back to article Amazon’s Christmas queuing bonanza!

Amazon is giving the Royal Mail a leg up this Christmas by agreeing to allow folks to pick up parcels at their local post office. Just a few weeks ago, the Royal Mail said that its parcel business was being hit hard by rivals such as Amazon, and it expected more of the same over the holiday season. Now the mega-etailer has …

  1. Michael B.

    Post Office != Royal Mail

    The two entities are separate as far as I can see. The Royal Mail delivery service was the bit that was privatised but the Post Office side still remains in government ownership. So in fact this is bad news for the Private company Royal Mail but good news for the government owned Post Office network and franchised sub-post masters.

  2. Warm Braw

    OK, but...

    All the "collect from" options seem to be more expensive than having the items delivered to your front door.

    But if you don't answer your front door (or the delivery agent can't actually be bothered to come that far), you actually get the option to collect the parcel (though perhaps not from such a convenient location) at no extra charge, although someone has had to make a futile two-way journey at some expense.

    Meanwhile, the Royal Mail has squillions of empty square feet of space, mostly next to railway stations, which are no longer required for its (relatively) low-volume letter business which could potentially serve as locker/collection sites.

    Has anyone actually considered the economics of the delivery business as a whole, or do they just keep trying to optimise separate elements of it that turn out in fact to be highly inter-dependent?

    1. NotWorkAdmin

      Re: Has anyone actually considered the economics of the delivery business as a whole

      TNT have. While Royal Mail remain under charter to deliver to any UK postcode for the same price, TNT are taking all the "profitable" business to urban addresses as they have no such restriction and anyone living outside a city can use Royal Mail (the unprofitable bit).

      IMHO they should not have privatised the Royal Mail. Nor should it be run for profit (which does not mean it should be run inefficiently). A national letters/parcels service, open to everyone at a fixed reasonable price is an important aspect of a properly functioning economy for both business and the consumer.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Has anyone actually considered the economics of the delivery business as a whole

        The privatisation and the way deregulation of deliveries was structured is a fine example of doctrine winning over common sense. The only ones I can imagine benefiting are those who send junk mail out by the lorry load.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Has anyone actually considered the economics of the delivery business as a whole

        TNT are shite

        Despite the originally delivering to us themselves they no longer do so. They'd gone back to using the Royal Mail for the last mile delvery.

        The delivery now takes an extra day. so the price is 1p lower than RM but the service is worse. Pah.

    2. Anonymous Coward 101

      Re: OK, but...

      I recall hearing on the radio from an economist, just after the privatisation, who reckoned that the long term plan is to reduce the number of deliveries per week to cut costs. Ultimately, the Royal Mail was privatised so that the dirty work would get done by a private company. It had sod all to do with 'efficiency'.

  3. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face
    Pint

    great...

    The Post Office? Not known primarily for its late night opening hours. I think I'll pass.

    I'm not saying where they should be looking to deliver parcels, but there's a hint in the icon.

  4. davemcwish

    Amazon Locker

    This is a good idea in practice as my local one it's in a Co-op that has longer hours that Royal Mail. Downside is their algorithm that determine if it's suitable doesn't always work as I had to get one delivered elsewhere. When I compared the size of the box against the storage lockers that 'weren't suitable' it could clearly fit in some.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A joke surely

    Given the queues pretty much any time my local Post Office is open, this is a non starter for me. I'd far rather Amazon just went back to offering Royal Mail as a chosen delivery method rather than a random choice from the assorted list of useless planks they do use; I never thought anyone would top HDNL for failure to deliver/beating packages to a pulp, till I was allocated City Sprint. I've probably had them on 5 or 6 occasions, and not once have they actually delivered or even left a card. The first time they supposedly had three goes and claimed I was out (no card left funnily enough), and since then I've just cancelled the item after the claimed first try. The only reliable delivery firm they use is DPD, who I've had no problems with at all.

