Royal Mail discussion

[gswindale]

The last week or so DPD has completely gone down the toilet here. I had a parcel dispatched with 1 day delivery. Normally it would reliably arrive on the day it was due. It took 5 days to arrive this time - delayed 2 days at the hub, and 1 day at the local depot. It went from 'out for delivery' to 'delayed' on one day. Talking to the driver (who arrived with the parcel at 9pm) they are woefully short of staff and drivers are working 12 hour days to make up for it. I had a similar experience with another parcel also sent by DPD.

I assume part of the problem is with customers moving from Royal Mail to other carriers and the additional volume is overwhelming.

Now to me, that sounds like DPD have managed to finally reach Royal Mail standards.

I do agree that as customers switch from using the unknown delivery time frames of Royal Mail that the other (more efficient) companies may well struggle due to the additional volume.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Dec 2022 ==

I'd stop using Currys then, unless they've switched to DPD.

With RM it will arrive late at present, but at least it will arrive, unlike Hermes.

What is with the hate for Hermes? In my experience, Hermes are a lot more reliable and actually deliver to the right address unlike Royal Mail!

 

[Bletchleyite]

What is with the hate for Hermes? In my experience, Hermes are a lot more reliable and actually deliver to the right address unlike Royal Mail!

No quality management whatsoever. A few couriers are good, but most are dire.

 

[Darandio]

What is with the hate for Hermes? In my experience, Hermes are a lot more reliable and actually deliver to the right address unlike Royal Mail!

In my experience they were atrocious, there's a reason they changed the name straight after a lengthy run of publicity. Post name change they are still garbage.

 

[Trainbike46]

What is with the hate for Hermes? In my experience, Hermes are a lot more reliable and actually deliver to the right address unlike Royal Mail!

In my experience Evri / hermes is that they are very unreliable, they have managed to lose everything I've ever sent with them. But with all delivery companies, your local team has a big influence. For example, in most places DPD seem decent, but in one of the places where I used to live, one driver would just straight up refuse to deliver to my house, possibly because of a grudge against previous tenants, making DPD one of the least reliable companies, that we avoided at almost any cost.
royal mail has normally been really good wherever I lived. Unfortunately the strikes now mean everything is slower, but for most things I'm happy to wait

 

[Snow1964]

Another day, no delivery
Did get a delivery Saturday (with letter dated 24th Nov)

I am still awaiting 2 items from about week ago (both with 48 delivery), tracking for both hasn’t moved for days since they entered different hubs (perhaps they should rename hubs black holes)

Wondering if anything will actually arrive before next strike, perhaps the managers need to start rolling up their sleeves and doing some 12 hour shifts until backlog is clear.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Got a stack of letters today, but have a parcel outstanding that's been outstanding a week now. Not urgent and to be fair I did specifically ask for it to be sent RM, but sadly they've used Signed For instead of Tracked 24/48 so I can't see how far it's got.

 

[Mojo]

Our mail delivery officer rang my doorbell this afternoon and I could see he had something in his hand so said I wasn't in and asked him to leave it next door assuming it was too big to fit. He said it would fit in the letterbox and I watched him put it through. Wonder what that was all about.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Our mail delivery officer rang my doorbell this afternoon and I could see he had something in his hand so said I wasn't in and asked him to leave it next door assuming it was too big to fit. He said it would fit in the letterbox and I watched him put it through. Wonder what that was all about.

If it's signed for I don't think they're meant to post it through even if it fits, unless you've specifically told them to put it in a safe place, which I guess he did by asking you on the video doorbell.

That's one key advantage of Tracked 24/48. It's basically normal 1st/2nd mail but fully tracked.

 

[Phil56]

In my experience Evri / hermes is that they are very unreliable, they have managed to lose everything I've ever sent with them. But with all delivery companies, your local team has a big influence. For example, in most places DPD seem decent, but in one of the places where I used to live, one driver would just straight up refuse to deliver to my house, possibly because of a grudge against previous tenants, making DPD one of the least reliable companies, that we avoided at almost any cost.
royal mail has normally been really good wherever I lived. Unfortunately the strikes now mean everything is slower, but for most things I'm happy to wait

Strange, I've never had any problems with Evri/Hermes. I sell a lot by Ebay and use them for bigger items and I also send a lot of online retailer returns via them to, never had anything lost in transit. Likewise when things I've ordered come via Evri/Hermes - I've never experienced loss of parcels not the "famous" complaint of the parcel being thrown over a fence or in the wheelie bin. Sounds like we've been lucky with our local guy!

