Royal Mail and online deliveries - why can't they cope?

We had a negative review come through on our directory, but unfortunately we can't let it go live until our new super duper system goes live next month.

But it's such a good review, and asks such a good question, I thought I'd put it here:

"Royal Mail Delivery Office

Royal Mail have failed so dismally to respond to the increased volume in parcel collection which accompanies the advent of internet shopping.There is no attempt to accommodate the large numbers of waiting public who are forced to queue in the elements for up to 20 minutes at a time-wind,rain and snow. Mothers,babies and elderly all grimly enduring this miserable experience, just to pick up their parcels. Sometimes there is only one member of staff on duty, desperately failing to keep up.

NO WONDER they have suspended the negative reviews on this site-they must have been inundated with complaints. (ahem, edit steve - yep we've had a few) I can't see any attempt to address this truly awful situation.

Royal Mail what are you going to do to improve this??????"


As online sales increase each year, I suspect this issue will only get worse. I remember queuing up at the Delivery office in the car park, only to try again later but the office closed at dinnertime!

Age old cost and resource argument, and who foots the bill I suppose, but it looks like the infrastructure is well and truly crumbling

Do you agree, or do you think it's an unfair pop at RM?

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cheers Steve
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Yes and No i.e. fair.

Take a letter for example: you can send something for a few pence from one end of the country to another in one day. That is not feasible in other business. Yet we (the royal we) moan every time the price is put up. I think the last set of research shows that the RM were losing 4 or 5p on every letter sent.

Parcels; the RM were basically forced to work a certain way for many years and when allowed to start doing things differently the costs were way out of their budgets. That forced them to make major cuts to the workforce. That in turn means it cannot act like UPS and the like.

Now, if they were to completely scale down, cut services that are not making money, such as deliveries to remote locations and second class post etc. and concentrate on one delivery on a 48 hour turnaround, and a separate parcel delivery service they may have a chance to compete.

My old man was a manager at a sorting office for 26 years. He was all but forced to retire almost two years ago at the age of 58. Since then the particular office has lost over half the staff and the posties are no longer allowed to leave the office before a certain time in the morning which means people get their post later in the day (the change was because of complaints about them being too early and making noise. Their biggest complaint is now deliveries being late!! - are we too fickle?).

Perhaps we need to be realistic that the current company is unable to cope with the demands we thrown upon it? but then we have always been a country with high demands :-)

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Credit Management Consultants
Collection of Overdue Invoices

Interesting points, and your right, I can't imagine any other company being able to put up a fixed price for mail, from Lands End to Aberdeen.

A separate parcel delivery service that is commercial and competitive seems to be a way forward.

Still, it will be privatised soon, so up goes the mail charges, and we will prob soon be reminiscing about the good old days...

BBC News - MPs approve plans for Royal Mail privatisation

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cheers Steve
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I like Royal Mail. I really do.

It simultaneously has the wide strokes to get from one end of the country to the other, and the fine detail to do a daily delivery to every front door in the country.

I don't recognise your reviewer's comment of vulnerable people queueing in the elements. If I order a package from, say, CityLink (other similar providers are the same story) and I don't make it to the front door in the few seconds between hearing the van pull up, and them dropping the "sorry you were out" card through my letterbox and hopping back into the van and away (they are allergic to doorbells), then I have to find a way to travel to a depot some 20-50 miles away from my house, on a godforsaken industrial estate that is not near any public transport routes, to get my package. For Royal Mail, not only does my postie know what a doorbell is for, if I am out when he calls, I have options. I can arrange for it to be redelivered on a day to suit me, or taken to the Post Office nearest to my house (under a mile away) for me to collect, or I can collect it from the main sorting office in the town centre 3 miles away. I don't see any other provider managing to offer that level of service or convenience.

I also think RM are often used as an excuse. How many times has someone told us (or have we told someone else) "oh, I posted your cheque/birthday card/paperwork/whatever, it must have been held up in the post, bloody Royal Mail," and how many times is it actually true?

I used to work for an online shop sending out hundreds of packages every day, mostly by Royal Mail First Class. I'd say even at our busiest times there were only three or four customers a week phoning up to ask where their packages were, or to complain that their package had been damaged. That's not a bad margin of error at all. But of course we only talk about Royal Mail the handful of times each year when something goes wrong. We never mention it when it functions perfectly, because we take it for granted.

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What is so difficult to comprehend about people standing queuing outside the collection depot for 20 mins at a time? Perhaps they would like their mail within 48 hrs of it unfortunately being unable to be delivered. We are advised not to collect before that time but more importantly is the fact we are outside like cattle. Our large PO has a rail and post system to maximise the n.o customers in a given space but it is also lovely and warm and inside.Our depot has no system.
I work 6 days a week so it is impossible to catch the mail. It costs £1 to have it delivered to a local PO which I also cannot get to before it closes anyway. What should I do?

Hi Lily, glad to have you aboard, and join the debate

I am curious though, why is it impossible to catch the mail? Do you mean you are working away from home/office for 6 days?

In that case how about using a mail drop address at a local serviced office? I know a lot of these do that these days, so you can use them as your business address, and they'll take mail, sign on your behalf etc.

Just a thought..

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