Royal Mail announces 'important' service update affecting 5,000 locations

Royal Mail has announced a new partnership with PayPoint

Royal Mail has announced a new partnership with PayPoint – and it means customers will soon be able to send and return parcels at 5,000 new locations.

The service will be available at Collect+ sites, which are typically located in supermarkets and independent newsagents. Royal Mail customers will be able to send large parcel sized packages as first or second class, or as tracked mail. You’ll also be able to drop off return items.

The service will allow customers to print their postage label at home or use a QR code to print it off in store. Postmen and postwomen will then collect the parcels daily from the Collect+ locations as part of their usual delivery routes.

The new multi-year agreement is expected to start rolling out from March and will extend to 5,000 Collect+ points by the summer. Royal Mail said there is “increasing demand” from customers for “convenient ways” to drop off parcels, with around 50% of all Royal Mail non-account sales now online.

It comes after a review into the future of Royal Mail last month suggested the postal service could reduce the number of days it delivers letters to UK households. Under current rules, Royal Mail is required to deliver letters six days a week, Monday to Saturday, but Ofcom has suggested it could be allowed to drop this to as little as three days a week.

Martin Seidenberg, Group Chief Executive of International Distributions Services, said: “This partnership is an important part of Royal Mail’s strategy to make our services even more convenient for customers and to give them the widest possible choice of where and when they can send parcels.

“As consumer preferences have evolved, Royal Mail has already opened up a variety of new ways for customers to access its services, including more online postage options through our website and app, 24/7 parcel postboxes and collection from home through Royal Mail Parcel Collect.”

Nick Wiles, CEO of PayPoint, said: “We are delighted that Collect+ will be playing a key role in our partnership with Royal Mail. As consumer channel shift continues to move towards Out of Home, our fantastic retailer partners will now have an even greater opportunity to serve the needs of their customers in communities across the UK through our leading Out of Home network. We remain fully committed to investing further in the in-store consumer experience, through technology and operational support for our retailer partners, as well as continuing to grow our Collect+ network to service the strong growth in this area.”