People across the UK are facing some of the worst parcel delivery experiences in years, with new figures suggesting around 15 million people had an issue with their most recent delivery. The findings come from Citizens Advice, which said the state of the parcel delivery market is “broken” and that many firms are “persistently failing” the public.
A survey for the charity found that 37% of parcel users ran into a problem the last time they received a delivery. The most frequent complaints included drivers leaving before customers reached the door (29%), parcels being left in unsafe places (24%) and items arriving late (24%). Citizens Advice has also published its latest parcel league table, which ranks the five biggest firms by volume.
Royal Mail came out on top with 3.25 stars out of five, while Yodel finished bottom for another year, scoring two stars and failing to improve on last year’s performance.
The charity said that scores across the industry have barely moved in the past five years and warned that the number of people reporting problems is now at its highest point in half a decade.
Dame Clare Moriarty, the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Ofcom has passed the parcel of responsibility for long enough.
“We’ve been doing the work of the regulator for five years now by holding parcel companies to account and speaking up for consumers who are bearing the brunt of persistently poor service.
“Our league table has tracked parcel problems from warehouse to doorstep. We continue to see millions of people chasing lost parcels, having their accessibility needs ignored and hitting a brick wall when they try to complain.
“The question now is whether the regulator will take tougher action to improve the parcel market once and for all.”
The report also highlights serious accessibility failings. Despite new conditions introduced by Ofcom in 2023 to ensure disabled customers can share their access needs, nearly three million people with accessibility requirements (37%) said they still could not tell firms what support they needed.
Accessibility scores within the league table got worse this year, Citizens Advice said.
Almost half (47%) of people who had delivery problems said they faced further difficulties when trying to resolve them, including slow responses, automated chat systems that failed to help, and having to contact the company more than once.
Citizens Advice is now calling on the regulator to step in, monitor performance more closely and fine the worst offenders.
An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator has a “strong track record” of holding parcel companies accountable.
They added: “Under these rules, postal operators must have a simple and transparent complaints process in place, and have clear and effective policies and procedures for the fair treatment of disabled customers.
“While overall satisfaction is reasonably high at 78%, people’s experiences can vary depending on which parcel company delivers their package, and we’re continuing to press operators to make further improvements.
“We’ll also continue to work with Citizens Advice – as the statutory consumer advocate for post – to achieve our shared goal of ensuring consumers receive a reliable service, whichever company is used.”
The research was carried out by Opinium, which surveyed 8,000 UK adults between August 29 and September 27.
All respondents had received a parcel in the previous month from one of the following companies: Royal Mail, DPD, Yodel, Amazon Logistics and Evri.
