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Published
Sep 13, 2021
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UK's Post Office inks deal with Amazon

Published
Sep 13, 2021

The UK’s Post Office is set to process packages for Amazon on a national scale in what’s being seen as a challenge to its former owner The Royal Mail.


Post Office


The Post Office has signed a click-and-collect contract with Amazon, the world’s largest online shopping and delivery company, the Times newspaper reported.

Until this year, the Post Office was bound under an agreement to act exclusively for Royal Mail. The ending of that agreement means the Post Office is now free to operate with third-party delivery firms.

The deal is similar to its arrangement with DPD, which operates the country’s second largest delivery van fleet.

By Christmas, 1,500 of the Post Office’s 11,500 outlets will offer Amazon pick-up and drop-off services. The arrangement, which will be launched across the country next year, comes after six months of successful trials in 200 Post Offices.

The move comes as the battle in the online delivery sector is bound to heat up, especially ahead of the busy Christmas trading period.

“The world’s leading e-commerce company appreciates the value of working with the Post Office and the high level of customer service you provide day-in and day-out,”  Post Office chief executive Nick Read. told postmasters in a video announcing the deal. 

“It is helping us develop a proposition that is effective and efficient for our customers and our postmasters.”

Boosted by the rapid growth in e-commerce during the pandemic, the online shopping home delivery market could be worth an additional £100 million a year on top of the Post Office’s annual £1 billion revenues.

Of the Amazon and DPD deals, a Post Office spokesman told The Times: “These complement our long-term partnership with Royal Mail.”

Amazon is also aiming to create 10,000 new permanent UK jobs this year, lifting its headcount to 55,000. At end of 2019, it employed 30,000 people in Britain.

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