Ep 227: Parcel delivery during 2020 peak season

Feb 8, 2021

Rachel Beddow, Principal Policy Manager for Postal Services and Telecoms at Citizens Advice, joins me to discuss customer research on delivery problems:

• Delivery issues that predate the COVID-19 pandemic
• Statistics on UK customers experiencing problems with delivery
• Which groups were disproportionately affected by delivery problems
• Delivery problems not limited to any one carrier
• Kinds of delivery problems experienced by UK customers - including people who were at home 24 hours per day!
• Why a delivery failure is only the beginning of a customer’s delivery problem
• Difficulties in resolving delivery failures
• Public awareness campaigns in advance of 2020 peak season
• Spike in consumer complaints
• Factors behind delivery problems - more than just capacity issues
• Consumer protections not keeping up with the rapidly changing retail sector
• Lack of regulation of major parcel carriers in the UK
• Is parcel delivery an essential service? What does that mean for definitions of when a delivery is “late”?
• Current consumer protections in delivery
• Why some customers don’t complain or try to resolve delivery problems
• How can consumers be made aware of their rights and ways to resolve delivery issues?
• What can carriers do without waiting for regulators to take action about consumer protections?
• Communications with the delivery driver to help ensure first-time delivery to disabled customers
• Using the available technology to improve the delivery experience for customers
• Delivery driver workload and meeting customer expectation