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The parcel has been booked in with a courier via collectmyparcel.com. The courier arrived on time to scan and collect your parcel. You watched him disappear down the drive and bundle your parcel into his van before driving away.

But did you ever wonder what happens to your parcel after it has been collected?

Whilst all couriers have slightly different operating procedures depending on the uniqueness of their network, here’s a basic overview of what happens after the van door has closed:

1. Collected parcels return to depot.
The driver takes collected parcels back to the home depot. Here parcels may be scanned and tracked before being loaded onto a vehicle destined for a national or centralised sorting hub.

2. Parcels processed at centralised sorting hub:
Parcels arrive at the sorting hub and are unloaded. This is often an overnight time sensitive process that operates on a tight schedule of arrivals and departures. The aim? Ensure vehicles are despatched to reach the delivery depots in time for Next Day delivery.

Larger courier companies probably have a sophisticated automated sorting system. Scanners will read the bar-coded labels which contain delivery postcodes and sort parcels onto the correct outward bound vehicles.

3. Parcels are distributed to the delivery depot:
Sorted parcels are loaded onto a trailer, and then despatched to the appropriate courier delivery depot.

4. Parcels are route sorted ready for delivery:
Parcels arriving from the centralised sorting hub may be scanned and then sorted into courier delivery routes.

5. Parcels are delivered:
Finally the parcel is delivered to your recipient, and a delivery track is obtained as proof of postage.

Change is everlasting. The most noteworthy ones are tiny changes. Such as where we buy our daily produce. Like old war-buddies, we often reminiscence over the days when we shopped at the round the corner shop. In fact, our nostalgia for these quaint traditions has brought them back on UK streets.

Super markets and their ilk materialised at a much later on the UK scene and they did not really pick up in popularity until the 1960’s when they started to offer a variety of merchandise that could not be availed in the local shops. The development of the super stores did not bring about complete shutdown of your local store; however it wrought about a harmful change with the locals placing more products on their shelves in order to compete with the big boys. What is bad about this? Let us take sweet selection. It has brought about a drop in the standard of selection as a number of delicious old fashioned sweets are no longer in store.  Because of this demand, the local sweet shops have sprung up all over the place.

It is imperative that they compete with the super markets as the latter is a necessity that started out as a small business before growing to their present size. Yet the only way for these sweet shops to stay open is at a much higher price. Ultimately, it comes down to the buyer and whether we are willing to shell out more for these expensive sweets.

Cuts are being introduced left, right and centre at the moment by the coalition government and child benefit is the latest of these.
In the government’s plans, if you are a high earner and have children you will no longer be entitled to child benefits. In addition to this, if you fail to declare that you receive child benefits as one of these high earners, then you will be fined.
The flaw in this is that there are some couples who are not aware of each other finances, and therefore one partner who earn over the threshold could be penalised without ever knowing that their other half was in fact receiving child benefits, so it will be interesting to see if the government continue to go ahead with their plans, and if they do, how they will enforce it, and if they will fine the innocent.

Everyone knows that there is a lot of money in Oil, and now Brazil is set to reap the benefits of that. Brazil’s national petroleum agency has discovered an oil field just off the coast which they think could hold up to around eight million barrels.
If this is the case it will be the biggest find since the giant Cantarell field in Mexico, which was discovered back in 1976.
This discovery will put Brazil in the top ten of the world’s oil producers. The Brazilian president has stated that the revenues created from this will be put back into the country to improve technology and education and to eventually eradicate poverty.

I admire anyone who takes the time to do work for charity. Much charity work is performed by unpaid volunteers who do it simply because they feel they are doing it for a worthy cause or because they want to give back to society. The majority of people working for charities aren’t looking for anything in return but now the government are talking about plans to reward these people in later life.

People who give back to society are set to gain points based on their work. These points will then equate to rewards and help for the when the volunteers themselves get older.
I think it is a great idea to reward those people who do charity work, but should we really only be helping people on a points basis?

BA hasn’t had a great time over the past two years. There was the Icelandic volcano Crisis, and then it had to cope with strikes from the cabin crew. All of this has hit profits as well as resulting in a loss in confidence amongst flyers. Many of the other airlines profited as a result of BA’s misfortunes and it seemed that BA would take a long time to bounce back, but now it appears they have done just that. After two years of falling profits and being in the red, they have announced that they are now making a profit.

Over the past few years film type documentaries have become very popular, one of the first being Fahrenheit 9/11. Another of these type of films set to make a huge hit is one that was made two years ago by Charles Ferguson. It tells the tale of the ins and outs of international banking and its title describes the message the director is trying to get across – “Inside Job”.

When this film was made it would have had little interest for the general public, but after the recession and the economic trouble we still find ourselves in, this film is set to become very popular as it predominantly raises the issue of accountability. After all no one has been prosecuted over the banks irresponsible behaviour and it leaves many questioning the huge bonuses that banks still reward their employees.

People who are self-employed in all sorts of industries need to be savvy about how they can advertise their services and earn themselves a little more revenue. Whenever you need to showcase your talents, you should take the opportunity to put your name out there to secure business. This is where good business cards come in handy.

Musicians who decide to make music their sole source of income have as much need for business cards as professionals in more traditionally recognised fields of work. It is often the case that musicians are available for booking for parties, events and so on, but also to teach music lessons privately.

If you offer your services as a music teacher as a well as a performer then you need to let people know. The best way of doing this is to make sure you take business cards with you to any event you are hosting or attending. You can even leave business cards out at regular venues you play at, detailing the other areas of interest you have.

Don’t be afraid of advertising yourself when you play open mic events, slots in bars and pubs, private parties and so on. The more you put yourself out there, the better chance you have of being able to make money doing what you love.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has said that government spending cuts could raise employment levels from 2.5 million to nearly 3 million. Cuts in the public service must be made to avoid sharp tax rises. Chief economic adviser John Philpott has estimated that half a million jobs are likely to be lost in the public sector in the next two years and the unemployment levels are likely to stay at the 3 million mark until at least 2015. Although these job cuts and other public spending cuts are needed for economic growth, the short term opportunities for people who are already at a disadvantage from being unemployed are not likely to improve, and these people especially are likely to face even tougher times over the coming years.

Following the recent oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, BP’s shares have fallen almost 40%. President Obama launched an attack on BP on Tuesday 8th of May stating he would sack the chief executive of BP if he could. President Obama has called for the chief executive of BP to step down as soon as the oil leak has been stopped. Mr Hayward, the chief executive, has said his company will clean up the oil spill and return the Gulf of Mexico to the position it was in before. BP have announced that the clean-up operation has so far cost $1.25 Billion. Oil has been spilling into the Gulf since the 20th of April. At least 20 Million Gallons of oil have now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico making this the worst environmental disaster in US history. BP have also said they will donate money to wildlife protection in the affected areas by selling off recovered oil from the spill.