For just 72p, Royal Mail will now collect a parcel from home in what’s going to shake up the entire industry and, in this pandemic winter, is going to be hugely welcomed by large numbers of people wanting to send gifts to their loved ones. Why go out face-masked up to the Post Office when your friendly local Postie will pick up your parcel while doing their rounds and for many the 72p per parcel charge will be less than the cost of petrol and parking to get to their local Post Office anyway.
Royal Mail Parcel Collect will see Posties able to collect parcels as well as deliver them on their daily round. It is one of the biggest changes to the daily delivery since the launch of the postbox in 1852. Under the ground-breaking initiative, postmen and postwomen will collect a parcel from the customer’s door or nominated safe place for 72p per parcel, in addition to postage costs. Parcel Collect is also available for pre-paid return items at a cost of 60p per item.
Royal Mail Parcel Collect can pick-up up to five parcels per address per day and is available six days a week. You can book up to five days in advance and up to midnight the day before. This will be a great service for casual marketplace sellers, but if you’re a professional seller likely to send more than five parcels per day then you’ll still need to arrange a regular Royal Mail collection.
In order to use the service, you simply need to have already paid the correct postage to send your item. If an item does not have pre-paid postage such as a return, you can pay for their postage online at royalmail.com/bookcollection or via the Royal Mail app and opt for ‘Parcel Collect’. You can then work out the correct cost of postage for your item and print out a pre-paid label to stick to the package. When the item gets collected, you will receive an email notification that acts as proof of postage.
This nationwide launch follows an initial roll-out of Parcel Collect in certain postcode areas of West England which ran in September.
“I used Royal Mail’s Parcel Collect during the initial roll-out of the service in Bristol. The service was really easy to use, and it was a convenient way to send a gift to my aunt, particularly as I have a new baby so time is precious! I will be using Parcel Collect again in the future to send parcels in the post.”
– Claire Roebuck-Sacks, Mum, Bristol
For many, this is a brilliant service – who hasn’t asked their Postie if they could take a letter for them rather than run to the pillar box? Well now you can and the only people who are likely to be upset will be the Post Office who will miss out on some business. As a plus point however, you can buy Tracked24 and Tracked48 online with Royal Mail Parcel Collect and these services weren’t available at the Post Office (The Post Office can’t even accept these services if you pre-pay online as their Horizon system won’t scan the bar codes!).
“Royal Mail Parcel Collect is a fantastic step forward for all of our customers. It makes it easier to use our services than ever before. Whether you’re up against time and working from home, making a return, selling online or sending a gift to make someone’s day, Royal Mail Parcel Collect is here to help. The launch of Parcel Collect is part of our commitment to continuously make our services better and more convenient.”
– Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer, Royal Mail
24 Responses
so extra work for the posties, more time taken etc etc plus covid problems
hope this works , though we wonder if this has been properly thought thru
@victor
True say, seems like they struggling already.
A Postie myself, I think this is a good move to keep us competitive. With the decline in letters we have to think outside of the box. In a meeting about this we were told its not going to be hundreds of packets to pick up- 3 or 4 each day and not very large parcels, so doable- although it’s a funny time to bring this in with oncoming Christmas and some of us not van sharing at this point.
Royal Mail really just need more posties, full time or part time. It shows that we are short, they’ve cut staff and hours over the years so of course now we are at the point where if someone is off, it throws the whole thing into chaos, rounds not going out, tracked items only.
On your 1 in 4 or 6 weekend off you return to work only to find your job wasn’t covered because of staffing – so your day off only leads to taking two sometimes three days of mail out in the one.
I’ve said this before, we aren’t like the other courier companies – we still are doing the letters walking which is completely different. You can’t time it effectively, you are in and out of every garden and drive sometimes for one letter but it takes the same time as if there were a bunch of letters. I can see them reducing the days that letters go out.
Apparently customers want there mail later in the day (? Not anyone businesses or households I’ve talked to- households tend to be out in the afternoons, school runs etc. ) I feel bosses only listen to there own chat and don’t consider the customer or the posties feedback. Why not be a competitive early service?
