So, this morning I have woken to a local news story, that no doubt will be national news, with the headline,
“‘X’ parcel delivery depot a shocking mess in photos from depot”
No doubt the British public will gasp in horror when they read the headline or see the pictures, which I get, but let’s put this into context.
Two paragraphs in, we are then told,
”The pictures, taken in the week after Christmas, show parcels littered throughout one of ‘X‘s‘ 26 UK depots”
Now I get the company in question will be less than happy with these pictures and that this will fall well short of their own company standards, but let me ask you this.. what did your front room look like on Christmas Day, at its busiest?
Or if you work in fashion retail, what did your stores look like on Boxing Day?
It’s difficult to defend the images and I’m sure the company in question will not, however, with the retail giants demanding sub £2 per delivery, driven by us as consumers demanding a free delivery, is it little surprise?!
The race to the bottom has already claimed CityLink and with another mainstream carrier, reporting losses of £111m in 2018, it won’t be long before it claims another (and by no means am I suggesting the -£111m carriers will be next).
So is it time for us consumers to consider the real cost of distribution and to accept we need to pay for delivery?
A nominal £1 charge if passed directly to the carrier and this carrier in question, would increase their revenues by 50%.
Providing that went back into the network, as opposed to ‘into the pockets‘, to fund staff and drivers, I‘d be pretty sure that these scenes would be a thing of the past.
