Postal services are a fundamental part of daily life for communities across Scotland. Consumers rely on postal services for hospital appointments, welfare benefits, financial and utilities post, and letters and cards to stay connected with family and friends.
Post is also vital to businesses who need to send their products to customers, and use the mail system to manage their finances and other affairs.
In these ways, postal services play a critical role in supporting the UK economy and connecting people to essential markets and services.
Consumer Scotland’s research shows that postal consumers across Scotland are concerned about the affordability and reliability of the postal services they currently receive. However, consumers in rural and island communities face particular challenges.
Our focus on island communities
Around 103,000 consumers live on Scotland’s 94 inhabited islands across Na h-Eileanan an lar, Shetland, Orkney and the isles of Argyll and Bute, Highland and North Ayrshire. Services – including letters, parcels and availability of Post Offices - vary greatly depending on where they are located, how connected they are and how many people live there.
Last month, Consumer Scotland spoke directly to communities in Orkney, Shetland, and Na h-Eileanan an Iar to hear first-hand about the range of persistent challenges with the postal system that affect daily life, businesses and wellbeing.
Speaking directly to communities in the islands is important because previous research has shown those most reliant on post are also more likely to be digitally excluded. Additionally, island consumers can be more reliant on post because they have less access to goods and some services such as healthcare or some shops which are further away from the islands.
Our engagement with consumers in island communities suggests there are widespread challenges with postal services in their areas which go beyond what should be reasonably expected.
Distance, weather, and challenges with postal routes
Consumers we spoke to were often willing to accept a degree of slower or more variable service due to the particular circumstance of living on an island, but some persistent problems remain. Across all three island groups, residents report slow and inconsistent delivery speeds, often attributing delays to distance and adverse weather. However, several consumers told us they have seen a marked decline following changes to how their mail is routed via the mainland. Some consumers reported persistent issues including those in the east of Orkney mainland, such as Harray.
Staffing struggles and local knowledge gaps
Another issue raised was the importance of local knowledge. Consumers who attended the workshops highlighted the importance of their local ‘postie’ and the knowledge they bring with them. Across Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan an Iar, due to the prevalence of crofts, many homes are named rather than numbered, and some share identical names. That means accurate delivery depends on familiarity with the area. In Orkney and Shetland consumers were very aware that challenges with recruiting and retaining staff had led to issues with their postal services.
Parcel surcharges and workarounds
As previously highlighted in work by Consumer Scotland, islanders face frequent parcel surcharges, and, in some cases, outright refusal from businesses to deliver to the islands. To adapt, many have devised workarounds such as ordering to mainland addresses and relying on local couriers or hauliers. Something that was clear from our early discussions is that this can place significant burdens of stress, time and money on consumers who sometimes go to great lengths to get parcels to their location.
Impacts on consumers
The combined impact of these issues is at best inconvenient, but in some cases is costly and isolating. Residents of na h-Eileanan an lar, Orkney and Shetland, told us how:
- Essential goods can become more expensive or inaccessible and lack of postal options may mean they miss out on deals or have to wait longer for necessities
- High surcharges for many parcel products when ordering goods to the islands have a direct effect on consumers’ pockets
- Medical appointments can be missed or received at short notice particularly when planning travel to the mainland such as Inverness, Aberdeen or Glasgow
- Small businesses suffer, with delayed invoices and compliance issues and delays to essential materials which resulted in paused production
- Small businesses reported they had to pass on additional costs of delivery surcharges to their customers which resulted in higher prices of goods
- Older residents feel increasingly isolated, as personal correspondence becomes harder to send and slower to arrive
Policy solutions: What do island residents want?
There were mixed responses to technology-led solutions like drones or remote lockers. Some consumers were keen on these advancements and others expressed concerns that drones could go missing or would not be effective due to higher wind speeds on islands. They also expressed concern about any changes that might dilute the role of Royal Mail or Post Office services, or shift responsibility onto communities. Mobile postal units and unmanned kiosks were viewed positively but only if they complement, not replace, existing services.
Across the possible solutions discussed, the change consumers most want is the removal of parcel surcharges, which was seen as the most equitable and impactful solution to high parcel delivery costs.
Conclusion
Our full research will be published early next year but it is already clear that action is required to address a range of concerns that island consumers in Scotland have about the postal services they receive. Consumer Scotland looks forward to engaging with government, regulators and industry to make the case for a more equitable and inclusive postal service that meets consumers’ needs.