    Royal Mail and Parcel Force on the other hand have a good record if its the regular postman/driver, and if I miss it the sorting office counter usually doesn't have any queue, but they're only ever used now with Amazon third party sellers. Five or six years of this has basically cost Amazon 80 percent of my business, and most of what's left goes to third party sellers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A joke surely

      In my experience Hermes are the worst. I'd pay extra to avoid them. YMMV

      Amazon are missing a trick in not allowing you to choose your courier.

      But then Royal Mail have gone and shot themselves in the foot in my area. In the past undelivered parcels from Royal Mail and Parcel Force went to the village sub post office. It was quick and easy as it was on everyone's doorstep and it had extended opening hours.

      In a recent "service improvement", RM changed it so they went to a depot in the nearest town five miles away instead. The depot in an industrial estate, there's only three customer parking spaces and generally only one person manning the office. The depot has to serve an area of approx 100 000 people. Slow handclap for the manager who thought of that. Well done. And of course, the village post office is now under threat because they've lost half the passing trade they used to get from people picking up parcels.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A joke surely

        You do realise for the princely sum of 50p you can arrange to collect your parcel from your local post office of choice?

        Surely it costs you more than that in fuel to drive to the sorting office?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: A joke surely

          50p? Excellent. I will find out how to apply. I guess I missed the adverts (or is it one of those "beware of the leopard" type features).

          1. jonathanb Silver badge

            Re: A joke surely

            It is on the card that they put through the door without bothering to ring the bell.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A joke surely

        "Amazon are missing a trick in not allowing you to choose your courier."

        They're absolutely barking. The Amazon forums are knee deep with huge threads on deliveries, principally of complaints, and choice is probably the most commonly made suggestion. Some couriers do work well in some areas, but seemingly not in others, so choice would allow people to pick what works. But I'd guess the penny pinching way amazon have contracted this probably precludes choice, hence the lack of Royal Mail.

        I'd love to see the stats on their delivery failures, and how they think its affecting their business. I personally would be very surprised if it hasn't done real and lasting damage - they claim 97 percent of deliveries work out fine, but from my own experience and anecdotes of friends and colleagues, thats just crap. When they used Royal Mail for most things, I'd reckon 90 percent odd were delivered without problems, but from about 2008 that quickly dropped to about 70 percent requiring second attempted delivery (where I was actually in on the first 'attempt'), and well over 50 percent where the packaging was damaged to some degree, and 20 percent overall that had to be returned due to excessive damage. In the end it really wasn't worth continuing; better to pay the extra somewhere they might do it properly.

        A confirmed choice of courier that included Royal Mail would fix most of those problems and weed out the useless wankers very quickly.

  6. amarkr2000

    Looking at the opening times listed for the post office sites, it seems to reflect the retailer and not the Post Office counter within it. So it would seem you can pick your parcel up with your groceries and not among a queue of folk trying to get their pension or post a letter to their aunt in Australia.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Well...

    ..given the choice between collecting it from waiting 30 minutes at a sorting office 10 miles away, a petrol station where my card was cloned, a faceless automated machine or the miserable bastard in our Post Office, ROTM it is.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's a good reason why people don't want to collect from Post Offices. They shut at 5.30 on weekdays and 12pm on Saturday. Not open on Sundays.

    You have to wait in a queue while a series of pensioners and home businesses post about 6 letters and parcels each.

  9. Simon Williams 2

    I pretty much get everything I can sent to my local locker these days. Open til 10pm and generally it's free delivery.

    Otherwise it's a lottery as to who you get courier wise and since Yodel and Hermes both seem to think I live in a hedge 200yrds down the road I try my best to avoid them.

    Big appreciation for DPD who by far are the best courier out there, even giving me the option of collection from the depot before they try and deliver an item, which works out better all round.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And with DPD you often get a text and email telling you the hour they will be delivering so saves waiting in all day.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh dear god.....

    WHY CAN NO-ONE SEE THE LOGIC OF LATE DAY DELIVERIES?!

    I have spoken to numerous delivery drivers, and I now only use myHermes because they collect from you, deliver to you or a safe place, and it's a local driver in your area - each driver is basically a franchise and he doesn't get paid for your parcel until you've signed for it, so by god he'll get it to you somehow as quickly as possible.

