Collect+ launches cheaper parcel delivery than Post Office

Rival to Post Office allows individuals and small businesses to send parcels through 3,500 local shops

A direct challenge to the Post Office has been launched in the UK today, offering cheaper and more convenient deliveries and parcel collection direct from the high street. Collect+ allows private individuals and small businesses to send parcels through 3,500 local shops 530 of which are in London that are part of the PayPoint network of stores.

The new firm is taking on Royal Mail on price and convenience. Parcels up to five kilos in weight will cost 4.99 and those between five and ten kilos in weight will cost 6.99. This compares with 9.58 to send a "standard parcel" of below six kilos using the Post Office, or 12.61 for parcels below 10 kilos at the Post Office (for a comparable three-day delivery service).

Since February 2009 Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel (formerly Home Delivery Network Limited), has enabled consumers to send returned items back to online and catalogue retailers such as Asos, Littlewoods, K&Co and Boden via its retailer service. The expanded service now promises that customers will be able to send parcels to anyone at a time that suits them, with Collect+ outlets generally opening seven days a week, from early in the morning until late at night.

Mark Lewis, chief executive of Collect+, said: "Customers tell us that it is inconvenient to drop their parcels off during the working day and that they want a more convenient option. Two-fifths of those that use our service to return goods to our retail partners do so outside normal hours or at weekends. Today's launch extends that convenience to personal deliveries, allowing us to offer a simple parcel send alternative matched to modern lifestyles.! "

In practice, the Collect+ method is very different to using the Post Office. You must add recipients' details online, then pay upfront using a credit card, debit card or PayPal, before printing out a postage label and dropping your parcel off at your nearest Collect+/PayPoint store. With the Post Office, you walk in and pay at the time of posting, using cash or card.

Collect+ said 75% of people in towns and cities across the UK are within a mile of their nearest outlet, while it promises an "ambitious expansion plan" that will make its service even more convenient. At present, the PayPoint branded retail network in the UK totals over 22,500 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury's Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents) meaning there are at least 19,000 further outlets that Collect+ could use in the future.

Dominic Taylor, chief executive of PayPoint, believes the Collect+ service will also benefit local stores and communities, while the Royal Mail has closed thousands of village Post Offices in recent years.

Taylor said: "Neighbourhood convenience stores are an integral part of local communities but they are facing unprecedented pressures, so the ability to offer a range of in-store services helps to differentiate these shops and gives them a competitive edge. Collect+ is an exciting addition to the range of services they are able to offer their local communities."

Internet chatter about Collect+'s existing retail returns service is not all positive, with many customer complaints focusing on delivery speed and communication breakdowns, especially soon after Collect+ first launched. One anonymous user of the UK Business Forums, who only registered in the past few days, wrote: "I have had a very frustrating experience with Collect Plus two emails to customer services and two very unsatisfactory and patronising replies."

Collect+'s Lewis said: "When the retailer service first launched, we spent a lot of time with! our par tners to ensure that any initial teething problems were rectified and that we were offering our customers the service they'd expect. We've also been trialing the service we're launching today to ensure that anyone visiting their local corner shop to send a parcel will find it easy, convenient and efficient."

In response to the Collect+ expansion, a Royal Mail spokesman said: "Royal Mail, through its unrivalled UK network of 1,400 delivery offices and around 12,000 Post Office branches, provides a range of ways its customers can send and receive items. Royal Mail is continually looking at ways in which we can invest in new services to give our customers even greater control over the delivery of items.

"As well as extending the opening hours of around 600 of our busiest delivery offices until 8pm on a Wednesday, Royal Mail has launched a trial of evening deliveries in the M25 area to give consumers even greater choice over the delivery of their items."


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