Same-day courier service with a dedicated vehicle
Rapid Despatch is an independent courier company, established in 2001, with four branches in Hampshire and Berkshire, covering Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey and around fifty drivers. One vehicle, one driver, one direct route, anywhere in mainland Great Britain. No parcel hub, no transfer between vans.
We aim to collect within the hour, sometimes in as little as 30 minutes, and never more than 90. That is a window rather than a guarantee: it depends on where the nearest vehicle is when you ring and what it is already carrying.
What to have ready before you call
We provide urgent same-day courier delivery across the UK, using a dedicated vehicle for every direct job. Once your consignment is collected it goes straight to the delivery address. We monitor the movement from booking to delivery and send proof of delivery once the recipient has accepted the goods.
To get an accurate quote quickly, have the collection and delivery postcodes ready, plus a description of the item, how many pieces, dimensions, weight and your deadline. Mention fragile contents, confidentiality, site security, loading restrictions or a named handover at the start. It changes which vehicle we send and how we brief the driver. If the goods are hazardous we can carry them only in limited quantities, and we will tell you at quotation whether yours qualify.
What “dedicated” actually means
Your consignment gets a vehicle to itself. The Rapid Despatch driver collects from your address and follows the delivery plan. There’s no depot sort in the middle, no cross-docking, no overnight network cut-off to catch.
This is worth paying for when the cost of delay is bigger than the cost of transport. A replacement component might be cheap; the engineer and the production line waiting for it are not. A signed contract fits in an envelope, but missing the recipient’s deadline can be expensive in a way the envelope isn’t.
What it doesn’t do is make the M25 disappear. The difference is that the vehicle is working to your plan and our team can see what’s happening, so you can ring the controller responsible for your job.
How same-day delivery works
Tell us exactly what’s moving
Start with full postcodes at both ends. Describe the goods plainly: number of pieces, dimensions, weight. We need the earliest collection time, the latest acceptable delivery time and a contact at each address. If the item is valuable, fragile, confidential, hazardous or awkward to load, say so before we quote. We carry medical and laboratory items at ambient temperature only; we do not offer refrigerated or temperature-controlled transport.
We choose the service and vehicle
The controller weighs up the route, the deadline, the size of the item, how it will be loaded and what the sites allow. A small van is usually the cheapest answer for documents and compact boxes. Pallets and heavy goods may need a Luton, a tail lift or something larger again.
A driver is allocated
We assign a driver and send them to you, and we tell you when to expect them. You shouldn’t have to wonder whether your request has landed in a queue somewhere. We aim to collect within the hour, sometimes in as little as 30 minutes, and never more than 90, and the controller gives you the realistic figure for your actual postcode before you commit.
The consignment travels directly
At collection the driver checks the piece count and follows your handling instructions. The vehicle then heads for the delivery point, unless an agreed stop or return leg is part of the plan. We monitor the job while it runs and can give you status information as it goes.
Delivery is confirmed
The driver hands over to the recipient or follows the site process you’ve described. Proof of delivery can include the recipient’s name, the time and a signature, with extra evidence agreed where you need it. If a named person has to take receipt, tell us before collection.
What we carry on same-day vehicles
We move urgent consignments for businesses, public-sector organisations and private customers. The regulars include:
Replacement components to get equipment running again
Confidential paperwork needing a direct, named handover
For data centres, offices and field engineers
Samples over short distances, equipment and supplies. We do not carry refrigerated or temperature-controlled consignments.
Approval items moving between suppliers and customers
Stands, signage and build kit with fixed access windows
Campaign items needed at one particular site
Kept away from multi-handling parcel networks
Machinery components matched to the right vehicle
That’s not an exhaustive list. The real question is whether the goods can be carried safely, legally and within the vehicle’s capacity, so ring us with the details rather than assuming yours is too unusual.
Choosing the right vehicle
Vehicle choice drives the price, the loading and whether the driver can get in at all. Base it on measurements, not on a guess.
Small vans
Transit and Sprinter-type vans
Luton and tail-lift vehicles
Larger vehicles on request
Local response, national reach
Our four branches are in Hampshire and Berkshire, covering direct local collection across Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, taking in the M3, M4, A33, A34, A331, M27 and the roads around them.
