Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Reliability of delivery companies ~ an AI response ~
Couriers & Deliveries in London ~ does there exist any objective, independent comparison of the reliability of couriers or delivery companies in London?
Ex-Chat GPT ~
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There are now two reasonably objective, independent UK-wide comparisons, and they are much more useful than Google/Trustpilot-style reviews if what you mean by reliability of actual parcel delivery.
The important caveat is that neither is specifically London-only. However, they cover the major operators serving London, and one of them is particularly useful for comparing actual delivery problems.
1. Citizens Advice — probably the most useful comparison
Citizens Advice publishes an annual Parcels League Table, based on independent survey research rather than customer reviews. Its latest 2025 table examined the five largest operators by parcel volume and assessed:
- delivery performance
- customer service
- accessibility
- trust
The 2025 results were:
| Company | Delivery | Customer service | Trust | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Mail | 3.2/5 | 3.4/5 | 4.0/5 | 3.25/5 |
| Amazon Logistics | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.00/5 |
| DPD | 2.4 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 2.25/5 |
| Evri | 2.4 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 2.25/5 |
| Yodel | 2.4 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 2.00/5 |
This is based on 8,000 UK adults, surveyed in August–September 2025, with equal numbers of respondents associated with each of the five companies so that they could be compared.
Interestingly, 37% of respondents reported a problem with their most recent parcel delivery. The most common problems included the driver leaving before the recipient could reach the door, parcels being left insecurely, and late delivery.
Citizens Advice — Parcels League Table 2025
2. Ofcom — arguably the strongest independent source
Ofcom has a rather more comprehensive annual study of parcel delivery experiences. Its 2025 research surveyed 4,058 UK residents who had used delivery companies in the preceding six months.
For satisfaction with the delivery company overall, the 2025 figures were:
| Operator | Satisfied | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 56% | 16% |
| FedEx | 56% | 18% |
| DHL | 54% | 17% |
| Parcelforce | 49% | 19% |
| Royal Mail | 46% | 22% |
| DPD | 42% | 26% |
| Yodel | 37% | 33% |
| Evri | 30% | 39% |
| UPS | 58% | — |
The UPS figure is particularly interesting because Ofcom's detailed table puts it at 58% satisfaction, ahead of Amazon and FedEx.
But there is an important distinction: Ofcom is measuring customer experience/satisfaction, not simply whether a parcel physically arrived on time.
Ofcom also found that 68% of people had experienced at least one delivery issue during the preceding six months. The most frequent were delays (28%), parcels being left somewhere inappropriate (26%), inadequate knocking/ringing (20%), and insufficient time to answer the door (19%).
Ofcom — parcel delivery customer experience research
There is an important wrinkle for London
I would not automatically assume that a UK-wide ranking tells you which company is most reliable at a particular London address.
Courier performance is heavily affected by:
- the particular local depot
- the individual delivery round
- the number of parcels on that route
- whether delivery is to a house, flat or communal entrance
- parking/access problems
- the particular driver
- whether the sender has specified a safe place
- whether the parcel is handed to a subcontractor
This is particularly relevant in London. A courier can have an excellent national statistical record but be remarkably poor on one particular route.
A useful distinction: "reliable" can mean several different things
If you're considering which courier to specify when buying something, I would separate:
- Actually arrives — failure/loss rate
- Arrives when promised — lateness
- Delivered to the correct address
- Not dumped somewhere inappropriate
- Driver gives sufficient opportunity to answer
- Tracking accuracy
- Ease of contacting the company when something goes wrong
- Speed of resolving a failed delivery
The Citizens Advice and Ofcom studies don't measure all of these equally well.
For example, Ofcom's 2025 data put Amazon/FedEx/UPS/DHL relatively high for customer satisfaction, whereas Citizens Advice's methodology produces a somewhat different picture because it incorporates trust, accessibility and customer service as well as delivery.
One other source worth knowing about
There is also a useful Parliamentary/House of Lords synthesis of the evidence, which brings together Ofcom and Citizens Advice rather neatly. It confirms that the two independent studies broadly identify the same underlying problem: a substantial proportion of UK parcel recipients experience delivery problems, with particularly poor reported experiences for Evri and Yodel.
House of Lords Library — Quality and reliability of parcel delivery...
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Tags for Forum Posts: Couriers
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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I’m surprised that Evri even makes 30%. They seem to prefer leaving parcels on my doorstep in full view rather than ringing the bell.