There’s are changes to be made but I think they also forget that some of the old ways were best too.
How do they roll this out and not integrate it into Click and Drop? Unless I’m missing something, there’s no option of collection. Talk about an oversight.
Thank you once again to Tamebay for giving out this excellent news. Royal Mail themselves are not great at communicating. My business will definitely be trying this new service out and well done to everyone who has made it happen. I have been saying they need to do this for a long time. The whingeing from one or two “posties” above is depressing, but there are other hard-working posties who have a can-do attitude. Hopefully with changes like this, it is how Royal Mail modernises and competes.
72p per parcel charge when the postage has been paid , when the posties already delivering on the round is a bit rich
Especially when my hermes is often cheaper
This is going to help no end of people, it’s a great solution and if there’s enough space in those little red vans and the posties are doing the round anyway could be good for them. You’ve got to admit the old RM is getting pretty doddery, it’s time some new life was injected in!
Think of the extra revenue royal mail might gain
If they simply collected for free ,
Rather than be extra more expensive than hermes
I was talking about this in the local post office yesterday, and they see it as another nail in the coffin for post offices.
Click and drop – no option to claim when there is no scan. We pay for RM 48 and 24, some posties just can’t do that correct every item should be scanned. Yet RM own system shows non scan, and we have to put claims in that always get lost ignored.
Iron out all the problems before offering another service,
Let’s see how this goes.
Our local postman visits at around 10.30 each day to drop off mail. Our shop cut off time is 12.30. So would Royal Mail send another vehicle to collect sometime after 12.30?
If not, and it the post is collected the next day then Ebay would penalise sellers for late dispatch.
What a joke.
we have used royal mail for years and nevber have we seen such a poor service. Post is scanned at the depot to say delivered. Post is scanned as they walk to the house only to find they are out and they take it back. No cards are left the online system just says delivered it could mean anywhere. Customers are getting wise to the fact they provide nothing and therefore claims are through the roof. Items are taking days to get to the delivery point. Items are taking over 12 hours to get to their first scan just 60 miles away meaning we keep falling below our Prime shipping targets and having the prime badge removed.
Everytime we ring about an issue they rattle out the usual Covid 19 staff shortages and lockdowns rubbish.
So i wonder how they will cope with collections. Maybe you will book a tuedasy collection and they will show up wednesday or thursday then blamne Covid i dont think it will matter because then it will be delayed on the rest of its journey
About time they moved in the present rather than complain about dropping revenue from living in the past.
My posties have always been great, the management structure at the depots etc…. well let’s just say i think i know where the issues are! They do need more posties though, the ones that come to me are run ragged and often speck of abuse from customers when mail doesn’t arrive, which hardly helps moral and low moral leads to leaving staff!
If only royal mail had got it’s act together years ago when the rest of the market was moving forward. Sadly a mix of incompetant management, reluctance to spend the cash and unions that don’t like change all added to the toxic cocktail that is still burning them today.
I hope they get this right, recruit more posties and treat them better, oh and stay competitive. If they don’t, then they will become one of those companies that gets kicked into the corner and kept for the sake of antiquity.
So to all you posties working hard what ever the weather… Thankyou, the majority of people appreciate all you do.!
royal mail and its workers need to be rid of the monopoly ethos
the worlds a different place from when there was royal mail, or no mail,
I used this service for the first time, sent 5 first class signed for parcels, that was 5 days ago but my parcels didn’t get scanned on pick up nor drop off, tracking says the same sorry we currently have no info please try again later, I have the email as proof of delivery but how do I proove this to eBay? Buyers not responding so no idea if they’ve been delivered or not, funds on hold until tracking confirmes delivery I’m so confused how can I proove this when parcels have not been scanned? Any information would be great as I can’t find any information anywhere about this, I’ve been in touch with eBay but they refuse to release funds until delivery is confirmed, I paid for signed for so thought they would get scanned on pick up and drop off. Thank you in advance for anyone who can help me out