Guernsey Post aims to widen parcel market with UK depot
GUERNSEY Post is offering local residents the chance to order items from companies that do not deliver to the island via a bespoke address in England.
It has set up a depot in Portsmouth and through its new myUKaddress service will provide an address for anyone who registers to have the item delivered to the depot, from where it will be shipped to the customer in Guernsey.
Deputy chief executive Steve Sheridan said the company set up a depot in Portsmouth in May to enable it to consolidate packages from the UK before shipping them to the island.
‘One of our objectives once we secured that site was to look at ways in which we could open up the parcel market,’ he said.
‘We continue to see ongoing declines in our traditional mail, and therefore we’re developing our business model to meet the changing environment, and that is primarily growth in parcels.’
Last year 60% of the 5m. items delivered by the company were parcels.
Cassandra Fish, head of commercial at Guernsey Post, said in this first phase of the operation, people would be able to handle the entire process online. Once the package arrives in Portsmouth they will be contacted and asked to confirm what it contains and pay the postage.
Postage costs start at £4.95 for the smallest item, such as clothes or shoes, up to £42.95 for the largest items such as a pushchair.
The maximum weight of each package is 30kg.
Mrs Fish expected the process would add two to three days to standard delivery times.
Should anyone want to order something larger, for example furniture, they are being asked to contact customer services, but under phase two of the operation prices for larger items will be included on the website.
Items sent to the UK site will be likely to have VAT charged on them and if customers wanted to claim this back they would need to do so through the retailer, she said.
‘We can provide the proof of export certificate, but it’s ultimately up to the customer to contact the online retailer.'
Currently many online retailers, such as Amazon, often automatically take off the VAT when it is being shipped to a Guernsey address.
Guernsey Post started promoting the new service, which is free to join, on social media yesterday morning and by 2.30pm 350 customers had signed up.
To find out more go to www.guernseypost.com/myukaddress.