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Permalink Reply by Rory
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I complained to Evri just this week about that. Made no attempt to ring the bell to ensure that the parcel was delivered safely, just got an email at after 9pm to tell me it was in my porch, in full view of any passers by. They really only have one job: ring on the doorbell and hand the resident the parcel. Why is this so very difficult?
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It’s the way the couriers contracted. They are expected to do X number of deliveries in a set time. There’s every incentive to drop and run and zero to wait a minute.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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In the listing above Evri (formerly Hermes) are deservedly at or near the bottom of the pack.
I don't think they're quite as bad as a few years ago. Between one eBay sale and a separate eBay purchase, I lost about £100, due respectively to (a) smashed contents; and (b) a delivery to me of someone else's package: an address in Archway Road N6, which I hand-delivered.
However, in respect of eBay purchases, they seem to be trying to make up for their er, service,—with multiple, automated confirmatory emails from do-not-reply@evri.com
- We've got your parcel
- We've got your eBay Simple Delivery parcel
- Your eBay Simple Delivery parcel is out for delivery
- We've delivered your eBay Simple Delivery parcel
- How did your courier do?
which partly overlap with eBay's own messages. Any problems, one can deal with their robotic, looping, useless "chatbot". By and large you get what you pay for …
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It’s not just customers who suffer from (in my far too frequent experience) the appalling Evri “hit and run” technique. I recently bought some books on Abe and complained to the bookseller when Evri left them on the doorstep and vamoosed. To my surprise I had a detailed response from the owner, who said he a) lost money on all his deliveries (Abe’s commission and maximum delivery charge don’t leave enough to cover the cost), b) separately he’s also had numerous parcels lost or regularly delayed by Royal Mail, c) in his experience all the couriers are equally dreadful and he uses Evri as it’s one of only two that will take small packages such as books. As a small business person he sounded pretty despairing, even if sympathetic, but said that competition from Amazon — who obviously have their own in-house delivery network — meant he couldn’t increase his prices to cover actual delivery costs, so this was the least-worst option.
I’ve had some success in the past with bigger companies by asking them to refund delivery costs when Evri have behaved so badly and providing chapter and verse on their actions (and often dishonesty about when or where something was delivered), on the grounds that if the sellers get enough complaints they may then remonstrate with Evri, but I suspect really they don’t care either and just see a refund to me as a cost of doing business.
Didn’t the BBC do a documentary earlier this year with clandestine footage of Evri that showed what a cynical and conremptuous company it appeared to be? I didn’t see it, but I remember an appeal for viewers’ experiences on the BBC website. Don’t suppose it changed anything, though.
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IN the last few minutes, I've been handed a small parcel from an Evri deliverer. She buzzed, waited and handed me the small packet. I then received an email with the photo she took of the (literal) handover. Which is surely good practice.
Evri/Hermes have not been so diligent in the past and, generally speaking, delivery businesses IMO need more regulatory attention. Below is the second half of an email I wrote in March 2023 to Catherine West MP; I've also attached the source, EVRI's then company report:
=========================+2—Concert TopCo Ltd., trading as EVRI.Trading Standards; package delivery industry & need for regulation!.As any casual search of social media would reveal, EVRI does not have a great reputation. The holding company is Concert Topco Ltd., whose annual report I've attached.The ultimate controlling shareholder is Advent International Corporation in the Cayman Islands, to which a dividend was paid last year of £762,091,000.(please see page 64 in their annual report). This massive sum came from their subsidiaries, themselves being a web of other holding companies; Concert- Midco Bidco and NewCo..The self-employed contractors delivering the "last mile" are thought to be on piece rates of 50p or 60p per parcel delivered..A BBC article in December quotes Kevan Jones MP as saying the delivery industry should be regulated. I much agree!In January, the rebranded company apologised for the Xmas failings.I can vouch, both as a buyer and a seller through eBay, for the company's customer service as being abysmal. To most intents and purposes, it is impossible to contact them.Until this sector is regulated, is there any scope for some agency of government having Trading Standards functions to intervene please?I could supply more information if you wish,.Many thanks,========================= - Attachments:
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DON, Catherine had phoned me on Friday 10th March 2024—as arranged—about the Harringay railway station bridge incline and the EVRI/Hermes matter.
My email was by way of a recap on what we'd discussed and with financial detail. Including that dividend of three quarters of a billion pounds.
She said something along the lines that the (then) Conservative Government was unlikely to take action to regulate the industry. True enough; I wanted to put on record this issue with my MP.
CW was of course then part of the Labour Opposition and not in a position to take action. Perhaps now in Government, Labour will take action (?)
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