Next-day delivery services dropped as Royal Mail strike chaos continues

Next-day delivery services by private parcel companies have become the latest casualty of the Royal Mail strike. 

DPD has temporarily suspended its next-day services in some areas of the UK as it struggles to cope with soaring demand as customers lose faith in Royal Mail because of strike disruption.

The firm has stopped offering next-day delivery in around 5 per cent of postcodes across the UK, with staff members saying they are struggling with a backlog with parcels expected to take up to three days to arrive.

DPD said Royal Mail industrial action has had “a huge knock-on effect across the entire industry” as customers flocked to other courier services ahead of Christmas.

A customer service agent told The Telegraph: “We can’t accept parcels that need to be delivered the next day… [first we need to deliver] the parcels already at the depot.”

The firm’s website lists 40 counties across the UK including Cheshire, Lancashire and Somerset where areas are currently experiencing delays.

There were also delivery delays in Gloucestershire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire because of “severe weather”.

Two weeks late

Customer Jade Powell, 26, said her DPD delivery is almost two weeks late. She ordered an expensive item from a tech website which was meant to be delivered on  Dec 1 but has received a daily notification that delivery has been delayed because of an “unexpected issue”.

The public transport worker said: “My package is at their depot and supposedly hasn’t moved for over a week.

“I understand it’s a busy time of year and the Royal Mail strikes are obviously putting strain on the system, but it’s the complete and utter lack of transparency that’s frustrating.”

Millions of letters and packages have reportedly piled up since members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 115,000 postal workers, staged walk outs last week, with further dates planned for Wednesday (Dec 14), as well as Dec 15, 23 and 24.

Monday was the recommended postage date for second class mail, the earliest it has ever been in the service’s history.

Union sources last week warned this paper Christmas cards may not arrive until February because of backlogs worsened by strikes.

Central London rally

It comes after thousands of Royal Mail staff gathered for a rally in central London last week to protest against pay and conditions in what they claimed was the biggest postal workers’ demonstration in living memory.

Dave Ward, CWU general secretary, has claimed the “unachievable” conditions proposed, which includes starting work three hours later, would “destroy the future of Royal Mail”.

The union has accused the delivery firm of wanting to make the service like a “gig economy”.

Royal Mail is trying to overhaul the 500-year-old business towards becoming a parcels-led company to try to compete against rivals such as Amazon.

They say it is losing £1 million a day, making the status quo untenable.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer of Royal Mail, accused the CWU of “holding Christmas to ransom”.

The postal strikes come amid a winter of strike action in the UK, including walkouts planned by nurses, ambulance staff, rail workers, Border Force and National Highways officers.

A DPD spokesman said: “We are experiencing short delays in certain depot locations, as a result of the industrial action at the Royal Mail, which has had a huge knock-on effect across the entire industry.

“As a result of the industrial action, we have seen an increase in demand for our services, as shippers seek alternatives to the Royal Mail in the UK.

“The problems are not across our entire network but can mean localised delays of 24 to 48 hours.”