Small businesses lose £1000s due to strikes

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The strikes, in particular Royal Mail, have seen small businesses lose £1000s while the CWU and other Unions claim that their strikes are to protect services. And it’s not just through delayed orders with automatic refunds given – many have been forced to shut up shop entirely to protect their selling metrics.

Internet forums are rife with sellers tearing their hair out over WISMO (Where is my order) messages, especially for those forced to rely on Royal Mail due to the low cost of their items. Some sellers stopped selling a couple of weeks ago and that those same small businesses lose potential sales at the crucial time of year when normally they’d be working flat out.

Even using alternative carriers sees small businesses lose out as there will be no last minute selling this year with carriers bringing forward their final shipping dates. Already announced are Evri and Yodel.

The knock on effect from lost sales will undoubtedly cause many small businesses to fail in 2023. Christmas is the time that many make the bulk of their revenue from the gifting market and missing out on their crucial Christmas revenues will be devastating.

Most of the blame has to be laid squarely at the door of the CWU as it’s the lack of Royal Mail performance that has impacted the service of the other carriers. Most Posties are doing their utmost to deliver the mail on the days that they are allowed to work and there is an increasing number who are not only totally frustrated with constant strikes but who are also personally ruined by the loss of income.

We’ve had a sweep of the main UK carrier websites today, and here are the latest updates on final despatch dates for Christmas delivery for 2022:

Yodel

Yodel’s last shipping date is this Friday, the 16th of December. If parcels are to be delivered before Christmas Day then they must have been collected by Friday. This is unprecedented as it’s over a week before Christmas Day itself meaning no sales next week will be delivered in time to be gifted on the day.

Evri

Evri are running a little later with the final day for collections being Tuesday the 20th, the last standard ParcelShop deliveries currently Wednesday the 21st and for next day (if you want to risk it) 11am at ParcelShops on the 22nd.

DPD

DPD haven’t yet published their final collection dates, but we know that deliveries are running between 1 and 3 days late depending upon postcode area so to be ultra safe we would suggest that the last posting date for all areas of the country could be as early as Tuesday next week.

Parcelforce & Royal Mail

Parcelforce is in the basket case collection along with Royal Mail and if you are relying on them you should have little hope that items will arrive on time. Their estimated last post dates will all have past by Friday this week, but they have such a back log that millions of letters, large letters and packets are already lost in mail centres with little hope that they’ll be delivered on time.

4 Responses

  1. The biggest issue with Royal Mail is their policy of Last in First out attitude to their sorting of Mail….. Postbags must be just humpted into a corner and then ignored.

    This first became evident around 10-12 years ( or when I became aware!! ), if he procedure was changed for First In First Out, then there would be more latittude, but trying to convince any buyer that the item was posted 3-4 weeks ago, when they have received other items from 3-4 days ago….. is hard work and frankly buyers just don’t believe what is the truth and mark feedback accordingly and if in the case of Amazon, if your postage wasn’t through them then forget getting the feedback removedb or struck through..

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