The service isn’t limited to the south. We collect anywhere in the UK, normally within 90 minutes, and deliver direct. We can collect in Reading and run to Glasgow, or collect in Leeds and bring it back down here. The Highlands and Islands, other islands and parts of Wales are quoted separately, because the timings there depend on the route rather than the mileage.
Collection targets have to stay honest. A local driver can be with you quickly; a specialist vehicle in a thinly covered area takes longer to position. We quote against the real postcode and the real vehicle instead of publishing one response time and hoping it holds everywhere.
When same-day beats next-day, and what it costs
Go same-day when the goods have to arrive today, when a missed delivery stops work, or when the consignment shouldn't pass through a hub.
Go next-day when it is properly packaged, tomorrow is fine and you can make the cut-off. Compare the two.
How same-day pricing works
Every same-day job has a minimum charge. The first few miles cost more per mile than the rest, because getting a vehicle to you is the expensive part; after that the rate drops. Waiting time is charged by the hour once a free allowance has passed, and each extra collection or delivery point is a fixed amount.
A short local job in a small van costs a fraction of a long national run or a pallet movement needing a tail lift.
On top of that sit the things that vary by job: the vehicle, the time of day, out-of-hours running, and any congestion charge, clean-air charge, toll or ferry, which are passed on at what they cost and shown on the quote rather than added afterwards.
You can keep the quote accurate by sending exact postcodes, real measurements and honest access notes. Don’t book a bigger vehicle “just in case” without talking to us; you’ll pay for capacity you didn’t use. The price is fixed before you book and does not move afterwards.
Read the same-day courier pricing guide
Getting ready for the driver
Before we arrive:
Package the item for a road journey and protect anything fragile.
Confirm the piece count and label them clearly if there’s more than one.
Keep the collection contact reachable by phone.
Sort reception, gatehouse, loading bay or security access.
Tell us about parking, height, weight or vehicle restrictions.
Have any reference, purchase order or paperwork the recipient needs.
Warn the delivery contact what’s coming and roughly when.
Make sure anything prohibited or hazardous has been declared and accepted.
Five minutes of preparation gets the driver away faster. If the goods aren’t going to be ready, ring us before the vehicle sets off so the controller can tell you what it does to the route or the charge.
Same-day courier FAQs
We aim to collect within the hour, sometimes in as little as 30 minutes, and never more than 90. Around Basingstoke, Farnborough, Reading and Southampton a vehicle is often already close. Elsewhere it depends on the postcode and the vehicle, so we give you an estimated collection time before you book rather than applying one promise to the whole country.
No. A same-day direct job has a dedicated vehicle allocated to it. It never enters an overnight parcel hub or a planned multi-stop network.
Overnight and international consignments are tracked online. On same-day work the office tracks the vehicle and updates you by phone, because your driver is on one job rather than scanning through a network. Your controller is the point of contact throughout and sends proof of delivery, with the recipient's name and the time, plus a signature or a photograph where you have asked for one.
Yes, for existing customers. The same-day line, 0345 8333 833, is answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and out of hours it is there for customers who already work with us. If you are new to us, ring during office hours, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. Email and web forms are only picked up in office hours.
Goods in transit insurance is provided. 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. Cover applies in the UK and Europe and does not extend to consequential loss. Higher cover can usually be arranged before collection at an additional charge, so declare the value when you book rather than afterwards.
Yes. Waiting time and return journeys can be built into the job. Tell us at quotation roughly how long the signing or the repair will take, so the time is allowed for and the price covers the whole thing.
Yes. Multi-drop work can be planned, though it’s a different animal from a direct single-drop run. Send every postcode, every delivery window and which items go where, and we’ll price the route properly.
Yes. Same-day despatch and same-day dispatch are the same service; we spell it with an "e", which is where the company name comes from.
Road transport gets delayed by traffic, weather, closures and sites that don’t open when they said they would. Because your vehicle is dedicated and monitored, we can see the progress, give you a revised estimate and work it out with the driver and the recipient.
Book a dedicated same-day courier
Send the collection and delivery postcodes, the item details and the deadline for a quotation. If it’s urgent, call and talk to the operations team now.