Tutorial: Best way to work with Royal Mail Despatch Express

Despatch Express is software that is given to Royal Mail account holders who turn over x amount with them every year. This software is free and is designed to cut out the whole, entering addresses, miss spelling street names and the whole manual side of wrapping and packing parcels. It comes in two forms, a local installation version which you get given on a disc, or the new online version which you can log into via the Royal Mail's website.
Royal Mail have taken 10 steps backwards with the new online system as it cannot yet integrate with anything, so when talking to your RM account managers please ask for the local CD installation version.

I'm going to give instructions below on what I think is the most effective way of working with Despatch Express.

You will need the following things:

- A copy of Linnworks;
- A recommended, fairly decent bar-code scanner. Please do not buy a contact scanner, buy a laser scanner;
- A USB interface and USB cable for your bar-code scanner;
- A copy of the local installation version of Despatch Express (obtained for free via your account manager);
- A good, fast, reliable and recommended thermal label printer;
- Plain Royal Mail labels with peel off sections for signed for (obtained via your royal mail account manager);
- Royal Mail flash labels for every service you use (obtained via your RM account manager);

Step 1
Install Despatch Express. A representative from Royal Mail will come and install Despatch Express for you and he won't have a clue what he is doing, so don't expect them to integrate it for you.
However he will configure your thermal printer for you ready for the Royal Mail labels. He will then take away a few test labels back to Royal Mail HQ to double check that their sorting machines can read them okay.
You now need to plug in your bar-code scanner (most of them are plug and play).
Bar-code scanners work like a keyboard, it just saves you having to type out order ID's and the stops the possibility of you getting it wrong.

Step 2
Integrate Linnworks with Despatch Express.
Despatch Express has whats called a pick up folder. Basically when anything drops a file into this folder, like an address or shipping service, it will pick it up from that folder and do what it tells it to do.
Please follow this Royal Mail Despatch Express Automation tutorial.
Follow it up to and including the "Configuring Linnworks to work with Despatch Express" paragraph. You do not need to read the "Printing Labels from Linnworks" part.

Step 3
Right now you're all set up and ready to go.

You now need to configure your invoices to print off a bar-code on them. All bar-codes are is a font. The best font to use is called 3 of 9. This font is already included in Linnworks, however can be downloaded here.

This is a font that barcode scanners can read.
The scanner needs to know when the barcode starts and end so you have to put a * either side of it. e.g.
If i typed out *Josh* in arial black in a notepad document, then changed the font to 3of9, then i printed off that bar-code.
I can then scan that bar-code with my scanner and it would type the word "Josh" into what ever my cursor was on.
So same goes for your order ID's. In your invoice designer, place your order id with * either side of it and make sure it's formatted to the 3 of 9 font.

You should get something like this:

Fantastic.

Step 4
Now, you need to print off all your invoices which need to be picked from your warehouse and packed. Print off all these invoices and go and collect the items that correspond with them.
Now you have on your packing desk, the item the customer has bought and the invoice for it.

Now you need to open up your Despatch Console on Linnworks: This is under the Order Book > Open Orders > Despatch Console. 

Okay, you now need to place your cursor in the "bar-code box".

Step 5
You now need to scan the bar-code on your invoice.

You will now see this screen pop up:

Okay now there at 2 possible set ups here.
You can configure linnworks to automatically print a label as soon as it opens this window or you can set it so you have to do it manually by pressing the "Print label" button shown by the red arrow.
You need to make sure Despatch Express is open in the background, now what will happen is, as soon as you click print label, it will send a file to dispatch express with all the address information and automatically print off a barcoded, tracked, addressed label for you with your PPI number on it.

Step 6
Okay you will now notice that on the screen it will have filled out the tracking number section. The number that it inputs automatically here will match the tracking number that is on the label. This is only if you're using a tracked service.

Also notice where I've arrowed a red cross. This will be a green tick if everything has been sent to Despatch Express okay. If there has been a problem, hover over the cross and it will tell you whats wrong.
The last thing that I have pointed out is the service selection. You can automatically assign postage using macros which ill explain below, but if not you can select your postal service here before clicking "Print label"

Step 7
You now have two options. You can either move the mouse over and click "Process" or you can configure it so that all you need to do is tap the space bar. This marks the order as processed, emails the customer the tracking number and marks it as shipped on your selling channel. Linnworks has also stored all your tracking information and all you have done is scanned a bar-code. Wonderful.
Once you have pressed space bar, you will be taken back to the Despatch Console, with the cursor already in the bar-code box ready for the next order scan.

Step 8
Okay, now you can wrap your item in your packaging, slap on the label that your thermal printer just printed off and you're done.

P.S. notice the orange royal mail signed for flash label i've also added on the parcel. You are not ruled to have these but it just makes it easier for the postman and for them to notice that they need a signature for the item. These are free from royal mail.

Step 9
The best part, chuck your parcel into your Royal Mail york. Or take it down to the post office for collection. When it comes to the end of the day and you're all done. Go to your Despatch Express window, click on export, then click on 'Collection Manifest'. This will then count all your parcels that you have scanned for you. It will ask you to enter the average weight for each parcel. You can either guess this, or weigh your self, then weigh your self with your postal sacks and take away your weight. Then divide that figure by the amount of parcels it has counted. Once you click "Print Manifest" it will charge your account and print off a bit of paper. You then give this to the post man with your parcels to be collected.

Pros of this method
- don't need to touch a mouse or keyboard;
- you can process orders accurately;
- have all the tracking details;
- impossible to make human error as it's all done with bar-codes;
- average time to pack, print labels and chuck it in the sack is about 6 seconds a parcel;
- customers don't call/email for tracking info as it's e-mailed to them;
- you have a record of all your dispatch and tracking numbers that you can bring up at any time;
- you can use it for any Royal Mail service, even internationals which saves you from filling out 40,000 forms just to send something to Ireland;


Cons of this method
- the equipment is quite pricey. But well worth it. You'll be packing twice as fast;

You can use macros to assign postage services, based on pretty much anything. Weight, price, postage cost, name, delivery locations and the items in the order.

Here is an example of what I use:

1) Any orders with postage paid more than or equal to 2.99 and being delivered to the UK goes 1st class recorded
2) any orders with postage paid less than 2.99 and being delivered to the UK goes 1st class standard
3) any orders which are being delivered where the country does NOT equal United kingdom will be selected as royal mail international.

This article was written by Joshua Clark, Brand88