In October 2020, Royal Mail launched a home pick-up service across the UK in a shake-up of the daily round. Since launching, posties have collected over one million parcels, with growth accelerating over Christmas and following the reintroduction of lockdown measures.
As well as offering even higher levels of convenience, the introduction of the Parcel Collect home pick-up service has meant that online sellers and online shoppers no longer need to leave the comfort of their home if they want to mail or return a pre-paid item by post. There is literally only one thing I don’t like about this service and that is that you need a printer and not everyone has one at home. Barring that, the convenience of a home pick-up service is brilliant if you can’t get out.
Posties will collect a parcel from the customer’s door or nominated safe place for 72p per parcel, in addition to normal postage costs. The home pick-up service is also available for pre-paid return items at a cost of 60p per item.
The Royal Mail home pick-up service is limited to five parcels at a time so is only suitable for small sellers or consumers. Parcel Collect is available six days a week and can be booked up to five days in advance and up to midnight the day before.
In order to use the service, customers simply need to ensure they have already paid the correct postage to send their item. If an item does not have pre-paid postage, customers are able to pay for their postage online using Click & Drop or via the Royal Mail App and opt for ‘Parcel Collect’. They will then be able to work out the correct cost of postage for their item and print out a pre-paid label which is fixed to the package. When the item gets collected, the customer will receive an email notification that acts as proof of postage.
“The introduction of Parcel Collect has been incredibly successful, with one million parcels a fantastic milestone to reach in just five months. Parcel Collect is part of our commitment to continuously make our services more convenient for customers and makes it easier to use Royal Mail’s services than ever before.
We understand the important role we play in keeping the UK connected at this challenging time. Our posties have always been a vital part of every community and that has never been truer than over the last year. Everyone at Royal Mail is proud to help keep the country safe and connected.”
– Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer, Royal Mail
One Response
I still cannot get it to work, it stopped after 3 weeks, no one from the RM seems able to help (or cares) so I now us Hermes, UPS, Fed EX and DPD. I can buy postage online, but then I cannot book a collection. If i try to do it as a combined operation….it falls over….but once i delete the 72p collection element it works again. I have tried different ISPs, different payment methods, cleared cookies / browser history etc, even different email addresses as a contact email, all to no avail. Hours on the phone to the RM and nothing to show for it. I want to use it, but cannot get any assistance with the issue.