space above the unit, the staircase decides what physically goes up, so send the flights and the tightest turn.

Is December different?

Considerably, and it starts earlier than most people plan for. From late autumn the yards get busier, the slots get tighter and the roads around the centres get worse, and every operator delivering into that centre is competing for the same windows. If fit-out or replenishment is landing in that period, put the dates to us in October and we will hold a vehicle against them.

Can you move hanging garments and samples?

Yes. Say at booking that the consignment hangs rather than stacks, because it changes how the load space is used and what else can travel alongside it. Hanging stock wants height and clear floor instead of pallet space, so a vehicle that takes six pallets will not take the equivalent in rail. Give us the number of rails or the metres of hanging and we will size it properly.

Fashion and retail courier services

Fit-out, fixtures and stock delivered into a service yard inside the window the centre gives you, and carried through to the shop floor.

Usual vehicleSWB or MWB van

AccessService yards and booked windows

DeliveryTo the shop floor, not the yard

Peak seasonBook early for December

What we usually carry

Shop fit-out and fixturesDisplay and point-of-saleReplenishment stockHanging garments and samplesLookbooks and press kitOnline order overflow

Retail deliveries run on somebody else's clock. A shopping centre gives you a yard slot, usually early and usually before the mall fills up, and a high street shop has a kerb the vehicle is not allowed to stand on. Neither cares what time the goods left the warehouse. So the useful question on this work is never the mileage, it is what time the far end can take a delivery and how the goods get from the yard to the floor.

What we move for fashion and retail

Shop fit-out and fixtures going into a unit before it opens. Display systems and point-of-sale. Replenishment stock between warehouse, stores and concessions. Hanging garments and sample sets moving to a showroom, a shoot or a press day. Lookbooks and press kit against a date that will not move. Overflow from online orders when a peak outruns the usual carrier.

The retail yard and the delivery window

A centre delivery goes through a service yard inside a booked slot, and the service roads around most centres run one way in places with yard entrances separate from the public car parks. The yard name on your paperwork is worth more to us than a postcode.

Inside that window the goods still have to travel from the yard, along the service corridor and through the back of the unit onto the shop floor. That internal leg is the part people forget when they book, and it is the reason we ask which floor the unit is on, whether the route includes a goods lift and how deep that lift is inside.

The high street, where there is no yard

Loading is restricted on most high streets, so there is nothing for a vehicle to stand on while somebody goes looking for a key. We come in with a smaller vehicle, we agree a time, and we need the door open and a contact on a mobile when it pulls up. Where the unit has living space above it, the staircase decides what physically goes up, so give us the flights and the tightest turn.

Retail peak, from autumn into Christmas

Retail volume is not level across the year and this is the clearest case of it. From late autumn the yards get busier, the slots get tighter and the roads around the centres get worse. If fit-out or replenishment is landing in that period, put the dates to us early. We would rather have that conversation in October than in the second week of December.

What we send to a store

For a single store inside a tight slot, a short or medium wheelbase is quicker through the gate and easier to work beside, at 450kg and 800kg respectively. Where volume is the constraint, which with stock and display it usually is before weight, the Luton gives 4.2m by 2.0m by 2.1m, six pallets and 1000kg, and the box version's tail lift covers a yard with no dock. Fixture lengths that will not pass through a doorway go on the flat bed at 2.7m.

What we do not do on a fit-out

We do not fit, install or merchandise. A fit-out arriving in sections stays in sections until your fitter is there, so send us their time and we will land the delivery to meet them rather than ahead of them. Taking old fixtures out is separate work with disposal attached, and on a refit it wants sequencing rather than squeezing into the same slot.

Where goods have to be carried through to the floor and positioned, that is two-man delivery and it is booked with the vehicle from the start.

What we need before a store delivery

The yard entrance and the delivery window. The unit, the floor, the goods lift and its internal depth, and the tightest doorway between the yard and the shop floor. The longest single item on the vehicle. A contact who will be there when it arrives, because a crew waiting at a yard gate is inside your slot and not using it.

What retail delivery costs

Priced on the road distance and the vehicle, with the price given before you book rather than after the job. Weight is not a factor and never has been.