Royal Mail recently announced it has smashed its initial target of 30 million parcels collected via its Parcel Collect service – reaching 50 million parcels so far in the four years since its launch. Hazel King sat down with Adrian Baker, UK product director at Royal Mail, to understand why the service is so popular and how it benefits both customers and Royal Mail alike.
Congratulations on reaching the 50 million parcel mark for your Parcel Collect service – why do you think it has been so successful?
Thank you, we are very proud to have surpassed our initial annual target of 30 million parcels collected, and have done so by a wide margin.
The success of the service has been almost entirely down to the convenience it offers to our customers. Since its launch, rather than customers having to leave their homes to send a return, sell online or send a gift to a friend, we have been able to visit their doorsteps and take the busy work out of sending parcels.
Not only that, but if a person is not going to be in, they can add details of a safe place, leave the parcel there and we’ll collect it. To make it even easier, if customers don’t have a printer at home, they can choose for their postie to bring a pre-printed postage label when they collect.
It’s part of our commitment to continue making our services as convenient as possible. This result shows customers recognize the value in that and we expect demand to continue to grow, especially in today’s age with more people working from home and time being increasingly a commodity.
Why was the service first launched and how has it evolved?
The service was first launched in 2020 in Northwest England as a pilot which, following its success, we expanded and rolled out nationwide in 2021. It represented one of the biggest changes to the daily delivery service since the launch of the post box in 1852.
It was seen as a natural expansion of what we could offer to our customers. We are continuously looking at ways to evolve our business, making it more convenient and more effective.
Combine that with our unique position as the UK’s postal operator, with our posties delivering to every address in the UK, and you have a service that’s simple for us to implement and very useful for customers.
How are consumer demands changing, and how will Royal Mail continue to keep up with those?
Consumer demands have changed rapidly within the past decade. Customers are increasingly seeking convenience whether it’s next-day delivery or, as with Parcel Collect, being able to send parcels from the comfort of their own home.
Royal Mail is in an excellent position to capitalize on this need. Every business decision we have made is part of a long-term strategy to ensure we are the parcel carrier of choice in a competitive industry.
Last year, we launched the second of our dedicated parcel hubs in the Midlands. These huge, largely automated facilities are purpose built for next-day delivery. At the click of a button, the goods you buy travel from the retailer, via these hubs and to your home within 24 hours.
We have also started rolling out access for our customers to parcel lockers and the Collect+ network, allowing them to drop off parcels at local retailers.
Both of these options initially allow customers to drop off either returns or parcels where the postage has been paid for online, and in the future will allow customers to have items delivered for collection.
We expect to have 1,500 lockers and 5,000 Collect+ sites available by the end of the year, which will increase the number of drop-off sites by more than 50% and gives customers access at weekends and in evenings.
It’s another step in making our range of services as convenient as possible by giving customers options which fit comfortably around their daily routine.
What are the benefits of Parcel Collect, both to consumers but also Royal Mail? How does the service help you cope with parcel demands/peak?
The benefits to our customers are clear – it’s an easy and convenient service to send and return parcels that does not require a person to leave their home.
For Royal Mail, it’s a service that’s valuable to customers that fits comfortably within our established operation – posties on their daily rounds collect parcels while they are making deliveries.
The service folds into our existing plans to manage increased parcel demands and peak periods.
How does Parcel Collect help with your sustainability efforts – can you share some data on emission savings? How does Parcel Collect fit with your wider sustainability plans?
Through Parcel Collect, we collect from our customers at their doorstep as part of a postie’s daily round. This means customers don’t have to get in their cars or use public transport to send a parcel, which results in fewer additional emissions and less congestion.
The service is also used by customers to recycle. For example, Nespresso uses Parcel Collect as an option for their customers to return used coffee pods for recycling.
We are already Britain’s greenest operator with our ‘Feet on the Street’ network – our 85,000 postmen and women who walk the final distance to homes when making deliveries. This model ensures Royal Mail has the lowest reported CO2e emissions per parcel compared to every major UK delivery company.
This joins our wider sustainability efforts such as the approximately 5,000 electric vans in our workforce, the over 160 delivery or collection offices that are now fully or part electric, and the 10 million liters of HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) biofuel deployed in the past year, resulting in an approximately 30,000tCO2 e direct emissions saving compared to diesel.
Read more about how Royal Mail is scaling up its parcel business in an exclusive feature here.