From today, Royal Mail will automatically redeliver parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when posties attempt to deliver the first time. This is great news and brings Royal Mail into line with traditional couriers. Everyone hates queuing at a Delivery Office for their item, often on a Saturday morning due to being at work during the week.
We’ve checked with Royal Mail, and the good news is that the new redelivery attempt will apply to ALL formats which will include large letters. Anything that is letterboxable will be posted as usual, anything too big will be out for redelivery the next day. Product-specific restrictions will still apply (e.g. Special delivery guaranteed cannot be delivered to a safe place or neighbour), signature items cannot be delivered to a safe place.
Under the new process, posties will automatically try to redeliver the next working day if the customer is not at home first time round. The recipient will receive a card after the first delivery attempt advising that the postie will return the next working day, offering alternative options if required. The free initiative is designed to save customers time and provide a more convenient experience so they do not need to travel to a Royal Mail Customer Service Point to retrieve missed mail, removing the need for any carbon emissions as a result of the journey.
Customers will continue to have the existing alternative delivery options, including arranging a redelivery for a more convenient time, having items left in a safe place or with a neighbour, or requesting their parcel is redelivered to another local address or Post Office. Alternatively, customers can still collect their parcel from their regular Customer Service Point (usually co-located with their nearest delivery office). A card will be left with details of all these options after the automatic redelivery attempt.
These options can be booked via the Royal Mail app, online or by phone. Further details can be found online at: https://www.royalmail.com/receiving-mail/redelivery.
Royal Mail has also made a number of updates to its app and website to make its services easier to use, while continuing to offer telephone and branch access for those who prefer it.
Everyone knows how convenient a delivery from a Royal Mail postie is. They come to your house and have fantastic local knowledge enabling them to deliver first time, most of the time. With this change we will use that same great local knowledge to automatically attempt delivery again the next day and customers will know they are coming because we will have left a card the day before. Our trials show that by making this change the vast majority of items will be delivered without the recipient needing to do anything. No need in most instances to book a redelivery or to make a trip to collect a parcel. Just wait for your wonderful local postie to bring your parcel to you. This is the latest in a series of changes we have made to make doorstep deliveries and collections as convenient and green as possible.
– Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer, Royal Mail
9 Responses
Waste of time. If you are not in because you are at work on first attempt. You will still not be in the next day because you are at work. All this means is that you will be without your mail for another day. God forbid you are waiting on something important.
Best thing is not to order anything for delivery to your home if you won’t be able to receive it. Dumb people don’t seem to consider this.
Maybe because deliveries aren’t made around your life. Dumb posters don’t seem to consider this.
Why order something to be delivered to your home address if you know you’re not going to be home. There are SO many alternative options nowadays. Postal workers must find it so frustrating……
If I were a postie
It would niggle me if I had to hump non deliveries about for an extra day, knowing it was obvious with local knowledge the recipient was unavailable
Exactly, this is just going to make RM deliveries more like Evri deliveries. One of the main advantages RM have over Evri (and other couriers) is their infrastructure and network of delivery offices. So as a seller I knew that if I sent something via RM and the customer wasn’t in I’d be confident that the parcel would go back to the delivery office rather than left on a doorstep or in a bin or some other completely unsafe “safeplace”. The customer could then rearrange delivery or collect at a time suitable for them.
But now postal workers are being forced to make that second attempt the next day it incentivises them to make sure the delivery is made on the first attempt. So now we may be more likely to see RM parcels left on doorsteps or in recycling bins etc.. instead of going back to the depot.
Exactly. I can’t see this “great news” will make any difference at all. If you are out on a Monday chances are you won’t be home on a Tuesday. And they still won’t be leaving signed for items in a safe place. And ordinary large letters will fit through a letterbox anyway – why not deliver them first time? Makes no sense to me.
Yodel and Evri leave parcels on the doorstep but I suppose it depends where you live and how honest the locals are. Not many porch pirates around here. It hasn’t affected their business model re compensation. Personally I just bought a secure mailbox for £50 and fastened it to the wall which solves the problem immediately.
Maybe because deliveries aren’t made around your life. Dumb posters don’t seem to consider this.