But, the opposite is true for Royal Mail who I find are abysmal. Over the years, suffered lots of lost parcels (sending and receiving), and once a sliced open padded envelope arrived with the contents missing which should have been a £1k apple iphone! RM customer service were next to useless claiming I must have stolen it after delivery - luckily the RM delivery guy backed me up confirming it was empty when he delivered it!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Dec 2022 ==

Another day, no delivery
Did get a delivery Saturday (with letter dated 24th Nov)

I am still awaiting 2 items from about week ago (both with 48 delivery), tracking for both hasn’t moved for days since they entered different hubs (perhaps they should rename hubs black holes)

Wondering if anything will actually arrive before next strike, perhaps the managers need to start rolling up their sleeves and doing some 12 hour shifts until backlog is clear.

If it's anything like previous backlogs, they concentrate on the more recent stuff first to minimise the number of "late" deliveries, and once they're back up to date with current stuff that they can deliver within deadlines, only then do they start working on the backlog. I remember maybe 4/5 years ago, I had parcels held up for a month or more that had been put in their "black hole" and ignored, whilst more recently ordered stuff arrived as normal. They don't work on "first in first out basis". A bit like trains/planes really - where the first is cancelled so the later ones can run on time, rather than letting the first/late one go late, meaning all the ones following are late too!

 

[DC1989]

I've noticed royal mail have started to do free collections. Is this a new thing? Great idea imo no more needing to stand at the post office counter for 30 mins while the staff member processes the person in front of you at a snails pace

 

[david1212]

In my experience Evri / hermes is that they are very unreliable, they have managed to lose everything I've ever sent with them. But with all delivery companies, your local team has a big influence. For example, in most places DPD seem decent, but in one of the places where I used to live, one driver would just straight up refuse to deliver to my house, possibly because of a grudge against previous tenants, making DPD one of the least reliable companies, that we avoided at almost any cost.
royal mail has normally been really good wherever I lived. Unfortunately the strikes now mean everything is slower, but for most things I'm happy to wait.

Indeed. Anything Evri ( Hermes ) I have delivered to work, likewise any other courier. As a small company lucky that we can do that. The current regular delivery chap and the one before are very good. Those who cover days off, holiday less so.

I have no issues with Royal Mail delivery staff either. My two issues are, as I've posted before, Post Offices in convenience stores that have reverted to 9:00 - 17:00 Monday - Friday and Saturday morning then the delivery office only open a few hours for collections instead of 07:00 - 18:00 Monday - Friday plus 20:00 one evening and until 14:00 Saturday. These make both sending and collecting difficult.

Of all the UK deliveries companies I rate UPS the best not least as they ave the vans racked out so smaller item not squashed or even lost. I have seen the Parcelfarceforce driver open the van side door and several parcels fall out.

... That's one key advantage of Tracked 24/48. It's basically normal 1st/2nd mail but fully tracked.

Looking on the Royal Mail website there is Tracked 24/48, Tracked 24/48 With Signature and Signed For. For delivery the first so long at as it will fit can just be put through the letter box or in shared accommodation left in the designated areas. The latter two have to be handed to someone at the address. Signed For is covered for loss or damage up to £50. From this document section 11.3.2 the maximum compensation is £100.
Further if Tracked 24/48 is too big for a street letter box Royal Mail state it has to be handed over at a delivery office not a Post Office.

Give that pre-paid by the recipient Tracked 24/48 returns can be handed in at a Post Office I wonder how they determine if an item is a return or if the sender has purchased Tracked 24/48 online?

 

[DelayRepay]

I've noticed royal mail have started to do free collections. Is this a new thing? Great idea imo no more needing to stand at the post office counter for 30 mins while the staff member processes the person in front of you at a snails pace

It would be a great idea, but is it at the moment? Given it is adding even more work for the postmen and women, and therefore presumably preventing them getting through the backlog.

Post Offices are concerned about this because it's actually cheaper to have parcels collected than to send them via a Post Office.

 

[Meole]

I've noticed royal mail have started to do free collections. Is this a new thing? Great idea imo no more needing to stand at the post office counter for 30 mins while the staff member processes the person in front of you at a snails pace

Does reduce income for franchise post offices though, perhaps its time to close the loss making physical post office network down ?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Looking on the Royal Mail website there is Tracked 24/48, Tracked 24/48 With Signature and Signed For. For delivery the first so long at as it will fit can just be put through the letter box or in shared accommodation left in the designated areas. The latter two have to be handed to someone at the address.

It's more accurate to say they're supposed to be.

I had a Recorded Delivery once ( this is in pre-virus days ) which I found in my letterbox and upon which was scrawled the legend "Postie signed for you thanks!"

Needless to say, I raised merry hot place with the RM about that - not least because the item contained a "bearer" ticket for a very long helicopter charter!!

 

[Kite159]

Does reduce income for franchise post offices though, perhaps its time to close the loss making physical post office network down ?

I can see some of the remaining 'crown' post offices potentially closing in the future (especially if they are in grand old buildings which cost a lot to heat & light) with them being replaced by franchises within other shops.

