Customers could find it harder to collect undelivered parcels – after Royal Mail slashed Southwark delivery office opening hours by 24 hours a week.
The changes are being rolled out across roughly half of 1,200 customer service points nationally – which are normally housed in delivery offices.
Royal Mail has reassured customers it’s increasing delivery services to ensure there’s less chance they’ll need to collect their parcel in the first place.
Until recently, Southwark’s delivery offices were generally open to customers for 46 hours a week, including on Sundays. It’s now down to 22 hours a week.
The new hours will mean customers only have two two-hour windows during weekdays – with no service on Sundays.
It is understood that this is part of a move to bring Royal Mail up to speed with services like Amazon which prioritise doorstep delivery.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We understand the importance that some customers attach to Customer Service Points (CSPs) as one of a number of ways in which they can access our services.
“An increase in doorstep services such as Parcel Collect and Safeplace are helping us to enhance customer convenience and deliver more parcels first time.
“In May this year, we also introduced automatic redelivery of parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when posties attempt to deliver the first time.
“Over 99 per cent of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt. This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs.”