Royal Mail users - what are you doing in December 2022?

[Karimbo]

Just wondering what everyone's plan is during the December strikes?

I'm getting emails constantly from customers who've ordered as far back as 23rd November asking where their post is.

I am spending a lot of my time just answering emails on the postal delays - I bet these customers wish they got their products from amazon now.

I have decided to make the change to go to using EVRI. For similar prices I can get full point to point tracking and if there are any delays I can simply give the tracking information to the customer and they can see for themselves.

I was fortunate enough to have items that qualify for RM large letter size, so it costs me £2.85. But EVRI are similar priced. The only issue with EVRI is they have items that are all shapes and sizes so I will need to use much more padding to protect the contets so they are not squashed during transit..

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

If you're depending on the postman to deliver your important business correspondence ect ect you would be better off talking to me. We will look after you

The only strikes we have had are the ones on UKBF

 

[Karimbo]

Thanks, we're a bit small for special courier relations. I'm going about 200 packets a month.

 

[ChronovaEng]

I know Evri has had its issues in the past but they've been pretty reliable around my area, defo more so than Royal Mail of late.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Thanks, we're a bit small for special courier relations. I'm going about 200 packets a month.

I think we have discussed this on here before I like APC

 

[lesliedocherty]

Just wondering what everyone's plan is during the December strikes?

I'm getting emails constantly from customers who've ordered as far back as 23rd November asking where their post is.

I am spending a lot of my time just answering emails on the postal delays - I bet these customers wish they got their products from amazon now.

I have decided to make the change to go to using EVRI. For similar prices I can get full point to point tracking and if there are any delays I can simply give the tracking information to the customer and they can see for themselves.

I was fortunate enough to have items that qualify for RM large letter size, so it costs me £2.85. But EVRI are similar priced. The only issue with EVRI is they have items that are all shapes and sizes so I will need to use much more padding to protect the contets so they are not squashed during transit..

Draft a good email reply, cover all the points, re strikes etc, and just copy & paste it, that is what we are doing and it works a treat,

 

[14Steve14]

Sorry if this is a bit long.

During November when RM were planning lots of strike dates, which they later cancelled, we went with Evri to deliver all of our online orders as they are the only real drop off point we have in our small town. They delivered all of our orders ranging from postable large letters to parcels. Throughout the month we sent about 300 parcels/letters. We had one parcel lost which we got a refund for, which later arrived at the customers. About 10 parcels were delayed for what ever reason, but did eventually get delivered, some 6 or 7 days late and most were next day items. Most parcels were delivered on time with some standard delivery items being delivered next day. We are still trying to chase 3 or 4 parcels which seem to be in the system somewhere, but no one really knows where.

Customers loved the tracking information which we sent to them. They loved the emails/SMS about delivery times and they loved the weekend deliveries including Sundays. We got more questions about the deliveries from customers than we did with RM, as people are kept more informed, which was a bit of hassle.

Biggest problem was contacting Evri when something went wrong, and once you do contact them you have to wait for 48 hours before you can contact them again as they usually never replied to our query. The chat is rubbish but it does get you somewhere if you keep on trying and don't give up. When we phoned they were helpful but getting though to customer services was a nightmare when getting cut off when the lines were apparently too busy after you have entered all the information they require before you can speak to someone.

If you read their T&Cs they may pay compensation for late deliveries but it takes time to fill out the forms if you can even get them sent to you. We are still awaiting forms from the beginning of the month.

Apart from that we have no serious complaints and will continue to keep offering their deliveries as an option on the website, along with the RM ones.

 

[14Steve14]

We have a warning on our shipping page that explains about possible delivery delays if selecting royal mail. Most seem to be ignoring it as so far most have selected royal ma=il options.

 

[japancool]

Evri/Hermes used to send us Paypal invoices for parcels that were overweight, which occasionally happened.

Ignored all of them. They tried chasing a couple of times then gave up.

