How far behind the times are royal mail, couriers have been doing this for years.
The biggest problem for Royal Mail is their price once a parcel goes over 2Kg, maybe they might look at this in a few years time??
Just read this, but I wondered if RMSD applies or not? Print your own paperwork?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54614871
Edit
Just read it doesn't do RMSD, shame.
Last edited by Rod; 21st October 2020 at 10:22.
How far behind the times are royal mail, couriers have been doing this for years.
The biggest problem for Royal Mail is their price once a parcel goes over 2Kg, maybe they might look at this in a few years time??
This sounded great...until I saw no RMSD.
Still, a step in the right direction for those who live painfully far from a Post Office.
good plan considering Hermes have put their prices up recently.
i would pay 72p to avoid driving 6 miles, parking up, walking to shop in the rain and waiting in a line of people i dont like
RMSD price banding is absurd! 2KG is £11.00, (fair enough) but go a few grams over that and you are into the ‘up to 10KG’ band at a charge of £26.60!!!
Clearly they need RMSD price/weight banding between 2KG and 10KG if they want to keep customers onside.
They're behind but at least taking a step in the right direction? I'm sure they'll consider adding RMSD once they've trialed the basic service out. Good time to roll out this service as well as lots of folks are avoiding going out to the post office.
We can’t even get a daily delivery service here at the moment so getting getting parcels picked up ain’t gonna work.
All very well criticising PO, but don't forget they lost a lot of the profit-making business, while being compelled to continue with the loss-making business.
The companies who are now offering a pretty good service (apart from their employees nicking stuff) - are the ones who benefitted from that sell-off and could invest in new tech/services.
I live about 1km from a post office, not sure how ‘lucky’ that makes me but I couldn’t be arsed with the admin of them printing off I’d rather pay a visit and get out the house for a walk.
Also, it’s apparently limited to 5 parcels per delivery (500-600 drops), so I wonder how that’ll work if it gets popular.
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Postmen are going to pick it up as they deliver the usual. The way things are thought out though, I reckon this will be just another thing drivers have to do. So, if things are back to normal we’re looking at a limit of 10 parcels for over 1000 addresses.
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Where's the 10/1000 come from? https://www.royalmail.com/collection
I work for Royal Mail. We’ve been told it’s going to be limited to 5 per delivery. 1 delivery/500-600 addresses = 1 postman/woman. In Covid free times 1 van = 2 people = 2 deliveries and therefore 1000-1200 drops. Does that make sense?
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To be honest i find the hermes parceldrop way easier and have two parcelshops less than 1km away, you just do it online and print the labels in-store, no faffing about and cheaper.
Royal Mail could do well here, but i can see a lot of teething problems with this one, the problem is they've reduced their network whilst others have increased it, and don't appear to like joining forces to widen their potential like others.
I’m not sure how exactly it’ll work, if it’s 5 parcels or 5 addresses. The idea is that the postie can just pick it up while walking with the bag. So, yeah - 5 parcels from one customer wouldn’t work in that situation. I don’t know if posties would get info as to what the size of the parcel is etc. well just have to wait and see.
With the Covid situation, it’s a complete mess. Can’t even think what Christmas is going to be like...
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I tend to use My hermes as a last resort, when it's too big or too heavy for royal mail, their delivery can be a bit hit or miss though.
I sent 2 parcels on Monday via my hermes, both to the same person at the same address, one got there today, the other is still in transit, work that one out!
I do think that a lot of the PO systems, policies and procedures are archaic and need to be improved to keep them competitive in todays market place if they are to survive, but much of the criticism is probably not aimed at the front line staff, more the 'behind the scenes' decisions that are taken.
In terms of the front line customer facing staff (postmen/women and post office counter staff), I still find them some of the best and most dedicated delivery-service people out there.
We’ve a lovely postwoman, will have to post more parcels...
I have just used the RM collection service for the first time and I have to say, it was actually quite slick.
Small parcel sent and stamped from PO: £3.10
Small parcel collected from home with home-printed label: £2.95 postage + £0.72 collection fee = £3.67
Saving in time/diesel: 10 mile round trip and approx 45 minutes of time.
Downside: Collection is the following day, so your stuff will effectively take a day longer to get where it is going than if you dropped it at the PO.
I will be interested to hear the posties view on it when I see him, but so far it seems to suit me (as a very rural dweller) pretty well.
There can be a days delay with Hermes etc at collection points depending on pick up time, the one nearest to me is 10am, not rushing out early for that, last parcel collection at the P.O. Is 4pm so I go at my leisure during the day, until there is an alternative delivering letters I’ll just support my posties.
Even if mail is maybe only 3deliveries a week due to staff shortages, apparently.
The '1 day delay' I mention is to do with the fact that the postman leaves the sorting office very early, so they will probably not know he has a parcel to collect until he picks up his round the following morning. All guesswork on my part though.
This may change of course if they implement new technology - but I doubt it for a few pence per parcel collected.
Don’t see a day’s delay being an issue for many (most even) people. Certainly not for returns which could be a big proportion of parcels.
A little 'inside' insight into this
its a mx of packets per address and 5 addresses per delivery (at the moment)
Sort of ok if your on a van duty but not so good if you have a trolley and 5 parcels to collect right near he start of your delivery
The collection info is loaded up in the morning when the postman logs on to his delivery route.
We have a small (ish) town of 30k del points and have had about 5 collection points per day so far
RM/Parcel force over 2kg is too expensive; and why can't you drop Tracked items at a post office rather than collection centres which are open irregular hours, even more so during Covid.
I don’t but I know that much of the info downloaded to the PDA’s is done by 2am