Same-day courier to Ipswich
Rapid Despatch delivers to Ipswich by dedicated vehicle, around one hundred and twenty miles from our nearest branch. There is no Ipswich 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.
Ipswich, and the country's largest container port fifteen miles down the road. Port deadlines are unforgiving and the paperwork decides whether a vehicle gets through the gate.
Rapid Despatch runs same-day courier jobs to Ipswich by dedicated vehicle, one hundred and twenty miles by road on the M25 and the A12.
A single dedicated vehicle carries the consignment throughout, so it is never transferred or set down. The drive is around two and a half hours on a clear run. You get a fixed price for the whole job before you commit to it. Felixstowe is covered on the same route, and port deliveries need a booking reference and gate details at the time of booking, not on arrival. Felixstowe sits fifteen miles further east and is quoted as its own destination rather than as an Ipswich drop.
One hundred and twenty miles, and the gate at the end
An Ipswich job is usually allocated at our Reading branch, and the controller confirms it on the day. Which vehicle actually runs depends on where the nearest available driver is when you ring.
For an Ipswich trading estate this is an ordinary two-and-a-half-hour run. For anything going into the port it is not, because the constraint is the terminal rather than the road.
The M25, the A12 and the last fifteen miles
Reading east on the M4, anticlockwise round the M25 and north east on the A12 through Chelmsford and Colchester. The A12 is dual carriageway rather than motorway for most of its length, which makes it steady rather than fast, and it does not have a useful alternative when something closes it.
Ipswich sits at the top of it. The Ransomes Europark and Nacton estates are south east of the town off the A14. The Whitehouse and Bramford Road industrial areas are on the north west side. The docks are close to the town centre and are a working port, not an industrial estate.
Felixstowe is a further fifteen miles east on the A14 and is a destination in its own right. If that is where the consignment is going, quote it as Felixstowe from the start, because the timing and the paperwork are different from an Ipswich delivery.
What carries it, and how the price is built
Ipswich and Felixstowe work is usually a small or medium van carrying documents, samples or urgent parts against a vessel or a customs deadline. A Luton or tail-lift handles palletised freight where it comes up.
Vehicles
- Small van
- Transit-type van
- Sprinter-type van
- Luton
- Tail-lift
- Heavier freight on request
- See how port waiting affects a quotation
What the cover is
Goods in transit insurance is provided. Account holders are covered to £25,000 on a dedicated vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes, and on other services liability is limited to £1,000 per tonne. Higher cover can be arranged before collection, so declare the value when you book. Read the full conditions of carriage
Covered on the same run
Suffolk is served on the same run. Felixstowe is the one worth naming at the start of the call, because a port delivery is planned differently from a trading-estate one.
Felixstowe·Woodbridge·Stowmarket·Bury St Edmunds
Ipswich courier questions
Yes, from the same route as Ipswich.
The goods themselves are covered under our conditions of carriage, but consequential loss is not, so the commercial cost of a missed vessel sits with you rather than with us. That is the standard position across the industry and we would rather state it here than bury it. It is also why we ask for real deadlines and build margin into port jobs. To see how a quote is built, See how port waiting affects a quotation.
Yes, on the same basis.
Yes.
It depends on the distance, the vehicle, the timing and the access at both ends. To see how a quote is built, See how port waiting affects a quotation.
Also on the eastern run:
Book a courier to Ipswich
The number is 0345 8333 833. If the delivery is into the port, have the terminal, the booking reference and the slot to hand; they decide the plan.