Royal Mail has come under fire for drastically cutting its opening hours to just two hours a day at about half of its collection points.
The company has 1,200 customer service points in total where customers can drop off parcels or pick up post that could not be delivered to their homes.
However, about 50 per cent now operate between 8am and 10am on weekdays and 8am and 12pm on Saturdays, while some also open from 4pm to 6pm on Thursdays.
Royal Mail has been criticised for the changes, with a Labour MP claiming it has used the Covid pandemic as an “excuse” to cut its hours and force people online.
Mike Amesbury, the MP for Weaver Vale in Cheshire, wrote to the Department for Business and Trade to express concern about the “massive cut” in opening hours.
Prior to the changes, these delivery points were open until 2pm most days of the week.
MP hits out at ‘corporate greed’
Mr Amesbury said that the new time slots are “inconvenient for people who don’t work from home” and argued that the move to digital was unfair on the company’s older customers.
He said: “This is about forcing everyone to make arrangements online through an app, but not everyone is able to embrace the digital age, including some pensioners.
“Yet again, we see the human touch disappearing because of corporate greed. My suspicion is ‘new work practices’ started to come in during the pandemic as an excuse to run down the numbers of workers.”
While the Department for Business and Trade said it understood the concerns of customers, it said that any decisions on Royal Mail’s operating hours are the responsibility of its management and board as it has been a private business since 2015.
As well as cutting its delivery office opening hours, some customers complained that Royal Mail “abolished” its afternoon collection of mail in some parts of the country.
Howard Gosling, 78, who runs a business providing pool and spa hygiene advice, said that the final collection time at his nearest post box in Nether Compton, Dorset, was changed to 10am this spring.
He told The Telegraph: “We used to have a collection at 5.30pm, then it became 5.15pm then it became 5pm and then it became 10am in spring this year. In other words, the afternoon collection of mail in wide swathes of the countryside has been abolished.
“If I want to send a letter I have to drive a six-mile round trip to the local town centre collecting box.”
Mr Gosling has co-authored a number of books on pool and spa hygiene which he sends out directly to many of his customers.
“You can’t send a book over the internet,” he added. “Royal Mail is making it very difficult to run a business where people need prompt service and responses.”
Last week, The Telegraph revealed that scores of Royal Mail customers trying to swap old stamps bought from the Post Office for their new digital replacements had been told that their purchases were fakes.
‘Keeping pace with customers’ changing behaviour’
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We understand the importance that some customers attach to customer service points (CSPs) as one of a number of ways in which they can access our services.
“An increase in doorstep services, such as Parcel Collect and Safeplace, are helping us to enhance customer convenience and deliver more parcels first time.
“In May this year, we also introduced automatic redelivery of parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when posties attempt to deliver the first time.”
They added: “Over 99 per cent of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt. This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs.
“To keep pace with the changing behaviour of our customers, we have amended the opening hours of CSPs. We have a range of options free-of-charge for customers who want to arrange for an item to be redelivered.”
