British employees are costing their companies more than £80 million in postage costs, to send personal parcels from the office
, according to a recent survey. Over 2000 people were questioned by OnePoll, who conducted the research on behalf of Collect+.
The results found that out of the 2000 people surveyed, around 700 used the office mailing service to send personal packages at their company’s expense, rather than go to the post office. Also around 200 of those people were sending up to ten parcels a year.
It could be assumed that people were using the office mailing service to save money on postage, but the main reason people gave was to avoid long queues at their own local post office. 300 people also confessed to having their personal parcels delivered to their office address, as no one would be in to receive it. This would then avoid people having to go and collect the parcel from the local post office.
Mark Lewis, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Collect+ expressed, “For many working people, Post Office opening hours just aren’t convenient and the idea of joining an ever longer queue as the number of post offices is reduced isn’t anyone’s idea of a fun lunch hour.
“With the huge growth in popularity of online shopping and the ease with which items can be purchased, people are also demanding greater convenience in how their parcels are delivered and returned,” Mark added.
The study was conducted to showcase the availability of Collect+ network. Their commercial properties are open longer than most post offices and the majority of them are open seven days a week.
The company which is a joint Venture with Yodel, a parcel delivery company, works with the PayPoint network to enable customers to send and receive parcels at their own convenience. Approximately 80 per cent of the country lives within one mile of a Connect+ commercial property.
Connect+ are based in Watford, Hertfordshire, but they have recently opened their 4000th commercial property in Alloa, Scotland. Jahan Tayyab, Manager of the Menteith Mini Market in Alloa (the 4000th outlet) expressed their delight about the new commercial property, “Becoming the 4,000th corner shop in the Collect+ network is a really exciting prospect for us and we’re looking forward to offering the local community a parcel service that meets the needs of their busy lives. It’s also a great opportunity to attract more customers through the door and diversify the products and services we can give them.”
So are you guilty of sending parcels to and from work? Will you continue to do so now you know how much money it costs UK companies in tough economical times? Or do you simply see it as a perk of the job?
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