Post Office to send and receive Evri and DPD parcels

Customers of the Post Office will soon be able to use the DPD and Evri delivery services to ship packages over the counter.

The Post Office has announced that the new service would launch in a few retailers just in time for the busiest Christmas delivery season.

For the first time in the Post Office's 360-year existence, carriers other than Royal Mail will be available.

However, post offices in the UK's smaller, more rural communities could not get an immediate boost from the new deal.

Less than a quarter of the 11,500 post offices in the UK would be included in the service's debut, according to Evri's chief executive Martijn De Lange, who also said that "the bigger ones, the ones that people send a load of parcels in" will be included.

Recently, Royal Mail has also had issues. After the company missed its supply deadlines earlier this year, the industry watchdog Ofcom opened an investigation.

At the time, Royal Mail reported that high staff absenteeism rates and eighteen days of industrial action had disrupted its services.

It had previously stated that because online buying is becoming more and more common, it was concentrating on packages and that letter delivery was no longer viable.

However, rival couriers pose a serious threat to the business, and in February, it said that it was losing almost £1 million every day.

(Sources:bbc.co.uk)