Citizens Advice Parcels League Table

Citizens Advice have published their annual parcels league table today (16 November 2023).

Their annual parcels league table compares the 5 largest parcel delivery companies in the UK against four indicators:

Delivery problems – missing delivery, late delivery or being left in an unsecure location
Accessibility – these needs include needing more time to get to the door or not being able to reach certain parcels
Customer service – how easy it is for consumers to complain about an issue and timely resolve it
Trust – how do people view the parcel company?

Citizens Advice survey assessed the following parcel delivery firms:

Amazon Logistics
Royal Mail
DPD
Yodel
Evri

All of these parcel delivery firms scored less than 3 stars overall. This trend has remained consistent since Citizens Advice started doing parcel delivery surveys in 2021.

Evri (was Hermes) has improved on their score compared to 2022 where they scored 1.75 out of 5 stars. Hardly a showstopper of a performance and they remain the worst of all.

Royal Mail satisfaction score fell from 3 stars in 2022 to 2.75 in 2023. OFCOM fined Royal Mail £5.6m for missing delivery targets this week.

The Post Office recently announced that consumers will be able to send parcels using DPD and Evri as well as Royal Mail.

More choice may result in lower prices and better customer service. Time will tell.

Source: Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice have held these surveys for 3 years and concluded that the parcels market is not working for consumers.

Customer service remains a big issue. OFCOM issued new guidance for parcel delivery companies on complaints procedure in April 2023. Citizens Advice have cited that this process is still not working for many consumers.

Citizens Advice findings

13 million experienced delivery problems – a third of shoppers (34%) experienced a delivery problem with the last parcel they received. Problems included parcels left in insecure locations and parcels arriving late. Worst offenders were Yodel (40%), DPD (37%) and Evri (34%).
Poor customer complaints processes – of those consumers that experienced a problem with their delivery, nearly half (43%) of consumers then had a further issue when trying to resolve the problem, such as not being able to find the right company contact details or not receiving a response. In the end, over half (53%) of those that had further issues found it difficult to resolve their problem. This figure rose to 60% of people with a disability.
Failing disabled customers – almost all parcel firms scored 2 stars or below when it came to meeting the needs of disabled customers or individuals who require adjustments to how they receive parcels. An estimated 7.2 million people have an accessibility need they’d like to share with their parcel delivery company. However almost half (45%) of these people were unable to do so.

Parcel delivery problems and customer service

All five parcel delivery firms scored badly with delivery problems.

Half of customers who had issues trying to resolve a parcel delivery problem said the process was difficult
40% who experienced a parcel delivery problem with their last delivery had further issues trying to resolve it
40% who had issues resolving a parcel delivery problem were dissatisfied with the outcome of the complaints process

Chris Ashworth, Chief Customer Officer for Evri, said:

“We are disappointed with where Citizens Advice has placed us in its parcels league table – after a year of significant investment and listening to our customers to improve our service. Our ambition is that every customer’s experience with Evri is a positive one, and we work hard to understand each instance when this is not the case.

Our rising parcel volumes are proof that customers and retail clients are voting with their feet and trust us with their deliveries. We have invested more than £130 million to improve our UK operations in the last two years with 99% of the 730 million parcels we handle annually delivered on time.”

Citizens Advice say OFCOM must do more

Citizens Advice is calling on parcel firms and the regulator to take action now, the charity proposes three recommendations:

Parcel companies should use the league table results to identify areas they need to improve. It’s clear from our results that delivery problems remain an outstanding issue, with a particular focus on parcels being left in an insecure location. With no improvements on delivery problem scores since last year, the rate of parcel problems remains far too high across the board.
Ofcom should conduct a review of their new complaints and accessibility guidance by April 2024 and should consider enforcement action, such as launching investigations or issuing fines, if there have been no significant improvements by this date.
Ofcom should expand its monitoring processes, to fully capture the type and rate of delivery problems across the board. This should include issues consumers have when they both receive and send parcels. And results should be used to take action against companies with persistently high rates of problems.

Parcel deliveries and your consumer rights

Your contract is always with the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 – not the courier. You do not need to chase a courier or try to resolve any issues directly with them.