PayPoint and Royal Mail announced a new partnership for parcel services, pick up and drop off.
Royal Mail customers can now drop off parcels at 5,000 Collect+ stores across the UK.
Nick Wiles, CEO of PayPoint, says: “As consumer channel shift continues to move towards Out of Home (OOH), our fantastic retailer partners will now have an even greater opportunity to serve the needs of their customers in communities across the UK through our leading OOH network.”
Flexible parcel solutions
The new partnership is a part of the Royal Mail’s objective to expand its OOH reach and local network.
Martin Seidenberg, group chief executive of International Distributions Services (formally Royal Mail Limited), says: “This partnership is an important part of Royal Mail’s strategy to make our services even more convenient for customers and to expand our Out of Home offering to provide additional locations for our customers to use our services.”
Royal Mail has already opened up several ways for customers to access its services, such as more online postage options through our website and app, 24/7 drop off at locations like parcel post boxes, and collection from home through Royal Mail Parcel Collect.
Last year the company teamed up with DPD and Evri to give customers more choice when it comes to parcel delivery. Post office customers can walk up to a counter in select branches and send their parcels with DPD or Evri, depending on which carrier best suits their needs.
Also Read: How last-mile delivery took a different spin in 2023
Reform to customers’ needs
In January, Locate2u reported that watchdog Ofcom released a report investigating Royal Mail’s performance, and suggesting it cuts down delivery days.
The company found itself in hot water last year after it was fined £5.6 million for failing to reach delivery targets.
In MoneySavingExpert.com’s 2024 delivery poll, Royal Mail ranked fifth. Voters in the poll were asked to rate their delivery experience when using several courier providers. Royal Mail’s scores were:
- 41% – “great”
- 39% – “okay”
- 20% – “poor”.
DPD came out triumphant in the poll with a 55% score for “great” in terms of service delivery.
Modernizing parcel services
We see several global initiatives where parcel carriers are adapting to the changing times and modernizing their service offering.
In countries like Australia, its postal service Australia Post (AusPost) launched an automatic parcel locker service. A missed delivery parcel will be placed in a free 24/7 parcel locker within one kilometer of the customer’s address.
UK postal service market
Mordor Intelligence reports the UK postal service market is estimated to achieve good growth in the next five years. “The United Kingdom courier, express, and parcel (CEP) market is growing with the increasing number of same-day delivery transactions.
Due to the powerful digital trends driving the market, the United Kingdom and Italy have been the fastest-growing markets in the European region. The key market players are continuously reinventing the post and parcel industry with technology-driven innovations.”
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About the author
Sharl is a qualified journalist. He has over 10 years’ experience in the media industry, including positions as an editor of a magazine and Business Editor of a daily newspaper. Sharl also has experience in logistics specifically operations, where he worked with global food aid organisations distributing food into Africa. Sharl enjoys writing business stories and human interest pieces.
