Just before Christmas, The Telegraph broke the news that Royal fake deliveries were being recorded with the accusation being that it was to enable managers to hit targets for their bonuses.
In what the industry calls ‘taking parcels for a walk’, items would be recorded as leaving the delivery office and then the delivery would be marked as inaccessible, even if the door was never knocked and no delivery attempted. Because the parcel went for a walk, it counted as an attempted delivery so far as targets go.
Scanning a parcel as inaccessible triggers the Sorry we missed you message saying that delivery was attempted and the parcel would be back out for a redelivery attempt the following day… and nothing is more frustrating for the recipient if they’re sitting by their front door waiting for a delivery to arrive
How widespread across the country marking parcels as inaccessible with no delivery attempt is is hard to judge. Personally, in West Berkshire I’ve had reliable parcel deliveries from the Royal Mail… it’s the letters that never arrive on time and appear to be de-prioritised.
It’s also worth noting that parcels don’t fall under the Universal Service Obligation that covers letters, but retailers and especially third party service providers will be able to judge their performance compared to other parcel carriers based on exception reports.
