Occasionally you come across something on the internet that is surprisingly useful. I'd recently bid on an anchor on eBay and won it. Great, apart from the fact it weighed 200Kg. I did toy with the idea of picking it up with Mary's car, but we would've been stuck at the other end trying to unload it.
I did a search for courier companies that took large items and stumbled upon shiply. Basically you list your item, where it is, and where it need to go and haulage companies will bid for the work. The premise is that if they have a half full truck going that way, its extra money for them and benefits you.
Within an hour of listing the anchor, I had three bids, ranging from reasonable to less than the cost of a days van hire and petrol. The site even imports eBay listings, and pre-populates your listing with the information.
Nice, will be using it again.
Update at 2:10pm - the anchor has arrived in Goole, thats impressively quick from booking the job yesterday!