Post Office ends exclusive relationship with Royal Mail by allowing people to send parcels with cheaper foreign-owned rivals including Germany’s Evri and France’s DPD in hammer blow to British postal service

• Royal Mail loses 360-year grip on delivering parcels from Post Office sites

Post offices will allow people to send parcels with outside couriers, rather than using Royal Mail, for the first time in their 360 year history.

The organisation has signed a deal to allow customers to choose to send items with Royal Mail’s foreign-owned and cheaper rivals – Evri of Germany and DPD of France.

The move is a hammer blow to the Royal Mail, which faces losing a huge chunk of its business with serious knock-on effects for the nation’s postmen.

It is likely that Evri and DPD will be able to undercut the prices of traditional Royal Mail services because courier firm staff generally have lower wages and poorer conditions.

The Post Office published research claiming to show that 48 per cent of parcel senders want greater choice of delivery providers.

Post offices will allow people to send parcels with outside couriers, rather than using Royal Mail, for the first time in their 360 year history (Pictured from left to right: Neveed, DPD employee, Mark, Post Office employee and Amos, Evri employee)

The move is a hammer blow to the Royal Mail, which faces losing a huge chunk of its business with serious knock-on effects for the nation’s postmen

And it suggested the rivals will be cheaper than Royal Mail saying: ‘The availability of multiple carriers at Post Office branches is poised to benefit individuals and businesses in their quest for cost-effective shipping solutions.’

Chief executive at the Post Office, Nick Read, announced the landmark move saying: ‘We are fundamentally transforming the Post Office by introducing new mails carriers for over-the-counter sales for the first time in our 360 year history.

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‘This expanded partnership with DPD and Evri shows how we are disrupting the mails market to offer greater choice for customers and more opportunities for Postmasters as we build a Post Office fit for the future.’

The organisation’s managing director for Parcels and Mails, Neill O’Sullivan, said: ‘Post Office is innovating to meet changing customer preferences and the increasingly competitive market.

‘Our new buy-in-branch service reflects how Post Office has adapted as a business to ensure our customers now have access to multiple delivery carriers and services conveniently in their local Post Office.

‘It’s very exciting to have major carriers DPD and Evri as our launch partners for this new service which will be rolled out across branches over the coming months.’

Amid concerns about the impact on Royal Mail, he said: ‘Our ongoing partnership with Royal Mail remains of utmost significance to us, and this announcement further enhances the Post Office’s pivotal role as an indispensable one-stop hub for communities where our valued customers can confidently participate in a wide array of face-to-face transactions, all while enjoying the exceptional assistance and support we provide.’

For the first time in its 360-year history, Post Office customers will now be able to choose other parcel carriers than Royal Mail

Evri said the partnership offers ‘cost-effective options’ (Pictured: Amos, Evri employee)

It is likely that Evri and DPD will be able to undercut the prices of traditional Royal Mail services because courier firm staff generally have lower wages and poorer conditions

Neveed, DPD employee, unveils a new partnership between the Post Office and parcel delivery companies

Evri chief executive, Martijn de Lange, said: ‘We’re committed to delivering a high-quality, convenient, and reliable service and this partnership offers our cost-effective options, with great quality benefits such as tracking as standard, within the Post Office’s expansive network to reach more communities.

‘We deliver over 730 million parcels each year and as well as offering domestic services, which sees us deliver to almost every household in the UK, our international services will be available at selected Post Office counters.’

The DPD UK chief executive, Elaine Kerr, said: ‘DPD parcel recipients can already collect their parcels from Post Office branches and regard them as safe and trusted locations for a wide range of services. The new service will help reinforce the unique position the branches have and, for the first time, give face-to-face parcel customers genuine choice over how they ship.

Royal Mail refused to say when it was told about the Post Office’s decision.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: ‘Royal Mail has a long history of working with the Post Office and offers our services at all Post Office outlets throughout the United Kingdom.

‘As customer preferences have evolved we have also opened up a variety of new ways for customers to access our services, including more online postage options through our website and app, 24/7 drop off at locations like our Parcel Postboxes and collection from home through services such as Royal Mail Parcel Collect.’

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