Bolton businessman’s fears as Royal Mail remove PO Box service
Aesthetic World based on Spa Road has been in business for more than 20 years with 80 per cent of their work received through the Royal Mail which they collect from the PO BOX every morning at 8.30am.
However, due to changes, the dental company have been told the PO BOX is closing down and Royal Mail will be delivering post instead, so they now expect deliveries which now would be up to 12pm each day or later.
Wayne Crump, the lab manager at Aesthetics World said the new delivery system will cause ‘major disruptions’ to the lab, staff and postal clients as well as the impressions taken by the surgeons which will take longer to process.
Speaking about the situation and how it will impact businesses across Bolton, Wayne said: “For the last 20 years running this dental lab, we have been getting three to four bags of large post everyday delivered to Royal Mail near Warburtons from the dentist and that includes impressions and all the rest of it.
“We would set off to the PO Box at Royal Mail and collect them bags every morning.
“That means my business is set up,when I pick them bags up I am back in the lab at 8.45am, we unbag all the work and then we start the work.
Royal Mail changes (Image: Wayne Crump) “I have got a team of ten guys waiting for all that work to start and process the impressions which they have to be done on the day because they dry out and that means you get poor fits.
“But now this has all been changed and the Royal Mail has said because of money costing exercises, that they are shutting that facility down and they will now be delivering all the parcels themselves and you could get the parcels between 10am or 12pm.
“So essentially due to the changes I have lost half a day’s work every day and I have got ten people waiting round for this work.
“But I also know many other businesses who used to queue up there for their parcels are also being affected.
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“I just don’t know why they have all of a sudden decided to stop doing it because this is a service many businesses need.
“It is going to have a massive effect on the business.
“We are not a small company either ALS dental, Amalgamated Lab Services, have 700 staff up and down the country.
“They say you can go and pick it up between 1am and 6am but my parcels are not delivered until 8am so I can’t use that service and have to wait for them to deliver.
“Eighty per cent of the business I get in this lab is by post and some of my services have gone out of the window due to timings so this could potentially lose me a lot of clients.
Royal Mail FAQ (Image: Wayne Crump) “It has left me feeling very frustrated because it is already hard in the trade at the moment, especially dentistry.
“We were struggling when it flatlined during Covid and now as we are just getting back on our feet again and things are starting to look a bit rosier, we now have this come in.
“There are a lot of companies who will be impacted by this.
“Outside of London and Birmingham there are more dental labs in Bolton than anywhere else, so it is going to affect us.
“In effect, we are going to have to change everything we do at the moment because we are going to have to push our work back in the day which will have a knock-on effect on staff if we have to change times of shifts.”
Wayne provided The Bolton News with a picture of a FAQ regarding the changes.
It states: “We need to ensure our services are reflective of cost and our changing operational network and processes.
“Following a review of the product, we made the commercial decision to withdraw the PO Box Transfer Service.
“From July 1, we will resume delivery of mail addressed to your geographic address.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Following a review, we have decided to withdraw the PO Box transfer service at the end of June. This was communicated to businesses in April so they could make the appropriate adjustments.
“This decision reflects a significant reduction in use of the service, and the increased costs of providing it amid improvements we have made to how we sort and deliver mail.
“PO box collect and PO Box delivery services will continue to be available for customers.”
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Source – INDIA TV
