Unreceived and Undeliverable Mail - Costs to Individuals and Businesses: UK

Part
01
of two
Part
01

Unreceived and Undeliverable Mail - Breakdown of Cost UK

Detailed research fails to uncover the major reasons for total mail loss for both individuals and businesses. There is an insufficient amount of data available to the public pertaining to the percentage of mail that's lost due to outdated addresses for both individual mail and business mail in the United Kingdom. About 5.6% of all e-commerce orders placed in the United Kingdom will never arrive at their destination while the average cost of a failed delivery to retailers is €16.4. Four out of every five retailers (about 80%) revealed that most failed deliveries are due to "mistyped" addresses by customers. Detailed research for the percentage of mail in the United Kingdom lost due to outdated address does not uncover national data.

TOTAL LOSS OF MAIL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: REASONS & COST

  • According to a United Kingdom Express web report, one of the reasons for the total loss of mail/parcels in the United Kingdom is that various issues as well as faults can occur within the several stages of delivery.
  • A survey conducted across the e-commerce sector of the United Kingdom reveals that an average of one in every 20 orders made online does not reach the customer during the first attempt.
  • About 5.6% of orders placed in the United Kingdom do not arrive at their destination while the average cost of a failed delivery toe retailers is €16.4, four out of every five retailers (about 80%) revealed that most failed deliveries are due to "mistyped" addresses by customers.
  • A United Kingdom based widower was stunned to receive a lost mail through Royal Mail on behalf of his "dead wife EIGHT YEARS late." Royal mail has failed to reveal the major reason for this and other lost mail, claiming the circumstances are being investigated.

PERCENTAGE OF MAIL LOST DUE TO ADDRESS ISSUES

  • Detailed research for the portion of mail in the United Kingdom lost due to outdated address does not return any helpful insights.
  • A Post and Parcel Info web report on the real cost implications of failed deliveries in the United Kingdom reveals that about 73% of UK based shoppers suffer disproportionately from late as well as failed mailed parcel deliveries. The report further reveals that "incorrect address data" is the cause of most failed parcel delivery issues across the United Kingdom.
  • About 5.6% of e-commerce packages mailed to customer across the United Kingdom end up undelivered (are lost). E-commerce retailers believe a significant number of the 5.6% of mail lost across the United Kingdom are due to wrongly supplied addresses by customers.
  • Unfortunately, non of the uncovered reports specifies the percentage of mail loss due to outdated addresses for both individual and business organizations across the United Kingdom.

METHODOLOGY

Detailed research through surveys, reports from postal agencies in the United Kingdom such as Post and Parcel Info among other precompiled resources for the significant reasons for total mail loss for both individuals and businesses fails to return any of insights on the percentage of mail lost due to outdated addresses for both individual and businesses across the United Kingdom. Insights obtained from a Post & Parcel Info wen publication could not revealed total mail loss for both individuals and businesses or the percentage of mail that's lost due to outdated addresses for both individual mail and business mail but majored on the true cost implications of failed deliveries in the United Kingdom.

Research through scholarly journals such as JSTOR, Oxford Academic Journals among other scholarly journals for research reports regarding the major reasons for total mail loss for both individuals and businesses in the United Kingdom failed to uncover any research reports that specified the percentage of mail that's lost due to outdated addresses for both individual and business mail across the United Kingdom. There was also no report pertaining the major reasons that lead to total mail loss for both individuals and businesses in the UK. We assumed such a study is yet to be conducted or made public as several cases are under investigation.

Research through news/trade journals like the UK Express, the UK Mirror, etc., failed to uncover the percentage of mail lost across the UK due to outdated addresses or the major reasons that lead to total mail loss for both individuals and businesses in the UK. Insights obtained from the UK Mirror only revealed that a UK based widower was stunned to receive a lost mail through Royal Mail on behalf of his dead wife several years late.

