Royal Mail extends delivery office opening hours
Royal Mail is adding almost a quarter of a million extra hours a year to the opening times of its busiest UK delivery offices. The move is aimed at making it easier for people to receive items they have ordered online or from a catalogue.
The £2.6m investment will see the hours of around 650 delivery offices – almost half of Royal Mail’s UK-wide network of 1,400 sites – extended to 8pm on Wednesday evenings and 2pm on Saturdays to make the collection of items even more convenient for people who are not at home during the day.
Today (Wednesday 14 July), more than 200 delivery offices will open their doors until 8pm and around 350 offices will join the programme later in the summer. This follows a successful trial at 100 delivery offices in May.
Mike Brown, Royal Mail’s fulfilment director, said: “The majority of items ordered online are delivered first time but this investment by Royal Mail will help people who are not at home during the day to receive their item in cases where it is too big to go through the letterbox or needs a signature.
“With online sales continuing to grow, this initiative demonstrates our determination to develop products and services that help both retailers and their customers have greater choice and control over the delivery of items.”
The investment in extended opening hours builds on the choices already available to people who are not at home when delivery is attempted.
Customers can arrange a redelivery to their home or a neighbour via www.royalmail.com/redelivery or ask for items to be taken to a Post Office® branch, through a service called Local Collect.
Royal Mail Tracked, a new service recently launched by Royal Mail, also enables retailers to give their shoppers the ability to specify an alternative safe and secure delivery point, such as a porch or neighbour, should they not be at home when delivery was attempted.
David Smith, managing director of IMRG, the industry body for online retailing, said: “As a result of the close partnership between Royal Mail and the online retail industry, shoppers now have more control over the delivery of their items than ever before.
“More than half the UK adult population now shops online and this latest initiative provides even greater choice and convenience for them. It will help support even greater satisfaction levels and deliver an even more positive online shopping experience consumers.”
Commenting on the extension of Royal Mail opening hours, Clare Gilmartin, managing director of eBay UK, said: “Flexible delivery options are hugely important to the digital economy as more and more people choose to shop online or via a mobile shopping app for the convenience it provides.
“Online businesses equally rely on dependable and flexible delivery services to maintain a good reputation and retain the loyalty of customers. The majority of the 140,000 businesses that sell via eBay use Royal Mail as their delivery provider and the extended opening hours announced today will be welcomed by the small and medium sized online business community.”
