Royal Mail parcel being diverted via ParcelForce Coventry hub

[3942rick2005]

Just posted this in buyers but has relevance in sellers?

Royal Mail tracked 48 parcel being diverted via ParcelForce Coventry hub, apparently to be delivered by Parcelforce also.

Has any one else experienced this?

I had a quick google and found that there is some sort of pilot scheme running for this to happen with large parcels ( mine shouldn't be a very big parcel though 😞

Couple of extracts:

"

The Building the Future project, documented via LTB 040/25, provides Parcelforce the required IT capabilities to enable interoperability of parcels between the RM and PFW networks. This is alongside other initiatives, including First Mile Integration starting with PFW POL Collections transferring into RM, covered in LTB 076/25.

The plan is to migrate up to 14m format 4 and above (F4+) parcels from RM to PFW in financial year 2025/2026. "

"In RM on outward, Collection Hubs and Outward Mail Centres (OMCs) will segregate T48 F4+ items, conducting a scanning process and loose load items onto PFW trailers. These trailers are then sent to PFW Coventry National Hub (CNH) overnight for processing on the day shift and once migrated to PFW these items remain in the PFW network through to final delivery."

Now what could go wrong with Simpleton Delivery and this?

[messier44000]

Quite common for parcel force packages to be delivered by RM 

if below a certain size. We have had a few get delivered this way.

But no heard of the other way round.

[iansims]

Parcelforce was always regarded as RM's sister company. At one point they would have old Royal Mail shoes etc for parcelforce uniform.

[3942rick2005]

Who is going to be responsible when things go awry with Simpleton Delivery now? Ebay only permit Royal Mail and Evri but the Royal mail parcel is being handled and delivered by ParcelForce although it was sent via Royal Mail / Simpleton Delivery.

I bet Ebay haven't a clue about this scenario.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

I have a parcel  sent by simple delivery royal mail 48hr and is says it is at  Coventry PFW National Hub so I am curious as well I think this is why it has not been delivered in the normal time scale.

Collected and scanned on Thursday normally this would have been delivered on Saturday but says it is at Coventry and is on its way.

Every 48hr tracked delivery i have done have been delivered in two days e.g. Collected Monday delivered Wednesday etc never had a 3 day 48hr delivery.

[3942rick2005]

Aahhh well.......... Parcelforce never used to deliver on a Saturday, I don't know if this has changed. This will be annoying as royal mail would have delivered it on the Saturday.

Will this then be classed as a late delivery?

Royal Mail, parcelforce and ebay hand in hand with this does not bode well. I had little response with this post so I presume that few people foresaw any problems with parcelforce being involved.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

Hi

The late delivery is my concern also it arrived in Coventry Friday morning and has not had any update date since.

I wonder if it is classed as late delivery and it id down to parcel force will it be removed?

[handstitcheruk]

I got a letter on Friday from RM which states that there are a number of changes to Delivery Speed Exclusions for business customers but it was then followed by this:

In addition, the RM and Parcelforce Worldswide delivery platforms, terms and conditions and supporting contractual documents are being merged and we have detailed the changes to RM customers.

Maybe this explains it?  There are a lot of changes coming up, including the changes in 2nd class which will see only first class being delivered on Saturdays apparently.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

Is that a general term "business customers " as I am not a business just a private  seller trying to clear out some stuff to make room.

I still reckon that if I had done this through royal mail myself it would have been there on Saturday.

But we will see.

[3942rick2005]

Private sellers under simpleton delivery would be affected as ebay is the business customer here.

My parcel that was sent all around via parcelforce was a simpleton delivery also.

Annoying that they are adding a day or two onto the delivery date without notice to the sender and recipient.

[freeboski]

I've stumbled across this thread while trying to work out the same thing. I bought something on Amazon on Thursday and I'm guessing their own delivery network is overwhelmed so have palmed it off to Royal Mail. It's been sat in Coventry PFW National Hub since Thursday evening. Annoyingly my Wife ordered the same item after I did and it arrived Friday via the same method!

[freeboski]

I have just double checked my wifes tracking code and hers looks like it actually went through Royal Mail rather than being palmed off to Parcel Force...

[d.heath3]

Anyone else had any similar issues recently? I sent a Royal Mail Tracked 48 medium parcel to Ebay's global shipping program on Tuesday (22nd). The next update was Wednesday (23rd) at Coventry Parcel Force hub and then nothing since.

[3942rick2005]

It is a bit of a black hole when it reaches there! There is no tracking available from Parcelforce and they do seem to be on skeleton staff at the weekends so updates are most probably expected on Monday. I think that the Royal Mail delivery times go out of the window once parcels get sent to Coventry, mine was slower than it should have been also.

This is going to happen more often as they gear up their interaction.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

I did a couple  of weeks ago. Sent one on Wednesday 48hr  on the usual delivery (which before simple delivery was always on time) so should have got there on the Friday but found it was in Coventry parcel force hub and did not get delivered till the Monday 

[d.heath3]

OK thanks both, hopefully it reaches the GSP on Monday then

[zyion-uk]

Just came upon this thread by accident, I have had 3 parcels from different platforms all were meant to be delivered between Thursday  & Saturday, none of them arrived so I checked the tracking and all 3 were transferred from RM to Coventry pfw, So I phoned Parcel force worldwide and got told I needed to contact RM !! I have spent the last 3 hours on the phone just to go round in circles, so just contacted one of the vendors and they have just told me that their parcel has gone missing at Coventry pfw, so I have doubts that any of my parcels are going to arrive, just going to contact the other two vendors to see what they say !! just to add none of the parcels are above 1.5kg so can't understand why they would be transferred to PFW ? 

[3942rick2005]

There is nothing that the sellers can do about it at all - it is purely a Royal Mail/Parcelforce thing. It is only going to delay delivery more as it happens to more and more parcels.

[18catsrfurryfriends]

I would still be interested to know if this would still happen if we were able to make our own arrangements.

Never had this before simple delivery labels.

[4_bathrooms]

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@zyion-uk wrote:

Just came upon this thread by accident, I have had 3 parcels from different platforms all were meant to be delivered between Thursday  & Saturday, none of them arrived so I checked the tracking and all 3 were transferred from RM to Coventry pfw, So I phoned Parcel force worldwide and got told I needed to contact RM !!

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Royal Mail recently started bulk shipping Tracked 24 & Tracked 48 items with Parcelforce's Express24 and Express48 items. This is because Royal Mail have essentially created a single parcel network for RM and PFW so anything sent Small Parcel, Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 may end up in Parcelforce's hands during it's journey to the recipient (and vice-versa).

As you purchased the carriage from RM it is they you will need to contact with any issues.