Royal Mail announces major roll-out of new service - but not until after Christmas

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/royal-ma ... l-34300847

Postal giant Royal Mail wants to install thousands of lockers that allow customers to drop off and pick-up items whenever they want

Royal Mail has launched its own on-street lockers amid a boom in people selling clothes and other secondhand items online.

The first have been installed outside the postal giant’s Mount Pleasant mail centre in London, with 250 lockers to be rolled out in early 2025. Thousands more are planned after that. The move comes as rivals such as Polish firm InPost are rushing to install lockers outside convenience stores, railway stations and elsewhere.

They allow items to be left in compartments where recipients can collect them when they want, rather than having to wait in for a courier to arrive at their home. The trend has been fuelled by online orders in general as well as people shopping for clothes and other items on marketplaces such as eBay, Depop and Vinted.



Royal Mail said its lockers would be reserved for its own customers. They will situated in spaces outside of its own delivery offices, as well as other retailers. For now they will be limited to people wanting to send items, and will include label printing. It says customers will also be able to collect parcels from them in the near future.

However. it means fewer people needing to go to post office branches. Royal Mail says there is clear demand for more parcel points, especially among younger people and those in towns and cities.

Jack Clarkson, its group strategy and transformation director, said: “With continued growth in online shopping, we are expanding our range of services for customers to make sending and receiving parcels more convenient than ever. Parcel Lockers are just one of the ways that we will achieve this, and with their growth in popularity, it is important that we have our own lockers to offer a modern, quick and convenient option for our customers. The roll out of Royal Mail lockers is good news for online shoppers, small businesses sending their orders and the UK public in general.”

The move comes as Royal Mail faces intense competition from rival parcel firms and a sharp rise in costs.

[NWpostie]

There will less Post Office branches anyway given how toxic the brand is and postmasters leaving the business or nobody taking up the offer to buy a branch.

[oypostie]

Sorry but that's not the first. There are already lockers in Homebase stores near me plus i thought they announced the first months ago up in the Midlands. Coventry area rings a bell

[kazardaimenu]

How does inpost work and who dumps the parcels in the locker?

[Wullie10]

Sorry but that's not the first. There are already lockers in Homebase stores near me plus i thought they announced the first months ago up in the Midlands. Coventry area rings a bell

And Homebase stores are closing but you're right. They'll be everywhere soon.

[Barnacle]

I think they have overestimated the volume of customers who are keen to leave their house to pick up their tat.

Also think that they have overestimated the number of staff they’ll be able to shed by using lockers.

They are expensive lockers to maintain as they will have labels and a printer. All I see is an astronomical additional cost.

[Basildon Bond]

The local big supermarket has an In-post locker setup - quite a large one. It's right in front of the parent with baby/toddler parking bays. The amount of late-teens and 20-30 somethings that just drive into the reserved spots without a thought of where they are parking and who they are blocking from doing their shopping is shocking. They hop out of their car and peck away on the keypad or flash a QR code at the screen/camera (not sure) and drop off or collect parcels quite a lot. Over a ten minute period of me sitting there (killing time and listening to the radio late on a Saturday night - like tonight as of writing) the number of "users" is, er, "constant", let's say.

Summary: I think they are popular from what I have seen. At least a certain demographic finds them highly useful. It's probably where you put them. Supermarkets will work for some. Vape shops for others. "First 15 minutes free" car parks could work. Bus stops. Pubs. The local record shop could work for me .

[Barnacle]

The local big supermarket has an In-post locker setup - quite a large one. It's right in front of the parent with baby/toddler parking bays. The amount of late-teens and 20-30 somethings that just drive into the reserved spots without a thought of where they are parking and who they are blocking from doing their shopping is shocking. They hop out of their car and peck away on the keypad or flash a QR code at the screen/camera (not sure) and drop off or collect parcels quite a lot. Over a ten minute period of me sitting there (killing time and listening to the radio late on a Saturday night - like tonight as of writing) the number of "users" is, er, "constant", let's say.

Summary: I think they are popular from what I have seen. At least a certain demographic finds them highly useful. It's probably where you put them. Supermarkets will work for some. Vape shops for others. "First 15 minutes free" car parks could work. Bus stops. Pubs. The local record shop could work for me .

Wonder if the Inpost lockers have a label printer? I know next to zero about Inpost.

[Basildon Bond]

Wonder if the Inpost lockers have a label printer? I know next to zero about Inpost.

I would reckon that adding a printer for labels to the setup would (a) complicate things as the consumables (ink/paper) would need to be remotely monitored and then topped up as required, (b) a printer means there is more to go wrong - paper jams, printing different format labels for different delivery companies, etc., and (c) a label - supplied from the customer before leaving an item - is actually unnecessary.

If someone is using the service to return something they only have to place the item (unlabelled and even unboxed) in the locker drawer that pops open when they arrive and scan their code. The collection driver that is sent to collect the item can bring a label and even a box or mail bag. I guess any logistics company could interact with the lockers - as long as they have a code to scan or enter. A DPD, TNT, DHL, FedEx, Amazon, and RM driver could all be queuing up to use the lockers and drop off and collect multiple items.

Lockers could work but there are obvious hardware and software problems like: the lock mechanisms break, the software running the lockers crashes, vandalism (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... y-22722890), general neglect of the lockers or wear and tear, or even an item being returned spills inside a particular drawer and contaminates that compartment and maybe even surrounding ones. Plus they should be cleaned frequently to ensure they are fit to be touched in a post-Covid world. Otherwise a microbiologist would find a lot of things growing on and inside these installations. Oh, and local councils sometimes think they look ugly and ban them so the design of the locker has be flexible enough to "fit" into the street scene (https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire- ... d-29973857).

[Deadly]

Less and less time left in the duty span to deliver, oh well.

[Dorset Plodder]

I was thinking if they had two banks of these lockers say 6ft apart, facing in opposite directions and put a roof, back wall and a door on them they could use them as homeless shelters!

This would be especially useful in London, which has the highest number of homeless people in the UK, and I would assume will be getting thousands of these bloody things.

It has the added advantage of RM being able to improve it's Corporate Social Responsibility!

P.S WHY do posties keep getting involved in these PR photo opportunities? Is it the Instagram/Facebook effect that people just can't resist a picture of themselves?

[Barnacle]

I’m surprised that mischief making hackers haven’t found a way to make all the doors open at once.

[Dorset Plodder]

I’m surprised that mischief making hackers haven’t found a way to make all the doors open at once.

[oypostie]

Wonder if the Inpost lockers have a label printer?

No they don't. Royal Mail seem to be the only ones attempting this and as mentioned above it will be a maintenance nightmare with keeping printer and labels supplied and working