Royal Mail Sunday opening starts this weekend

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Manchester South DO customer service point entrance exteriorRoyal Mail are to run a pilot of deliveries within the M25 on Sunday starting this weekend, the 7th September. At the same time they will open 100 delivery office across the country between noon and 4pm allowing customers to collect their post on a day when much of the country is off work.

The moves are designed to make life easier for ecommerce shoppers not at home during the day to collect their parcels. The longer opening hours are starting at delivery offices with the highest parcel volumes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, extending opening times to seven days a week.

Almost half of Royal Mail’s UK network of around 1,400 delivery offices already opens later on a Wednesday evening to enable people to collect items that could not be delivered because no one was at home when delivery was attempted.

Last month, Royal Mail announced it is to make its Local Collect ‘click and collect’ service with Post Offices available to its 20,000 SME contract customers. This will enable many of the UK’s leading small and medium size online businesses to offer shoppers the option of collection from any of 10,500 Post Office branches. By teaming up with Post Office to offer the UK’s largest click and collect service, Royal Mail is enabling shoppers to have greater control over the delivery of their items.

1,600 Post Office branches are also now open on a Sunday, although many have limited services – I can’t actually collect or post parcels at my local branch on a Sunday as it’s a service at the shop’s retail counter, so check before you turn up. However my Post Office is open for longer hours than my local Royal Mail delivery office so is still much more convenient.

Royal Mail HomeRoyal Mail has also rolled out its Delivery to Neighbour initiative across the UK. This followed a trial of the initiative which found that customers welcomed the convenience of items being delivered to a neighbouring address if no one was at home to receive them. Customers not at home when delivery is attempted can also arrange a free redelivery to their home or a neighbour via www.royalmail.com/redelivery

These changes are part of an on-going programme by Royal Mail to be more customer responsive and provide more options for people to receive items they have ordered online. In June Parcelforce also launched a Sunday delivery service for online shoppers through participating etailers. The service is available to contract customers across the UK.

Royal Mail Delivery Offices opening on Sundays

Altens Exeter Norwich
Basildon Glaisdale Parkway Nottingham City
Bath Glasgow (G11 & G12) Nottingham South
Battersea Glasgow (G41, G42 & G5) Oldham
Belfast South & Central Grays Orton Southgate
Birch Park Grimsby Portsmouth
Blackburn Halifax Preston Central
Blackpool Harrow Reading
Bolton North Hartlepool Sheffield South East
Bridgend Hemel Hempstead Sheffield North
Brighton Hull City Shirley (SO)
Bristol South East Ilford Sittingbourne
Cambridge Inverness St Albans
Canterbury Islington Stevenage
Cardiff Kingston & Surbiton Stockport Central
Cheltenham Lancaster Stockton on Tees
Chester Lincoln Stoke Hanley
Chorley Londonderry Stoke Newington
Coventry North Luton Sunderland
Coventry South Manchester Tonbridge
Croydon Manchester North West Uxbridge
Dagenham Manchester South Walthamstow
Darlington Margate Warrington
Derby Town & Provincial Mastrick Watford (WD)
Dudley Middlesbrough West Park
Dundee (DD4 & DD5) Moseley Weston Super Mare
East Oxford Newcastle upon Tyne Whitechapel (E1)
Eastbourne North Tyneside Wigan
Edinburgh West South Shields Wolverhampton
Enfield Northampton Wrexham
York Central

Royal Mail are finalising arrangements for further offices to join the pilot. This will take the final number of delivery offices taking part in the pilot to around 100.

5 Responses

  1. Nice to see privatization is leading to some sensible decisions coming out of Royal Mail – indeed the ability to make the decisions.

  2. I think they should run a ‘pilot scheme’ on getting signatures for Signed for products. Its fraudulent to take the money and knowingly not provide the service. And they do know – I must remind them about twice a month.

  3. My local post office was advertised as being open on Sunday until 12pm. I received an email a couple of weeks ago. I went to Londis in Dunston Gateshead this Sunday morning 7/9/14 to be told by the shop keeper “there was no point opening because nobody uses it. There is no collection on a Sunday. Come back on Monday” It has only been in place for one week. Give it a chance! Hopeless service will fall flat on it’s face if that is the attitude of the counters run by shop keepers. NOT IMPRESSED

  4. Finally, I’ve been saying this for years. Why did nobody setup a post office before thats only open in out-of-hours work time, like in the evening so people that have 9-5 jobs can get there posting (amongst other things, like car tax) done without having to rush around on a Saturday?

    On a related note, I realised recently that my local post office opens till 6pm in the evening 🙂

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