There will still be demand for the actual post office, from those who can't hang around waiting for the postie to come to collect their parcel

 

[DelayRepay]

There will still be demand for the actual post office, from those who can't hang around waiting for the postie to come to collect their parcel

That, and the fact Post Offices act as the only place to do banking in a lot of areas now.

 

[Dai Corner]

I can see some of the remaining 'crown' post offices potentially closing in the future (especially if they are in grand old buildings which cost a lot to heat & light) with them being replaced by franchises within other shops.

There will still be demand for the actual post office, from those who can't hang around waiting for the postie to come to collect their parcel

Almost every corner shop which doesn't have a Post Office counter seems to be an agent for one of the other couriers.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That, and the fact Post Offices act as the only place to do banking in a lot of areas now.

In essence the PO is now a multi-service and Government access counter and not just a means of sending letters and parcels. Kind of like a PayPoint/PayZone on steroids.

 

[jfollows]

I've noticed royal mail have started to do free collections. Is this a new thing? Great idea imo no more needing to stand at the post office counter for 30 mins while the staff member processes the person in front of you at a snails pace

It's been happening for a year or two now; we use it for things like occasional eBay sales and the like. It works very well. Pay for postage and print the label or have them do it (you get the choice) and someone turns up and collects. In our area it seems that it's usually someone with a van doing the collections, not the regular postman, which makes sense I think - it seems like they do the collections after they've done the deliveries which also makes sense.

For occasional collections, it's very convenient. No need to queue up at the Post Office in Tesco to send a parcel. Good if you're going to be in at home all day of course.

 

[najaB]

For occasional collections, it's very convenient. No need to queue up at the Post Office in Tesco to send a parcel. Good if you're going to be in at home all day of course.

Given that a sizeable number of office workers are now working from home at least a few days a week, it's is a good example of Royal Mail adapting to their customers' changing needs.

 

[DC1989]

Good for small business customers too that need to send small parcels but don't send enough to be granted a daily collection. Should have happened years ago to be honest

 

[crablab]

Good for small business customers too that need to send small parcels but don't send enough to be granted a daily collection.

You aren't granted one, it's something that has to be paid for (until you exceed a certain spend, at which point they make it free).

 

[DC1989]

You aren't granted one, it's something that has to be paid for (until you exceed a certain spend, at which point they make it free).

But that's what I mean, now it's free

 

[crablab]

But that's what I mean, now it's free

It's not. You cannot hand PPI over via the consumer collections.

So it's not useful to account customers (ie. small businesses) that don't have/want daily collections.

 

[gswindale]

What's PPI? To me it means Payment Protection Insurance?

 

[jfollows]

What's PPI? To me it means Payment Protection Insurance?

Printed Postage Impressions, but I had to look it up.
I think it’s pre-printed business mail labelling.

 

[crablab]

Printed Postage Impressions, but I had to look it up.
I think it’s pre-printed business mail labelling.

Correct. It's either mail with the impression (licence number) or labels generated by Royal Mail (there are other types eg. Mailmark but it's not relevant here) - both of which end up with a sales order being generated for the posting on that day.

Unlike franked mail, it has to be handed over with a copy of the manifest (sales order) dated for the correct day. It must be presented on the day for which the manifest is dated, otherwise the mail is rejected.

The options are either:

• take it to a Post Office, Delivery Office or Mail Centre
• arrange an ad-hoc collection on the day (14.58 + VAT)
• arrange a daily (or other type of) collection (825 + VAT)

They've also raised the threshold for 'free collections' to 17k per annum, up from 13.5k.

More details: https://www.royalmail.com/business/parcels/collections

Good for small business customers too that need to send small parcels but don't send enough to be granted a daily collection.

So as I say, really not relevant for small business customers I'm afraid

 

[DC1989]

I was using my own business as an example - we now use royal mail to send some packages instead of couriers like DHL

 

[Snow1964]

Finally got some post today (one letter), still waiting on some tracked 48 packages (one of which is from early last week and appears to not updated since it reached north west super hub, the other from last week is also still at my regional hub)

Annoyingly another tracked item is my passport which I had to send for verification to claim a pension from former employer, hoping it is in a pile of unprocessed mailbags, but tracking without updates is very frustrating.

 

[Bletchleyite]

but tracking without updates is very frustrating.

I've got a "missing" Signed For item too, and I agree. I'd like to see a merger of the Signed For and Tracked 24/48 products. I don't see why they shouldn't all be trackable. They're priced at a similar level.

Indeed, if the new barcoded stamps have unique barcodes on each stamp, which I assume they do otherwise the revenue protection angle wouldn't work, then I think there's potential to have some form of "best effort" tracking on even simple letters, i.e. "it's scanned if it's scanned" rather than anything formal, but still helpful if you got a certificate of posting and wondered how a delayed item was progressing.