I bet some of you will have discovered similar labels on your local post box recently. I saw this label today. We reported that there would be changes to post box collections coming soon and we weren’t that alarmed or annoyed. Here’s the post we made a few weeks back.
Interestingly, looking at the communiques that the boxes are now making, I feel slightly misled, compared to what was said some weeks ago.
The basic story is this: Royal Mail want to cut back on the collections they make to post boxes. And obviously that makes a lot of sense because it’s a massive network and collecting from all those post boxes costs money. And we know that letter volumes are right down. The new idea is that posties doing their delivery rounds will also collect the mail. That meant, according to PR releases that the last collection would be before 3pm in practice.
Take a look at the label: now it’s being said that the collection won’t be before 9am. Or 7am on a Saturday. For an ecommerce seller that does use a post box (and that won’t be more than a very small minority), that will likely mean another day on the despatch time. Not good for defects.
As I understand it, this has already been agreed with the unions. This may not be a massive bind to the average ecommerce seller but it is the thin end of a wedge.
One Response
I post all my stuff via the local post box. Having said that, often I miss the last post anyway (because I work during the day) so actually it won’t make much difference. But for urgent stuff I guess I’ll just have to get my finger out and go down the post office!