 

[japancool]

This is worth a read:

Evri says sorry for parcel delays in run-up to Christmas

The delivery company says it's working to get orders out to customers complaining of long waits.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Karimbo]

The biggest gripe I have against using EVRI is their ridiculius cut off times for last post. after 12pm if you drop off a parcels to the parcel shop, it will stay in the parcelshop until noon the following day.

The post office are in talks to take evri parcels. Because RM have cut them out of their business with click & drop. I hope that means the post office will negotiate better cut off times than currently.

I just didn't consider them and went straight to royal mail, because often if I get orders in a 5:30pm I would pakc them up at drive down to the RM depot and hand it in myself so it gets delivered to the customer the next day. I got some really good customers reviews based on the speed of delivery/dispatch.

We're competing with amazon so we need to get things to customers next day to realistically compete.

Evri is overloaded - they are priced similar to RM 24 & RM48 and it's no surprise that the business has diverted to them.

RM prices increase above the rate of inflation as it is. If they give in to their strikers demands, they'll need to increase their prices massively to be able to pay them.

Higher prices mean even more business lost to Evri. Can't imagine striking 6 days in December is doing any good for their members' finances.

 

[Karimbo]

This is worth a read:

Evri says sorry for parcel delays in run-up to Christmas

The delivery company says it's working to get orders out to customers complaining of long waits.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reviews for couriers online are always terrible.

It's just one of those things where if you get your stuff on time, you don't think twice about them. But if your parcel is lost or delayed you go online and write scathing reviews on trust pilot, Google, forums, facebook.

The evri parcels I receive have all been pretty good, they do show up at the door at random times including Sundays. They work round the clock to get the parcels off their hands.

And so far thr ones I've sent have been delivered to thr intended customer in reasonable times.

Theyre not as good as royal mail under normal conditions, but when royal mail. Are striking 2 days a week - evri are much quicker.

Royal mail aren't even delivering special delivery orders on time now.

 

[lesliedocherty]

This came in an hour ago from DPD

Hi All,

I hope you're well.

Following on from the updates I sent last week and earlier this week, I have been advised of further updates and Network plans that we are going to put in place to ensure service levels move back to normal in the affected areas as quickly as possible. The majority of our depots are up to date and have no issues, however, there is a small proportion where the unplanned volume has been disproportionally affected, and delays are being experienced. The plans below are being implemented to ensure that these depots recover as quickly as possible.

Postcode Switch off Monday 12th December Where we are experiencing delivery delays, postcodes will be switched off temporarily to allow the affected depots to return to normal service. This will mean that shipping labels will not be able to be produced for these delivery areas whilst the switch-off is in place, but as soon as the delivery area is clear and up to date the postcode will be switched back on. Unfortunately, we are not able to share the affected postcodes at the moment because these will change constantly as areas become clear, however as a rough guide, it will be a close replication of the postcodes shown in the service Disruption link via DPD's website homepage, see below.

Customer Volume Capping - We will be applying volume caps for customers on Monday the 19th, Tuesday the 20th and Wednesday the 21st December. More information will be sent out to you directly on Monday regarding what this means for your account. We will make these caps as fair as possible to ensure minimal disruption - Please let me know if you would be interested in a collection on Saturday the 17th and/or Sunday the 18th to help reduce volume on Monday the 19th.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

The networks are at their most stressed point at this time of year
This strike is sending them more business to over load their operations

 

[japancool]

I have no sympathy for Royal Mail workers. They want to carry on doing things the same way they have for the last 100 years. Isn't going to work in today's world. I wouldn't be sorry to see letter deliveries stopped completely and force any organisations still sending them (looking at you HMRC) to move into the 21st century.

 

[simon field]

I know one of these militant posties personally. He has become SO bitter it’s like he’s consumed by it, and it’s really quite sickening to watch.

All because job & knock was ‘stolen’ off them in an effort to increase efficiency.

Tw@ts

 

[14Steve14]

The biggest gripe I have against using EVRI is their ridiculius cut off times for last post. after 12pm if you drop off a parcels to the parcel shop, it will stay in the parcelshop until noon the following day.

