Parcel delivery charges
Rural and island communities in Scotland often have to unfairly pay more to have parcels delivered, and some companies refuse to deliver to these areas at all.
We are committed to ensuring that the parcel delivery market works in the interests of all Scottish consumers and businesses.
We believe that fair regulation of parcel delivery surcharging can only be brought about by action from the UK Government, but are doing all we can to alleviate the issues faced by Scottish consumers.
In November 2018 we launched the Fairer Deliveries For All: An Action Plan which set out a series of actions designed to tackle these long-standing issue of unfair delivery charges in remote and rural areas of Scotland. Read the news story: fairer delivery charges.
In August 2020 we published a progress statement on the eight actions in the Action Plan.
Alongside the progress statement, two independent research documents were also published:
- the Review of the Statement of Principles for Parcel Deliveries. The Statement of Principles was developed in 2013 to help retailers on their policies regarding the delivery of goods purchased online by consumers. The review was carried out to gain a better understanding of the scope and reach of the Principles
- an Econometric Analysis of Postal Deliver Pricing in Scotland. This analysis was commissioned as a first step towards benchmarking when and where delivery charges are fair and unfair in Scotland
As we continue our work on making the parcel delivery market fairer, we will support the work of stakeholders such as Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), Trading Standards Scotland, the Consumer Protection Partnership and the Advertising Standards Authority in relation to parcel deliveries.
Previous work has included the then Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, chaired a roundtable meeting on 27 June 2018 with parcel delivery companies, businesses, consumer groups and regulatory bodies to discuss how services and charges can be made fairer, better and more transparent. View the minutes of the ministerial roundtable.
To find out more about your rights as a consumer or your obligations as a business go to the delivery law website which is the ‘one stop shop’ website in the UK for those seeking advice and support about misleading delivery charge advertising.