Submitted 1 year ago by thehatfox@lemmy.world to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67336778
Honestly my experience with sending and receiving parcels over the years is that Royal Mail are the least bad of all parcel couriers (though that’s not saying much because they’re all hot garbage).
Though this change is only a good thing. Hopefully RM not having a monopoly in Post Office’s will actually encourage them to improve their service. Competition is only a good thing for us common folk.
Honestly my experience with sending and receiving parcels over the years is that Royal Mail are the least bad of all parcel couriers (though that’s not saying much because they’re all hot garbage).
Conversely, every delivery service around here is rock solid - I order a lot of stuff online and can’t currently come up with a single issue that I’ve had (other than when using click and collect to a newsagent and the way the stored the parcels was chaos).
When the topic has come up before on Reddit it was interesting to see that there was no one company that was consistently bad, it all depended on your local driver - if they were usually the same person then the level of service tended to be decent.
Evri is vary variable. The two drivers in my area both seem to do a good job, I’ve not had any issues. But in some of the surrounding towns Evri parcels constantly go missing, there’s rants about it on local Facebook groups every week.
Royal Mail might use that increased competition to argue for further dilution of its universal service obligations however, which wouldn’t be so great for folks in certain parts of the country.
I sometimes forget that there’s a difference between the Post Office, the Royal Mail, and Parcel Force (where Pat now works after those allegations from Jess… 👀). They all seem one in the same but I’m glad I don’t have to be rely on RM anymore who, in our area, are absolutely useless.
DPD and Evri have both been fairly reliable for me. I hope, given the conjoined past of the Royal Mail and the Post Office, that those two fairly reliable options don’t get completely Royal Mailed and stop working. Every time I see a delivery is being carried out by Royal Mail, I know it’s going to either be days late, or not show up at all until I wander down to the sorting office. They are completely useless – not that it’s the fault of posties, it’s (as almost always) the fault of the incompetent, cynical, money-hungry management tier. Filthy!
Evri has the worst reputation nationwide by far. I have them on ring doorbell trying to shove a parcel that was bigger than the letter box through by force. They then sent a 'proof of delivery' picture to me that showed the box completely mashed. They've thrown parcels, left them in stupid places (including in a full recycling bin on bin day!), damaged them, lost them, and delivered them to completely the wrong house. Next door is full of people putting their delivery pics up with "Does anyone recognise this door?".
Yeah it’s really unusual, I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about Evri, and obviously about Hermes before them! Hermes were terrible for me, but for some reason any parcel I have through Evri turns up on time, and the drivers have been relatively nice - both down in London, and up in the Midlands! I’m sorry you’ve had such a nightmare with them though, bad delivery services are absolutely infuriating!
Mr Read said that offering DPD and Evri services at post offices had nothing to do with Royal Mail’s performance. “Consumers have told us they do want choice, they do want convenience, but they also want the expertise of coming into a branch,” he said.
Although The Guardian says:
Industry sources said the decision was the result of increasing dissatisfaction at the Post Office with Royal Mail because of customers complaining about the standard of service.
Royal Mail has come under fire for poor performance and is under investigation by the communications regulator Ofcom after missing delivery targets in 2022-23. It was also hit by strikes during the peak trading period in November and December last year, when its delivery woes were exacerbated by poor weather.
The company has previously said that its performance is improving, pointing to the strain on its resources caused by record levels of parcel deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic, combined with staff sickness.
However, the Post Office is understood to have lost patience with Royal Mail after surveying customers, who raised fears that included parcels getting lost or arriving late, particularly at Christmas. In a press release on Tuesday, it said 48% of people who send parcels would like to be able to shop around for another provider.
As the Post Office and Royal Mail aren’t joined at the hip anymore, they can do their own thing and if there surveys say their customers aren’t happy…
The strikes really hurt it last year (and caused problems for other services when parcels started getting diverted to them) and it shows how important it is to pay your employees properly. The rush to the bottom doesn’t suit them or the customers.
In my experience, the Evri and DPD drivers are fucking maniacs behind the wheel while the Royal mail drivers are quite reasonable.
I’ll happily get my package a day late if it means my kid is less likely to run over.
I always get concerned if I see an Amazon van in my rearview mirror - I understand they are on a tough, inflexible schedule and this can lead to them cutting corners (figuratively and literally).
That said, I’ve never had to help an Amazon van driver out but have found a DPD driver and one from Amazon Flex wandering around lost (the street numbering can be tricky around here but I solved most of it for Open Street Map). I also had to chase a postie down the road after they dropped a handful of letters but didn’t notice.
Proper pay, a decent workload and some training would solve a lot of these problems.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Post Office customers will soon be able to send parcels over the counter using DPD and Evri delivery services.
The new service will begin in selected stores in time for the peak Christmas delivery season, the Post Office said.
Earlier this year, industry watchdog Ofcom launched an investigation into Royal Mail after it failed to meet its delivery targets.
Royal Mail said at the time its services had been affected by 18 days of strike action and high levels of staff absence.
It previously said delivering letters was no longer profitable and that it was focusing on parcels because of the increasing popularity of online shopping.
Evri, which says it delivers more than 730 million parcels each year, said its international services would be available “at selected Post Office counters”.
The original article contains 359 words, the summary contains 130 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It’s probably not a huge logistical change - I’ve returned small items (like Blu-rays) to Amazon via Evri using the label-less service at the Post Office so they clearly already have some kind of system in place. Weirdly, larger items go via the Evri parcel shop. At no point have I ever been given the option of a doorstep collection from those massive vans that prowl the area. 🤷
The Post Office already handles some DPD collections as well, it makes sense to allow them to sell services too. Hopefully it will make Post Office’s more sustainable as businesses, they are a lifeline for smaller communities.
Ah, I don’t have many dealings with DPD but it makes sense. If they’re already handling Evri and DPD parcels and, presumably having them picked up by the companies’ vans then it’s only a bit of a tweak to offer these as options. The more options the more pressure on companies to improve. At the moment when you shop online, you don’t seem to get many options (presumably big companies shop around for the best deal - Amazon can come via their vans, via Flex or Evri. Next is Evri because, I’m told, no other company has the capacity) so, hopefully, this might change that and keep the Post Offices viable.
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Please for the love of god, just have private couriers regulated by ofcom. That way Evri’s shit service can be scrutinized, especially when the shipper doesn’t even let me choose a better courier.