Evri apparently only changed their delivery collection time to 11.00am for the run up to Christmas. They should be putting them back to their normal times in the new year. We have been lucky in that the collection lorry does not get to our pickup point until about 1.30 to 2.00pm so we have a bit of leeway.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I watched a documentary about a postman with my Granddaughter last week.
He did one delivery all day and F££ked about the rest of time

 

[ecommerce84]

I watched a documentary about a postman with my Granddaughter last week.
He did one delivery all day and F££ked about the rest of time

I saw another part of that same documentary. It seems that guy even has a helicopter he can use, and he often will, for a SINGLE delivery.

The surcharge on that must be sky high.

 

[alan1302]

I have no sympathy for Royal Mail workers. They want to carry on doing things the same way they have for the last 100 years. Isn't going to work in today's world. I wouldn't be sorry to see letter deliveries stopped completely and force any organisations still sending them (looking at you HMRC) to move into the 21st century.

What about people that use the letter deliveries to deliver other items that aren't letters? Plenty of small/thin items can be sent out via the letter rate but would be too expensive to send any other way.

 

[japancool]

What about people that use the letter deliveries to deliver other items that aren't letters? Plenty of small/thin items can be sent out via the letter rate but would be too expensive to send any other way.

They could introduce a new small/flat parcel rate and deal with them in the same way. No point in having two ways of dealing with mail, that would be grossly inefficient.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I was told the biggest issue was the requirement to work a 5 days across the 7 day week, with no extra money for doing Saturdays and Sundays?

 

[simon field]

What about people that use the letter deliveries to deliver other items that aren't letters? Plenty of small/thin items can be sent out via the letter rate but would be too expensive to send any other way.

Spammers?

 

[thetiger2015]

I watched a documentary about a postman with my Granddaughter last week.
He did one delivery all day and F££ked about the rest of time

but documentary makers have a narrative and hook to get people talking. They do this a lot with benefits claimants etc. They'll cherry-pick the worst and post that up as if everyone is the same. 1 x post person being awful is not the same as thousands being awful and I think you'll struggle to find enough evidence to suggest that everyone in RM is bad at their job.

This has been decades of mis-management and selling off the family silver. How any letters get delivered at all is a mystery, as RM is run like something from the 1970s and the planned 'modernisation' is all about replacing staff with computerised systems that don't work properly. That's what people are missing. They're not modernising it into something that will actually work, they're going to make it even more useless by removing people who have experience and replacing them with automated software that has already proven it cannot handle things like complex handwriting or wonky text.

RM is also stuck in the difficult position of having to deal with vast volumes of mail that needs sorting in a variety of ways. It's far more complicated than a courier company. They have hand written addresses, the elderly coming to collect post, postcards from overseas, bucket loads of mail from China that has to be sorted and delivered. No courier company in the world has to deal with the vast complications that are involved within RM. By its very nature, it is an over complicated and vast beast that no amount of computer software can fix. It needs manual intervention across all areas. Also, unlike courier companies, they have customer service desks to man. How is the 86 year old great grandmother going to get her missing post? She cannot use the internet, she relies on speaking to a human at a desk.

RM also take on contracts that no other company can do. Delivery to the Scottish Highlands? They do that. They have to. Delivery to the Falkland Islands? They do that too.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I saw another part of that same documentary. It seems that guy even has a helicopter he can use, and he often will, for a SINGLE delivery.

The surcharge on that must be sky high.

but documentary makers have a narrative and hook to get people talking. They do this a lot with benefits claimants etc. They'll cherry-pick the worst and post that up as if everyone is the same. 1 x post person being awful is not the same as thousands being awful and I think you'll struggle to find enough evidence to suggest that everyone in RM is bad at their job.

But we both(@ecommerce84 ) watched the same documentary and came to the conclusion we are people that can not be influenced or persuaded in anyway what so ever

 

[japancool]

It's far more complicated than a courier company.

Is it? Companies like DHL and UPS handle parcels and packets from all over the world, across multiple countries. Is that less complicated than the UK postal system?

 

[Marksw76]

We're still getting the 'Where's is my parcel?' emails.