An attempt to triangulate the reason for several lost Royal Mail packages across the United Kingdom was futile. All efforts to uncover from multiple sources the qualitative insights into the causes (reasons) and the quantity of such lost mail recently delivered by Royal Mail long after the addressees were deceased or had relocated proved abortive as Royal Mail apologized and revealed that several cases had just recently come to light and are undergoing "an internal investigation."

Due to the limited information available to the public, we have included some helpful findings slightly older than the usual 4-month credibility range as well as a few cases of notable lost mail delivered several years after the addressees have died or relocated.

Part
02
of two
Part
02

Unreceived and Undeliverable Mail - Breakdown of Business Cost UK

While we were unable to find a breakdown of the losses from lost mail per industry, we determined that there were over 250,000 lost mail cases in 2017. Moreover, Royal mail has announced that it has paid over £4,272,693 in compensation for lost mail to all of its customers.

Useful Findings:

  • Royal Mail, which provides postal services in the UK, is required to provide compensation on a fair and reasonable basis when a customer experiences loss in relation to certain universal postal services.
  • The average compensation paid per customer was £20.77 in 2016.
  • The total number of lost mail cases were over 250,000 in 2017.
  • The House of Commons has placed regulatory issues to the postal operators, stating that they should take reasonable steps to minimize the risk of the loss, theft, damage, or interference of post.
  • Royal Mail dominated the postal sector and the industry, with an estimated market share of 35.1% in 2018.

Research Strategy:

We began our research by looking for industry reports on the UK postal industry such as the Office of Communications and were able to find an annual monitoring report on the postal market. The report contained information about the revenue and compensation to different entities in the industry but no information was found on the different Industries in the UK that face the most monetary loss from lost mail. We also went through the website or RoyalMail, as the company is the biggest postal service in the UK. Unfortunately, we only found information on the company's revenue, growth, and future outlook. As a last resort, we tried to triangulate the information by finding information on the number of complaints or the percentage of complaints received for lost mails from different industries in the UK. We consulted sites such as Consultancy.uk and Express.co.uk. Unfortunately, we were only able to find information about the compensation paid by Royal Mail for various complaints and the total number of customer complaints.



Did this report spark your curiosity?

Sources
Sources

From Part 01
Quotes
  • "The number of complaints Royal Mail received rose 3% from last year. Although lost items remain the most common cause of complaint, the rise is accounted for primarily by complaints regarding damage and general complaints, as well as a new category of complaint – denial of receipt. See Section Three for more details."
Quotes
  • "The IMRG has estimated that in 2014 the cost of these ‘failed’ deliveries to retailers and other traders for goods sold online in the UK was £771 million (IMRG, 2014b). In calculating these costs to companies IMRG considered six delivery failure scenarios: failed first-time delivery that requires a redelivery; failed first-time delivery that is subsequently collected by the customer; failed delivery that is returned to the sender; late delivery; lost goods for which a replacement has to be sent; and lost goods that result in cancellation of the order by the customer (IMRG, 2014). In addition to the costs to retailers and traders, there are also the costs to customers of taking time off work to receive deliveries and the opportunity cost of foregoing other activities. "
Quotes
  • "Failing with online delivery comes with a price. For retailers and market place sellers in the United Kingdom this cost add up to almost 1 billion euros this year alone. Failed deliveries are in any case something online retailers would be better off without, but seeing the number of 1 billion euros per year makes you wonder why so much deliveries have to fail in the first place."
From Part 02
Quotes
  • "Loss continues to account for the highest proportion of complaints (24.6%) but this proportion fell by 3.9 percentage points from last year. The second largest category, denial of receipt, has had the largest increase in proportion of complaints, rising by 3.5 percentage points (9.4% in 2016-17 up to 12.9% in 2017-18). "
Quotes
  • "Looking at specific aspects of Royal Mail’s service, residential consumers are most satisfied with items sent reaching their destination (85%), items being delivered intact/ undamaged (84%), the quality of postal delivery to the home (84%) and the delivery speed (82%)."