National charity Citizens Advice has conducted an online survey of 8,421 UK adults that received a parcel in the last month from Royal Mail, DPD, Yodel, Amazon Logistics or Evri and found that 46% of customers who had an issue with their last delivery faced further problems when resolving the issue with their given delivery firm.
To create its second annual parcel delivery league table, the five top parcel delivery companies by volume of delivery were measured against four criteria: quality of service, accessibility, customer service and trust. Each rating was out of five stars, and each criterion was weighted to calculate the overall score. According to the league table, four of the top five firms failed to secure a 3-star overall rating. Citizens Advice found that despite facing problems, customers still awarded the parcel companies improved trust scores compared to last year, with Amazon and Royal Mail achieving 4.33 stars. The charity also reported that Yodel scored the lowest score on any criteria, with 1.70 for customer service. Close to half (43%) of Yodel customers polled by Citizens Advice reported a problem with their last delivery, compared to just over a quarter (28%) of Royal Mail customers.
Citizens Advice found that no parcel companies hit three stars when it came to meeting the needs of disabled customers and any other individuals who require adjustments for how they receive parcels. DPD scored highest with 2.4 stars, but across all delivery firms, people needing extra support with their delivery were more than twice as likely to face delivery problems compared with those who didn’t (54% and 26% respectively). Citizens Advice also revealed its online advice ‘If something you ordered hasn’t arrived’ has been viewed almost 211,000 times in the last 12 months and was viewed 52,000 times in the three months leading up to Christmas 2021.
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said, “One year on and parcel firms haven’t got their act together, with nobody delivering a 4 or 5-star service. Behind the figures are shoppers seriously let down when parcels go missing or are late. The needs of those who rely most on online shopping, such as disabled people, are being forgotten. Our findings show there’s more for Ofcom to do to protect shoppers, and if these firms don’t up their game, it should be fining them.”
