Brits’ parcel anxiety grows as logistics firms keep messing up home deliveries

Unreliable home deliveries are detrimentally impacting the mental health of Brits, according to new research from InPost.

The parcel locker service found that 58 per cent of UK citizens are experiencing stress because their parcels never turn up on time.

This seems understandable given the amount of time people spend at home each month waiting for their parcels to be delivered: 3.2 hours.

What’s more, Brits spend another 2.3 hours every month on parcel rescheduling and collection because it wasn’t delivered as expected.

Parcel delivery issues are becoming more commonplace, too - with one in three parcel delivery first attempts failing and 40 per cent of Brits experiencing one or more missed deliveries monthly. For a further 40 per cent of Brits, the most common delivery issue is when parcels are delivered to insecure “safe places”.

It’s easy to see how time consuming and mentally draining this can be given that most Brits receive six parcels monthly.

Missing a parcel isn’t just a frustrating part of the day, though. It can have even bigger consequences, with one out of 10 respondents missing weddings, family gatherings, job interviews and other big life events because a parcel delivery was delayed.

For the vast majority of Brits, delivery delays are beginning to affect their daily lives. Sixty-six per cent of respondents said it’s an issue that has previously hindered their work meetings, childcare and social lives.

With delivery-related stress among Brits growing, it’s exacerbated if the missed or delayed delivery in question is something very important. With 92% stressed when this happens to them, the items they’d be most worried about not being delivered on time are vital documents (82 per cent) , special occasion gifts (76%) and gadgets (72 per cent).

Given that home deliveries have become so problematic for Brits, many people are now looking for better alternatives. And one such example are contactless parcel delivery lockers, like the ones increasingly being installed by InPost at UK supermarkets like Aldi nationwide.

These lockers are designed to give people more freedom as to when and where to collect their parcels. You just simply order an item to a delivery locker of your choosing and pick it up at a convenient time. The lockers are opened by scanning a smartphone-generated QR code. Six in ten people now prefer these than having a parcel delivered to their home or work address.

Michael Rouse, CEO International at InPost UK, said: “Britain is losing precious time every week to a delivery system that no longer reflects how people actually live anymore. Our research shows just how much time, energy and emotion is being drained from households because deliveries still rely on someone being home at the right moment.”

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