Hermes, the consumer delivery specialist, has announced that its myHermes Parcelshop network has handled its 1,000,000th parcel less than 9 months after the service was launched. It follows a strong Christmas period, which saw each ParcelShop handle on average 60 parcels per week in December, equating to more than 250,000 items during the month.
I have to say I’m not surprised – Sadly since the Royal Mail price and format changes I’ve heard a lot of talk about myHermes and seen more of my eBay purchases arriving using their service.
Nizam Patel from the BP Riverside Service Station in Leeds, which handled the millionth parcel, commented: “We have seen a substantial increase in parcel volumes over the last few months as people recognise the simplicity and affordability of myHermes ParcelShop. It is not only providing a valued and alternative delivery service to the local community, but also driving added footfall in store.”
The service was initially launched with 500 myHermes ParcelShops across the UK but there are now over 1,500 in local convenience stores such as Spa, Nisa, Premier and Co-op as well as local independents, in major urban locations that have been specially selected based on population density and online demand.
The network will be increased to 3,000 locations by the end of the year along with the introduction of outbound services as part of Hermes’ commitment to enabling its retail clients to offer their customers the most flexible and convenient range of delivery solutions on the market. In the first phase they provide a drop off service for people who want to return goods they have purchased online. This has helped retailers to address the difficult area of returns providing a quicker, simpler and more efficient option to their customers and giving them an alternative to the current courier collection option.
The myHermes ParcelShops are also proving extremely popular with small businesses, niche online retailers, eBay sellers and anyone who wants to post a parcel and who doesn’t want to take time out from their busy day to stand in a queue at the Post Office. Each store offers extended opening hours, typically 8 until 8, making it easier for people with busy lifestyles. Parcels are delivered on a 2 day service), making it a comparable service with Royal Mail (2nd class) but cheaper (over 1kg) and fully tracked, for no extra cost.
Rob Edson CFO of Hermes commented: “myHermes ParcelShop is running well ahead of expectations and we have just achieved weekly parcel volumes of more than 100,000 for the first time. We are forecasting that our 2 millionth parcel should take less than 4 months from now, as retailers and consumers enjoy the benefits of this convenient and cost effective service.”
8 Responses
Handled 1,000,000
Delivered, 816,911
It is customer returns that are the issue with the Royal Mail price changes. I worry about customers catching on to the fact that in most cases it is no longer viable to refund return postage so they get a refund without return. When it is not our fault and return postage is the buyer’s responsibility the cost of returning an item that a buyer doesn’t like is, I fear, going to lead to resentment and the resulting poor feedback.
Regarding Hermes, I would not trust our business reputation to them again, late deliveries, lost parcels and inaccurate tracking were our experience when we tried them.
average 60 parcels per week in December, equating to more than 250,000 items during the month.’
I guess that is meant to be 60,000
Tonight on Channel 4 Dispatches programme all those who send their goods by UK Mail can watch their parcels being dropped, thrown, and kicked by the Staff at the UK Mail Plant in Bournemouth.
Its another of those Undercover Reporter films showing what actually happens behind the scenes. I will be watching and probably being very smug because I have never sent anything by UK Mail(although it is likely that I have received goods through them). This programme is specifically UK Mail but of course there is no guarantee that similar actions are not happening behind the scenes in other delivery companies, indeed even behind the scenes of Royal Mail.
We all have to package on the assumption that this “Ronaldo wanabee” treatment is universal. Old news for sellers. The real issue is it may put off buyers from buying online so is this programme sponsored by Mary Portas? It will be amusing if Amazon sponsorship bookends the programme chunks. The fact is even Royal Mail state that packaging must be designed to handle a drop from 1m. How many are aware of this?
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HERMES:
We sent a long parcel [1200mm] with them recently & received a neg for the condition of the packet when it arrived.
Apparently ‘according to the buyer’ it arrived with lots of holes in the packing….the item inside was perfect.
The buyer was not very helpful & blamed us, although a courier Co would not accept a packet in the condition she described. She paid £6 P&P and blamed us.
We tried to explain that although the packet was damaged in transit, it had done it’s job properly, as the contents were still OK.
Ebay refused to amend or remove the feedback…
Many years ago in a previous life I was Group Internal Auditor of a Company. I had to Audit a particular Subsidiary. My report was so adverse(they well deserved it) that on the strength of my report every single employee(except one and he had only started work the week before and Management decided that he had not been there long enough to get involved in all the fiddles and corruption while my attitude was that he had been employed because he was most likely to get involved).
The reason why the subsidiary was riddled with fiddles and corruption was simple. Nobody from Management(even those who were paid a percentage of their income to manage the subsidiary had done anything to manage it in years so leaving it to get on with its corrupt ways.
The employees of UK Mail in this programme are all total idiots and deserve to get the sack. But the real reason is probably that the UK Mail at their Bournemouth Depot is total garbage. No doubt the Management will get away with being total garbage while the employees concerned will be sacked in the morning(if they have not already been sacked).
This programme and others like it could be a part of the reported downturn in ecomerce sales recently. After all who is going to pay for goods that arrive damaged or broken because idiots have been kicking them around?
In answer to the points about packaging. We cannot afford to pack every parcel in Armour Plate. There has to be a limit on the amount of packing we use. After all it is total bonkers to send a £10 Book out in £25 worth of packing. The customer would never agree to pay for it and I know that it makes no economic sense to me.
But is it a new thing? Many years ago a friend told me that he had received a consignment where it looked as if the forks of a fork lift truck had been thrust through the middle of his box. This was probably 20 years ago.