Most relating to BF and were sent out on the 28th November. Tend to avoid EVRI at all costs, sticking to RM for now, but having to send more out as Tracked 48 which is not ideal but apparently these are more likely to get delivered quickly(ish). Much of what we send is LL <100g so Tracked 48 really screws with the margins..Frustrating!

 

[DontAsk]

Evri deliveries around here are a complete s**t show. For that reason I will NEVER use Evri.

The problem is systems like this are only as good as the last mile. RM is far more consistent in that respect.

 

[LPB 123]

We're still getting the 'Where's is my parcel?' emails.

Most relating to BF and were sent out on the 28th November. Tend to avoid EVRI at all costs, sticking to RM for now, but having to send more out as Tracked 48 which is not ideal but apparently these are more likely to get delivered quickly(ish). Much of what we send is LL <100g so Tracked 48 really screws with the margins..Frustrating!

Don't expect much better from Tracked 48. They seem be processing these only some days and they don't process mail in order of when it came in to the depot. We have Tracked 48 sacks going back to 29th November with no scans.

On the 2nd, half of our sacks got delivered as normal, the other half still have no scans. On the 5th again no scans, but then 6th, 7th, all fine.

 

[LPB 123]

Evri deliveries around here are a complete s**t show. For that reason I will NEVER use Evri.

The problem is systems like this are only as good as the last mile. RM is far more consistent in that respect.

We often think about switching to Evri as they're really good around our area. But so many people say what you say, we never end up doing it.

 

[japancool]

I've had 3 enquiries today from customers who haven't received items sent out at the back end of November.

Evri's quality depends very much on the local courier, both at your end and at the customer's end.

 

[IanSuth]

I ordered a motorcycle seat from someone, they sent it Tracked48 on am of Monday 5th and arrived 30 mins ago

Lucky i didnt need it deperately

 

[HFE Signs]

The odd thing that we receive by RM we've asked the supplier to send it by courier and paid the extra, we generally do that this time of year anyway.

 

[Marksw76]

Don't expect much better from Tracked 48. They seem be processing these only some days and they don't process mail in order of when it came in to the depot. We have Tracked 48 sacks going back to 29th November with no scans.

On the 2nd, half of our sacks got delivered as normal, the other half still have no scans. On the 5th again no scans, but then 6th, 7th, all fine.

Yeh seems hit and miss for us. Orders despatched in the last two weeks were ok, the main issues seem to be with Black Friday orders despatched on 28th Nov

 

[IanSuth]

Yeh seems hit and miss for us. Orders despatched in the last two weeks were ok, the main issues seem to be with Black Friday orders despatched on 28th Nov

Guess they are running LIFO and never getting to the back of the cages where your parcels are festering

 

[simon field]

So it’s all a bit shoddy by the sound of it. Shame really, but then again nothing stays the same forever!

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Is it? Companies like DHL and UPS handle parcels and packets from all over the world, across multiple countries. Is that less complicated than the UK postal system?

Yes, but can you scribble on an envelope in the wilds of beyond, stick it in a box hung on a post and expect it to get there? They'd also be facing a completely different scenario if they had to deliver to every household for 68p...
With DPD and others you need internet access which presents you with a form that cannot be completed with incorrect post codes and subsequently prints a nice readable tracking label. Within 75 yards of my house there are 4 households that I know of that do not use the internet.

Royal Mail have apparently invested in 'What 3 Words' location software which, if it works well should give them an edge in the market.........providing they have the staff to deliver!

 

[japancool]

They'd also be facing a completely different scenario if they had to deliver to every household for 68p...

Which is why letter deliveries should stop.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Which is why letter deliveries should stop.

In favour of what?

 

[thetiger2015]

Which is why letter deliveries should stop.

Letters...important court documents...contracts that need signing, all delivered by the wonderful Royal Mail at a fraction of the price of other commercial profit making couriers!

We should be proud of RM, we should be demanding better conditions and improved infrastructure. It was paid for and built by the tax payers, the sods have cut it up and sold off the juicy bits to their mates. Just like they're doing with the NHS. We pay for it all and they sell it for a fat profit for themselves.