    However, if they would just start delivering at 1800hrs to 2130hrs they would have a far higher success rate, no need to revisit and burn fuel.

    Surely to god that's common sense?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh dear god.....

      I've no idea what the ratio of business to consumer deliveries are, but the delivery companies still seem wedded to 'office hours' rather than anything to do with home delivery. I suppose one concession is that some now deliver on Saturdays, although they usually charge an arm and a leg for the privilege.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh dear god.....

      MyHermes do have really good tracking software so you can tell where in the process your parcel has been lost/stolen, or that it is "out for delivery"with some numptie who then doesn't deliver the damn parcel for three days! I've learned the hard way that there is no point paying for first class with Amazon because they give the parcel to myHermes who then take it on a magical mystery tour!

  11. Lee D Silver badge

    The best thing ever about my new job (apart from it being quite fabulous in many other way).

    There are office staff there nearly 24/7 who'll sign for parcels on my behalf and bring them to my office.

    Best damn concept ever, my previous place wouldn't allow it en-masse but this place has staff living on site so they can't really refuse. I've had all my Christmas shopping delivered there.

    Queuing at the Post Office is about the bottom of my choices for how to get hold of a parcel addressed to me. I've had enough of it, the incompetence, the timing ("we only deliver during working hours, and our offices are open for collection for about 30 minutes after that"), the queuing, the parking, you name it. There's a reason that Amazon designed their own collection service and hire people to drive around delivering parcels at night.

    I'd rather spend a couple of quid extra and get a courier who will deliver the parcel to my neighbours rather than just put things through my door, and who will try to deliver in the evenings and weekends rather than 9 - 5 Mon-Fri.

    Whatever happened to the "deliver parcels to the local Tube station" idea?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Boris Johnson taking a hatchet to tube staffing levels probably put paid to that idea I think.

  12. Ken Laing

    2 days before Royal Mail notified

    Seemed a clever idea, until my parcel sat in the local Post Office for 2 days before Royal Mail's tracking could tell Amazon/me it was ready to collect

    1. Vic

      Re: 2 days before Royal Mail notified

      Seemed a clever idea, until my parcel sat in the local Post Office for 2 days before Royal Mail's tracking could tell Amazon/me it was ready to collect

      I had a parcel sent to me from China. I had flight tracking numbers, and I could track it all the way into the country and into the Royal Mail depot.

      It sat there for a month. They didn't allocate it a UK tracking number, so I couldn't get any info from their web site. And if you ring them up, you just get passed around the IVR until you get told to go to the website, and the machine hangs up on you.

      My parcel sat in the depot for a month, until eventually it was returned to China as "not collected". The original Chinese tracking number was still on it, but no UK one...

      Vic.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL!

    ParcelFarce to deliver on Sundays?

    They need to figure out how to deliver first.

    Ive often been stuck with deliveries from them and found that a card got left WHEN I WAS AT HOME!

  14. Spanker

    Funnily enough one of the side effects of having a visible 3mp IP camera on my drive and gate has been the elimination of the phantom failed delivery cards.

    I watched one last month on the recording spot the camera and walk back from our street letter box and ring the gate buzzer. Shites.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Delivery Box

      I bought a steel delivery box and had it installed on the side of my path (bolted to a concrete slab)leading to my front door. It has a simple hasp&lock a child could operate.but not open when locked - there are obvious instructions It was obtained via Amazon. It is really quite secure (a cuting torch /diamond grinder could get in but a bit noisy / obvious) And there is a unique ID on tthe inside of the lid

      Can I get anyone to use it? Can I hell! Couriers / parcel post would rather deliver to my thieving neighbours (no I didn't sign for it like the courier man says & no I dont recognise Mr M Mouse's signature). Recently anything that can go through the letter box does, not a problem. But if a tiny bit bigger - I suppose they just can't see the delivery box but you just have to be Mr Magoo not to.

      I shall have to try the camera trick

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