UK staff cost their firms £80m by mailing personal packages

British companies are paying out more than £80m in postage for their employees to send personal packages from their office mail rooms according to a new survey. The poll of 2,000 UK adults was carried out by OnePoll on behalf of package delivery company Collect+, finding that almost a third use company mail rooms to avoid queues at their local post office.

It found that one in 10 employees were sending 10 parcels or more each year at their company’s expense.

Some 15% of those asked also admitted to having their own personal parcels delivered to their work address, rather than their personal address.

Collect+, a joint venture company with parcel delivery company Yodel, commissioned the study to highlight the availability of its own network of parcel collection points at local convenience stores across the UK.

The £80m figure from the study was based on estimates using a £3-per-parcel cost basis.

Milestone

Collect+, which has its head office in Watford, Hertfordshire, has just opened its 4,000th outlet, at a store in Alloa, Scotland.

Mark Lewis, CEO at Collect+, said: “For many working people, Post Office opening hours just aren’t convenient and the idea of joining an ever longer queue as the number of post offices is reduced isn’t anyone’s idea of a fun lunch hour.

“With the huge growth in popularity of online shopping and the ease with which items can be purchased, people are also demanding greater convenience in how their parcels are delivered and returned,” Lewis added.

Collect+ said opening its 4,000th outlet was an “important milestone” for the company, which works with Yodel to allow customers to send and receive parcels, as well as return unwanted goods to retailers, through local retailers that are part of the PayPoint network.

The stores have longer opening hours than post offices, and almost all of them are open seven days a week.

Collect+ says 80% of the UK population now live within a mile of one of its collection points.

Jahan Tayyab, manager of the Menteith Mini Market in Alloa, the 4,000th store on the Collect+ network, said: “Becoming the 4,000th corner shop in the Collect+ network is a really exciting prospect for us and we’re looking forward to offering the local community a parcel service that meets the needs of their busy lives. It’s also a great opportunity to attract more customers through the door and diversify the products and services we can give them.”