Royal Mail is operating in a declining market, but one type of mail that we are sending more of is fulfilment mail (mail that is sent to fulfil an order, for example made online or via catalogues). Much of this type of mail is either too large to fit through the letterbox or requires a signature on delivery (this is known as ‘undeliverable’ post).
In September 2011 Postcomm (the then regulator) approved Royal Mail’s application for permission to trial leaving such items with the recipient’s neighbour in order to make delivery more convenient. A three-month trial commenced on 28 November 2011 in six areas across the UK.
We wanted to know how well informed consumers living in trial areas were, how they felt about the trial and whether they felt they benefitted from participating. This report contains our findings.
