French delivery company strikes deal with Post Office in blow to Royal Mail

This exclusivity, which dated back to the spin-off of the Post Office in 2012, ended under the terms of a new partnership signed in 2020, which allowed the company to open up its network to other providers.

The Post Office has since also struck click and collect deals with Amazon and DHL.

Lisa Webb, consumer law expert at Which?, said: “Nobody likes waiting for hours in a long queue to post a parcel, whether you are sending gifts to loved ones or posting unwanted items to online customers, so this service should make it much easier for customers to ship items more efficiently, as long as drop off points are easily accessible to all customers.

“Currently unless you pay for a tracked delivery, it can be difficult to retrieve your parcel if something goes wrong with Royal Mail. A new parcel service will hopefully be a better way for customers to keep track of their parcels after they’ve posted them.”

It comes at a torrid time for Royal Mail, which is grappling with the decline of its core letters business as well as the impact of strikes.

The postal service is facing a fine of up to £750m after delivering more than a quarter of first class letters late last year – its worst performance on record.

Meanwhile, the Post Office is attempting to capitalise on growing demand for parcel services, fuelled by the rise of online shopping.

In a note to staff, Post Office deputy chief executive Owen Woodley said the company was at risk of continuing to lose customers because of its lack of online offering.

He said: “This is an incredibly competitive market, which is compounded by the fast rise of alternative PUDO [pick-up drop-off] providers, such as lockers. And we all know, the long-term decline of stamps will inevitably continue.

“We regard Parcels Online as being crucial to securing long term sustainable growth for our Postmasters through a multi-carrier and multi-channel Post Office.”

At launch, 3,600 Post Office branches will be available for the online DPD service, increasing to 4,000 next month.