Customers using Royal Mail’s Parcel Collect home collection service are now able to request a pre-printed postage label that will be attached to the package by the worker collecting it.
Under Parcel Collect, customers arrange for a delivery driver to collect their parcel from their doorstep or a designated safe place. During the booking process, customers can signal whether they would like to order a self-adhesive, pre-printed postage label to affix to their parcel. Parcel Collect also enables online shoppers to return a pre-paid item by post from the comfort of their own home.
The service is available six days a week and can be booked up to five days in advance and up to midnight the day before. Parcel Collect is currently priced at 60p per item, inclusive of VAT, in addition to postage costs.
Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said, “Every day our posties walk past every house in the country at about the same time. People know when their postie is going to deliver and now they can send or return parcels at the same time. If people aren’t going to be in, they can leave their item in a safe place for our postie to collect it, and now if they don’t have a printer at home, they can ask their postie to bring the label with them. How convenient is that? As the nights continue to draw in and the weather gets worse, why go out when you can stay safe and warm and leave the hard work to your friendly local postie. And even better, many of our deliveries and collections are carried out by posties who walk their rounds – the greenest way to send and return.”
The nationwide launch of label-less collections follows a trial of the service in four areas of the UK earlier in the year.