Are your DX services providing value for money?
Bernard McKay
Procurement and cost optimisation delivering tangible, measurable profit improvement
The Document Exchange (DX) system is a UK courier service established during the postal strikes of the 1970s and very quickly became the only alternative next-day delivery service.
Its origins lie mainly within the legal sector, with its users’ network supplying a majority of legal firms within the UK. However, its tariff structure and the procedure behind DX’s calculation of the cost of the service to users are fraught with issues and sometimes not understood.
The annual cost of the service is based on an estimate made by DX of the amount of mail anticipated to be dispatched during the forthcoming year to other DX users only.
The user processes their DX mail by way of manually adding their unique number to each item dispatched and then delivering them to a nearby collection point, which is normally hosted by another DX user. The Member can become a host point by meeting certain criteria set by DX.
The user is advised to monitor and manually record all of their outgoing mail over a two-week period each year. This annual monitoring should be completed over two weeks that typically reflect total annual usage, generally not in August or December.
DX calculates the user’s next year’s subscription based on their own internal figures and the two-week monitoring period, which can only be viewed as accurate if completed properly by both parties.
Therefore, the biggest problem with DX is that the fees are based on estimate, paid annually in advance, and generally unquantifiable, leaving the user with no knowledge as to whether they are getting value for money.
There are very few options that enable DX users to accurately calculate the level of their subscription fee – apart from accurately recording manually every item sent whilst taking into consideration the varying weight, size and thickness of non-standard items.
Rather than simply accepting the estimated annual DX invoice, it makes more financial sense to consider changes in procedure or methods of monitoring in order to confirm the actual cost of using the service instead of relying on the very limited information generally provided by DX.
For more information on the work we do in this area, please contact b.mckay@erauk.net