Back of the queue! Survey adds to Royal Mail Group’s woes

A national survey on postal services adds to Royal Mail Group’s woes today, with the Post Office voted as having the worst queues and the Royal Mail sorting office the last resort for collecting a parcel.

[UKPRwire, Sat Oct 17 2009] A national survey on postal services adds to Royal Mail Group’s woes today, with the Post Office voted as having the worst queues and the Royal Mail sorting office the last resort for collecting a parcel.

The survey was undertaken by OnePoll (of 6,121 adults), on behalf of door-to-door parcel delivery service myHermes.co.uk, the consumer arm of the company formerly known as Parcelnet. In a list of the top 10 most unpopular queues, including traffic lights (chosen by 16% of people), the supermarket checkout (also 16%) and the doctor’s surgery (11%), the Post Office came out as clearly the most unpopular queue with almost a quarter (24%) of the vote. Fifty-four per cent also said that queues made them put off posting or picking up a parcel from the Post Office.

In a further indictment of Royal Mail, its delivery service premises were voted as the last resort for where an undelivered parcel should be stored for collection. Even though one-in-five of the population admitted to not knowing their neighbour by name, nearly half of those surveyed (44%) preferred a parcel to be left with a neighbour, or somewhere safe on their property (36%), than at the sorting office for collection (19%).

Despite the Royal Mail/Post Office being such a long-standing institution, times are clearly changing with three-in-ten people having considered choosing other providers following the ongoing postal strikes, with more than one-in-ten (15.9%) having changed providers as a result of the strikes already.

Jon Tobbell, Commercial Director, myHermes.co.uk said: "Yet more bad news for Royal Mail at a time they least need it, I’m afraid. But even institutions need to adapt to changing consumer demands. Although the British are world famous for queuing, people simply don't want to be spending their precious time standing in line any more. They want instant service and convenience, picking up and delivering parcels from the comfort of their home. Loyalty is quickly ebbing away and the Royal Mail is going to lose millions of pounds worth of business which they may never win back.”

Carole Woodhead, chief executive, says: "We've just had record numbers of deliveries for Monday and Tuesday this week, with volumes up more than 25%. Confirmation that Royal Mail will be on strike next Thursday will mean that this figure jumps up massively. People clearly aren't prepared to be held to ransom and are looking for viable alternatives so that they are not inconvenienced. The Royal Mail is going to lose millions of pounds worth of business which they may never win back.

"In many cases, people use Royal Mail for parcel delivery simply because they always have rather than because it offers the best service. What we are finding is that once people have tried myHermes.co.uk, which is an easy and convenient service that will work around both the sender and the recipient, they stay with us.

"We don't rely on any part of the Royal Mail service. myHermes.co.uk is uniquely positioned amongst alternative parcel carriers because we actually own our own network, whereas other providers are aggregated services."

"The fact is this is a symptom of an organisation which has failed to adapt fast enough to changing consumer demands. People simply don't want to be spending their precious time queuing any more - they want instant service and convenience, picking up and delivering parcels from the comfort of their home. This is an unbelievable boost for alternative suppliers like www.myhermes.co.uk and we've seen our traffic rise massively already.

"The online community has already been very vocal. Twitter, blogs and other forums have been immensely critical of the Royal Mail. Loyalty to this national institution is dissolving rapidly, and if Royal Mail continues to ignore the demands of today's consumers it will not survive."

myHermes.co.uk offers a parcel collection and delivery service online, with collection and delivery taking place door-to-door through a network of local couriers, with prices starting from £3.99. Customers can select where the parcel is collected from meaning there is no queuing involved and myHermes.co.uk will make three attempts to deliver at the other end, rather than leaving a card for the recipient to go to a depot.

myHermes.co.uk is the consumer arm of home delivery service Hermes (formerly known as Parcelnet), and is unique in the UK market place, as it owns its own network, whereas other providers are aggregated services.