RM needs to work on convenience for ecommerce shoppers

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail needs to work on convenience for e-commerce shoppers

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I missed a delivery on Friday. Nothing unusual there. A very significant number of first time deliveries don’t work out and it’s a great cost and concern to carriers.

It’s certainly at least one reason why so much time and effort is being is being directed at giving the recipient more control on how they get the goods by many in the indutry.

imageWhether it’s Click & Collect (which eBay itself is expanding with Argos for business sellers), dropshops and lockers, better info regarding tracking for buyers so they can be in or Saturday and Sunday deliveries… the new services we’re seeing are many. It’s quite astonishing the number of innovations we’ve been seeing in the last few months.

Delivery is making leaps and bounds forward and not before time. I think that the key for ecommerce sellers is going to be about giving buyers choice.

My missed delivery was by Royal Mail and it strikes me that they are not keeping pace with some of the other players when it comes to cashing in on the revolution in ecommerce delivery.

Firstly, they are wedded to the last mile. I really don’t see I can’t opt to have my Royal Mail parcels held at the depot when I know I shan’t be in. It would save them time and money and I could opt to come by at a time convenient to me.

And they have so many premises that lockers should also be a part of the mix. It makes much more sense than them coming by to deliver when I know I shan’t be in.

And then once a delivery has failed, the service they provide is far from 21st century. The picture above shows the times I can stop by to pick up my parcel at my local Royal Mail depot.

On only one day a week can I stop by after 2pm. That’s just crazy. Here’s hoping that privatisation will mean Royal Mail looks again at these rules to make collection more convenient.

They will find it to their competitive advantage.

[music4essex]

Firstly, they are wedded to the last mile. I really don’t see I can’t opt to have my Royal Mail parcels held at the depot when I know I shan’t be in. It would save them time and money and I could opt to come by at a time convenient to me.

And they have so many premises that lockers should also be a part of the mix. It makes much more sense than them coming by to deliver when I know I shan’t be in.

And then once a delivery has failed, the service they provide is far from 21st century. The picture above shows the times I can stop by to pick up my parcel at my local Royal Mail depot.

On only one day a week can I stop by after 2pm. That’s just crazy. Here’s hoping that privatisation will mean Royal Mail looks again at these rules to make collection more convenient.

I always thought that some delivery offices could be better utilised in folks picking there parcels up later , but in our office we only have 1 day a week that stays open till 8 , Why royal mail cannot turn some delivery offices in to parcel storage , they just don't seem to be looking forward , more like chasing

Essex mum

[Darren Bent]

Parcels Collection need to be open longer I agreed. But locker for parcels is not doable I mean where they will have space for say 50,000 houses with 100 X 500 houses walks.

I think it is time for to promote postal lockers outside houses to allow say Postman to scan the locker, and open the locker and put it in the locker and then close the locker and it can't be opened without key/or whatever.

[Jefferson Starfish]

I think it is time for to promote postal lockers outside houses to allow say Postman to scan the locker, and open the locker and put it in the locker and then close the locker and it can't be opened without key/or whatever.

On a walk I cover occasionally, one house has something similar to this, and it's excellent.


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[interesting]

One of those on my area , very useful
Just I never get many packets for them

[datasaint]

Shop space is cheap nowadays with the internet taking business away, a RM styled store in most high streets with parcel lockers is clearly the answer. There's no reason for it even to be staffed run it 24/7 with CCTV, city gyms do it.

[subbie]

You can have a packet drop off/pick up point in just about every Sub Post Office in the UK, that's getting on for 11,000 outlets this dwarfs the competition, but Royal Mail and POL need to understand that they have to pay a fair price to the Postmaster in order to allow him/her to provide such a service, its not rocket science the solution is staring RM in the face and can be their salvation once they grasp the concept of paying market rates to honest small business owners.

Subbie

[Sidley]

What would be a worthwhile amount for letting a punter pick up a parcel from a p.o. Subbie?
How much, if any, do you get of the current £1 that RM charge punters?

Would p.o.s be able to stay open any later to allow folks to pick up stuff after work?

[Gold Fox]

Extend opening hours for Callers Offices i-e saturday till 5 or 6 pm and Friday closing at 8pm too ( just like Wednesday).

[subbie]

44p Sidley.

The £1 should be paid to the Postmaster, we might stand a chance then of covering costs to stay open longer.

Subbie

[POSTMAN]

44p Sidley.

The £1 should be paid to the Postmaster, we might stand a chance then of covering costs to stay open longer.

Subbie

Why should you get the whole pound?
It costs us money to get it to you ect

Not going into the do you make a living ect but 44p in my tiny brain opinion is a good rate.

[Sidley]

44p per parcel doesn't seem much in comparison to let's say... The profit on a large bar of chocolate?
44p for something that could in theory take up a whole shelf or a good lump of floor space for days and all the potential attendant hassles? Doesn't seem a lot to me tbh.

[Gold Fox]

Re-deliver on call .... couple of drivers should be on hand to re-deliver to customers who asked the items to be delivered on demand ( by phone or CLIO ) ... same day re-redelivery on customers demands and on time. That would be excellent " service" by RM.

[chrisj]

Missed a parcel? Big deal!

Customers, the e-commerce industry and the rest of the world need to take a chill-pill...

The only best point in the post is the need for Couriers including RM to allow customers to pick up a parcel at the DO with a simple text, email or others without the need for posties/couriers to make any attempt at delivering in the first place.

I also agree with longer opening times but only in bigger DOs or Cities and others should go to longer opening times for Wednesday and Saturdays and earlier opening times in some cases for people that are on the way to work; that allied with the text/email informing them that their parcel is ready for collection.

At the end of the day - the clamour for this rapid delivery is false because the businesses that send out items cannot often guarantee immediate dispatch themselves - some giving up to 2 weeks or even 28 days to receive an item - so what is 1 day extra?

[Deadly]

Re-deliver on call .... couple of drivers should be on hand to re-deliver to customers who asked the items to be delivered on demand ( by phone or CLIO ) ... same day re-redelivery on customers demands and on time. That would be excellent " service" by RM.

This would never happen unfortunately as Royal Mail don't like the idea of "spare" drivers as they can sometimes be sat around with nothing to do. Going back a few years we would have spare drivers ready to cover sickness or adhoc business collections. Unfortunately they weren't always busy and management didn't like seeing them sunning themselves outside in quiet periods

So now the spare drivers have gone and the same managers are left pulling out what little hair they have when trying to cover the work.