Is anyone else having issues with ALL couriers during the summer?

[etekbuyer]

I'm really getting concerned about my business over the summer. I ship approx 25 parcels a day (more on a Monday) and i'm having so many issues with the couriers. Royal Mail are taking so long to deliver items including tracked. RM 48 Tracked should be 1-2 days it's now 3-4 minimum. Yodel stopped collecting daily from my local pickup point and were only coming every other day due to staff shortages. Reluctantly, I had to start using Evri and i've just found out my local pickup point hasn't had a collection since last Thursday so all my parcels were still there for Friday and Saturday. Reason, staff shortages like with Yodel. I feel like i've lost control and i'm going to have to switch everything off so i can get back on track. Its ridiculous.

[technthread]

I have had similar problems with Evri and Yodel occasionally but not as bad as you’re experiencing. Part of the problem is their collection times throughout the day seem to be more flexible and it is harder to plan as the sender. My local Evri drop off get a collection one day at 10:30am and the next day it might be 8pm.

I’d try to speak to the local Yodel and Evri depots and ask if you can personally drop off parcels there. I’m not sure if it’s viable, if not, from what you’ve said if it was me I’d just go back to using Royal Mail for the time being. 

[etekbuyer]

I also experience that same issue with the collection times its crazy. I usually drop the overnight orders off first thing and then the orders that come throughout the day i make a second journey later in the day. It only came to light this morning about the non-collections because they told me they had no room for any additional parcels. The two issues with Royal Mail are the speed and the cost. A small parcel costs £1.15 more with RM and i'm sending 200 per week. Its about a grand out of my profit.

[technthread]

I started to notice that certain shops were more on the ball than others so I tailored where I dropped off as well. It may not fix your issue with collection but certain places just sit back and don’t care. A local Evri drop off that I use rings the depot manager if they don’t show up so I’m happy to go there as the guy is proactive.

I was going to suggest InPost Lockers as an alternative but I think it is Yodel who collect?… if you download their app you’ll see their prices anyway. 

Another idea is maybe speak to RM about a business account with their reduced rates and a collection? Presumably Evri and Yodel could have the same option?

[etekbuyer]

Thanks for your replies. Our local dropoff is actually excellent and has spoken to the depot managers at both Yodel and Evri, The reason given by both is they are short staffed due to holidays. 

We have an RM Business account and it works great for large letter items but they simply cannot get close to Yodel & Evri pricing for small parcels.

Its becoming very frustrating at present with such a bad service from all these couriers only made worse now with RM and the exptended delivery times with 2nd class.

[bittycoiner]

It appears to be general en*bleep*tification / platform decay.

It's the same model as Uber. First they entice users to join with discounts, then they get all the drivers on board so the only way to get a cab is via uber. Then they start adding on fees for this, fees for that, and the drivers then also get loads of fees added on. The final result is a worse and more expensive service than we had before uber came along.

eBay appear to have done the same.  Enticing new users with "no fees to sell", then ramping the buyer taxes on the buyer side (which is just moving numbers around as the seller ultimately absorbs the cost to remain competitive), now sellers are shafted with postage that is not fit for purpose and worse than before, paying higher fees than before. So I think this is probably the last stage of the decay, the money for increasing shareholder returns has to keep increasing year on year into infinity which destroys the platform as something better either comes along to take over, or is already gaining the new users. 

Best advice  is to cut your losses and get out, you're being mugged off and taking it like a good little economic unit. 

[etekbuyer]

hmmm not quite sure eBay is the issue. My business model works just aswell on eBay as it does on Amazon. My issue is with the UK Courier system.