subject: How Late In The Day Can I Schedule A Next Day Pickup? [print this page] The production cycle of many different companies is now much longer than it used to be. The days of the 9-5 work day seem to be long behind us under current production models. Because many companies are in production for a much longer work day, this means they can have unplanned needs come up at all points during that longer cycle, which creates a pattern where other companies may have orders coming in at strange points in time during the day. This leads to many people asking their order fulfillment services what time they can call in at in order to have a next day delivery made. With that knowledge, they can then promise an accurate delivery time to their clients who may have placed an order at a later time in the day.
If you have many orders come in at later times throughout the day you might want to look into a fulfillment company which also runs longer hours, as these can differ from company to company. Standard hours usually start around 6:00 AM and run until 7:00 or 8:00 PM, although many companies have hours until midnight. Typically, the cutoff for a next day delivery order would be to place it by a few hours before the closing time of the courier company on that night. That way, there is going to be enough time for them to prepare for and schedule in your request into one of their drivers routes.
There are alternatives to this model though if you need more flexibility in your shipping. There are 24 hour courier and delivery companies which can make a delivery at any time of the night, usually coming to pick it up within the hour of your call if it is an emergency and you are willing to pay for the rush service.
You can also in many cases have things shipped out the same day and not have to wait for a next day pickup. This is usually a useful service to use if you are in the opposite situation described above and have orders come in very early in the day. If that happens, you may want to use a same day delivery service of some kind because you could potentially have the customer's order out to them even before the business day is over, making you look like a very efficient and reliable provider for them.
