Perhaps not quite the battle of the century like motorists versus e-scooters. but this one’s still worth mentioning.
Especially if you’re a delivery driver. Except, we guess it’s not really a war. To put it simply, Royal Mail is making an attempt to win customers over from Amazon by introducing a new scheme offering timed delivery slots.
You might be one of the customers who choose to shop with Amazon due to their brilliant delivery options. Same-day delivery? Yes, please! Perhaps you’re one of the van drivers who end up darting about all over the place, in an attempt to get the deliveries in on time.
Now, if you’re working for Royal Mail, you may find yourself racing against time, just like Amazon drivers.
Customers will be offered a choice from a 3-tier system:
- You have your bottom tier: this is where Royal Mail get to decide when to deliver your parcel
- There’s got to be a middle tier: the customer will pick a delivery day, along with where the parcel should be left
- And of course, the equivalent to Tesco’s Finest. You have the top tier: the customer gets to pick the day PLUS a delivery time
Better slap your seatbelts on, because we anticipate this will be a popular scheme for Brits. Of course, we can’t know for certain what the pricing costs will be like just yet. This will also inevitably depend on the size of the parcel, and/or how many have been ordered. Just like Amazon, it’s safe to assume a top-tier delivery option will result in a higher cost.
Will customers be willing to switch?
A recent survey from a popular newspaper saw results that suggested that consumers had more trust in Amazon deliveries than that of Royal Mail. On-time deliveries are naturally important to customers, and it seems Royal Mail doesn’t seem to have a good track record.
With the significant increase in e-commerce sales due to Covid-19, many delivery companies have found themselves hiring more and more van drivers. Were you one of them? How do you feel about these additional delivery options? Perhaps they make no difference to you at all, or maybe you’re sick of racing from house to house.
Until the new tiers launch, we can’t be sure. What we are sure of is cheap van insurance. See just how cheap we’re talking by simply filling out the form right here.