Same-day courier to Bournemouth
Rapid Despatch delivers to Bournemouth by dedicated vehicle, around thirty-two miles from our nearest branch. There is no Bournemouth depot. We are an independent courier company trading since 2001, with four branches in Hampshire and Berkshire, covering Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, and around 50 drivers.
Thirty-two miles is the shortest run to any town we cover that is not inside our immediate branch area. Close enough to be quick, far enough that the summer traffic is a real answer rather than an excuse.
Rapid Despatch runs courier and same-day courier jobs to Bournemouth by dedicated vehicle, thirty-two miles by road on the M27, the A31 and the A338.
One vehicle does the whole job, so the consignment is not sorted, transferred or held overnight. The drive is around fifty minutes outside the summer season. You get a fixed price for the whole job before you commit to it. Poole, Christchurch and the airport at Hurn are served on the same run, and Bournemouth operates no emissions charging zone (the seven English zones, GOV.UK). In July and August, holiday traffic on the A31 makes fifty minutes optimistic and the controller plans the arrival accordingly.
Thirty-two miles, and what that actually buys
A Bournemouth job is usually allocated at our Southampton branch, and the controller confirms it on the day. Which vehicle actually runs depends on where the nearest available driver is when you ring.
A morning call can be delivered in Bournemouth before lunch, and an afternoon one comfortably inside the working day.
M27, A31 and the Wessex Way
Out of Southampton on the M27, west onto the A31 through the New Forest, then the A338 Wessex Way straight into Bournemouth. Thirty-two miles and one road change, which is as simple as this network gets.
The Wessex Way delivers you to the centre and the seafront quickly, and the seafront is the awkward part. Bournemouth's town centre has the usual pedestrianised streets and loading restrictions, and in season the parking and the traffic make a large vehicle a poor choice.
Poole is a few miles further west and is a working port as well as a town, so a quay delivery there is a different proposition from a trading-estate one. Bournemouth Airport and the Aviation Business Park at Hurn sit north of the town off the A338 and are straightforward to reach.
What carries it, and how the price is built
Bournemouth work covers the range, from a document run into a town-centre office to palletised freight into the Aviation Business Park. Luton and tail-lift vehicles are available, though the town centre in season is not the place for one.
Vehicles
- Small van
- Transit-type van
- Sprinter-type van
- Luton
- Tail-lift
- Heavier freight on request
- See the way short runs are worked out
What the cover is
On a dedicated vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes anywhere in the UK, account holders are covered to a maximum of £25,000. On other services, liability is limited to the value of the goods, the cost of repairing them, or £1,000 per tonne on gross weight, whichever is lowest.
Higher cover can usually be arranged before collection at an additional charge. If the consignment is worth more than the standard limit, say so when you book, not when something has gone wrong.
Delivering into Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
Three towns, one destination for a vehicle
Wimborne, Ferndown and Ringwood sit just outside on the A31 and usually fold into the same job.
The estates, the airport and where the work actually is
Very little of the commercial work here is in Bournemouth town centre. The Aviation Business Park sits beside Bournemouth Airport at Hurn, north-east of the town off the B3073, and it carries aviation, engineering and manufacturing occupiers on a site that behaves like a campus: unit number, occupier name and a gate.
Ferndown Industrial Estate is the largest trade estate in the area, north-west towards Wimborne. Nuffield Industrial Estate and Mannings Heath sit in Poole, and Holton Heath is further west on the A351 towards Wareham. Christchurch has its own cluster around the old airfield site. All of them take a Luton or a tail-lift without difficulty, which the town centre does not.
Bournemouth University splits across the Talbot campus at Fern Barrow and the Lansdowne site near the town centre, and the Royal Bournemouth and Poole hospitals both need the correct department and goods-inwards route rather than a main address.
The seafront, the pedestrianised centre and the summer
Bournemouth town centre is pedestrianised in the middle with loading restrictions around it, and the seafront is the awkward part. Between the Wessex Way coming in and the cliff-top roads, a driver can be very close to an address and legally unable to stop at it, and in season the parking and the visitor traffic make that worse rather than better.
For a town-centre or seafront delivery, ask the recipient for their approved loading arrangement and the permitted time, and give us a contact who can meet the driver. A Luton in the centre in August is not the plan; if the load needs one, we would rather collect or deliver early.
The A31, the A338 and what July and August actually do
Two other local points are worth knowing. The Sandbanks chain ferry across the entrance to Poole Harbour saves a long detour to Studland and Swanage but runs to its own schedule and can queue badly in summer, so a delivery beyond it is planned rather than assumed. And the Port of Poole runs ferry services to the Channel Islands and France, so a consignment meeting a sailing has a hard cut-off that we treat as the deadline.
Covered on the same run
The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole conurbation is effectively one destination for a vehicle already heading this way, and the eastern Dorset towns are a short extension of it.
Poole·Christchurch·Wimborne·Ringwood
Bournemouth courier questions
About fifty minutes of driving by dedicated vehicle, thirty-two miles on the M27, A31 and A338, outside the summer season.
Yes, on the same run and at much the same cost, because the three towns run into one another.
It depends on the distance, the vehicle, the timing and the access at both ends.
Yes.
Yes, treating the sailing cut-off as the deadline rather than the arrival time.
Yes, on the same basis.
Also from Southampton:
Book a courier to Bournemouth
Call 0345 8333 833. It is a short run, so the controller can usually tell you straight away whether it goes today and roughly when.