Royal Mail launching parcels collection service for 72p

[elanfan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54614871

The charge is in addition to normal postage cost. Can be booked online up to midnight the night before. Seems to be good idea using your usual postie. If they can get this right then maybe it’s an end to the whinging about Hermes, Yodel etc

I’ll give it a go! Better than queueing In the post office waiting for 3 grannies to draw out their pension.

[whitesocks]

They should have introduced this years ago to be honest.

[TRIUMPHBULLET]

I feel it is a little too late, the market has been open to competitors for years.
If people are happy with who they use now why would they want to change?
The only way they might succeed is if they can show better pricing than their well established competitors but as many still use Hermes etc as they are dirt cheap regardless of quality this will be difficult.

[Jasandjules]

whitesocks said:

They should have introduced this years ago to be honest.

Yup I have wondered for years why they don't. They already have someone coming to your door every day.

[Jordan210]

Isn the main issue, The price that RM change for parcels compared to others

[Johnnybee]

Customers sending back free returns will might prefer to use this new service for a small charge rather than make a journey to the Post Office.

[g7jtk]

They should have been doing it years ago

[andygo]

Bet the door to door postie will be chuffed beyond belief at this! Where is he going to put his new collections whilst he delivers/collects more 'stuff'?

I hope (not expect) that its been thought through, lol.

It seems a bit hard for RM to get normal letters delivered, never mind collect 27 Ebay parcels collected en route.

[hyphen]

andygo said:

Bet the door to door postie will be chuffed beyond belief at this! Where is he going to put his new collections whilst he delivers/collects more 'stuff'?

RM deliver some parcels via Postie currently, and then other come via a vw caddy type van driver. As it's being booked online, they will plan for the capacity and split between the postie and a van round.

It's Royal Mail, not a new startup. They will have planned it (they have been trialling it in select areas first).

[hyphen]

TRIUMPHBULLET said:

I feel it is a little too late, the market has been open to competitors for years.
If people are happy with who they use now why would they want to change?

Who said they were happy now? Visit any Post Officer at lunch time and see the queues!

And with 2m distancing, they are now going to be waiting in a line outside in Winter weather.

[leggly]

andygo said:

Bet the door to door postie will be chuffed beyond belief at this! Where is he going to put his new collections whilst he delivers/collects more 'stuff'?

I hope (not expect) that its been thought through, lol.

It seems a bit hard for RM to get normal letters delivered, never mind collect 27 Ebay parcels collected en route.

Given the amount of letters and parcels they move on a daily basis, I think they do an amazing job.

[Bluesgirl]

I agree. They’ve got the infrastructure in place to do this already and have suffered with falling numbers of regular letters, so it makes sense to do it. The price will be a major factor, but if they can get that right, they’ll be onto a winner.

[rossub]

Jordan210 said:

Isn the main issue, The price that RM change for parcels compared to others

I’ve been using their pick up service via Parcel2Go and the prices are competitive with the more ‘classy’ couriers like DPD, UPS.

Go directly to the RM site however and the prices are eye watering.

[hotchy]

I'd certainly use it for small items.

Anything larger than a letter will be half the price elsewhere though so will continue using those parcelhero like sites for big parcels.

[egor110]

leggly said:

andygo said:

Bet the door to door postie will be chuffed beyond belief at this! Where is he going to put his new collections whilst he delivers/collects more 'stuff'?

I hope (not expect) that its been thought through, lol.

It seems a bit hard for RM to get normal letters delivered, never mind collect 27 Ebay parcels collected en route.

Given the amount of letters and parcels they move on a daily basis, I think they do an amazing job.

There's a pecking order now as to what get's delivered :

!- special deliveries and presumably these new pick ups

2- tracked parcels/letters

3- everything else

if deliveries aren't covered then they'll get us to to 1 and 2 over our own delivery plus the vacant one even it it means we run out of time and don't finish delivering the letters on our own delivery.

[Drawweight]

Any big stuff we just used to go onto Parcel Monkey (or similar) and get the parcel picked up from the house.

Prices and company choice are there in front of you.

If the Royal Mail could do it cheaper then they’d get our business.

That’s the bottom line.

[Export56]

i posted a parcel this week, 9kg, £7 by hernes or £26 second class RM. I went for Hermes. RM are ok for small light items like a aftershave bottle, but anything bigger is a no hoper.
collection or otherwise.

[Silverage]

Speaking as a seller sending up to 100 parcels a day with Royal Mail (less than 200gms for which RM are still best for price-wise), I would rather they sort out getting the existing stuff delivered in less than a week rather than raking more stuff into the system.

It’s really gone downhill in the last couple of weeks and we’re spending ages fielding “where’s my parcel” enquiries from customers.