Most sellers default to one carrier for everything, because setting up multiple carrier accounts and manually choosing between them on every order sounds like more admin than it's worth. That default is quietly costing money — not because the carrier is bad, but because no single carrier is the cheapest option for every order.
Why one carrier is never the cheapest option for everything
Carriers price differently depending on weight, dimensions and destination, and those differences shift constantly. A carrier that's competitive on a light parcel to a nearby city postcode isn't necessarily competitive on a heavier item going somewhere rural. Stick with one carrier for every order and you're guaranteed to be overpaying on a share of them — you just don't see it as overpaying, because there's nothing to compare it against.
The manual alternative doesn't actually work at scale
The obvious fix — checking rates across a few carriers and picking manually — works fine for ten orders a day. It falls apart well before a hundred. Nobody has time to run a live rate comparison on every single order, so in practice "we compare carriers" usually means checking once, picking a favourite, and defaulting to it anyway. The saving only shows up if the comparison happens automatically, every time.
How automatic selection actually works
DespatchLab compares carriers on every order rather than once at setup. For each order, it selects automatically from DHL, DPD and Royal Mail based on that specific order's weight, destination and required speed — the same comparison a human would do manually, done instantly and on every single parcel rather than as a one-off decision. Overnight parcel pricing starts from £1.79 through this process, with the carrier chosen automatically to suit each shipment.
What this means for a growing business
The saving compounds with volume in a way manual comparison never could. At ten orders a day the difference is minor. At a hundred, or a thousand, small per-order savings on a meaningful share of your shipments add up to a genuinely different number on your monthly delivery spend — without you or your team spending a single extra minute on it.
You don't lose visibility
Automatic doesn't mean hidden. Every order's carrier choice is visible through DespatchLab's live reporting, so you can always see exactly which carrier handled which shipment and why. The system makes the comparison for you — it doesn't make the decision invisible.
How Reilly's approaches this
Every order fulfilled through Reilly's runs through this same automatic comparison across DHL, DPD and Royal Mail, alongside DespatchLab's 40+ platform integrations that bring your orders in from wherever you sell. No manual carrier selection, no separate accounts to manage, no re-running the comparison yourself — it happens on every order, by default.
Frequently asked questions
Want to see what this looks like for your orders?
Call 0116 444 0444 or visit our technology page for a free quote.