- 1 week ago
Panorama - Season 2025 Episode 39 -
Evri: Where’s My Parcel?
Evri: Where’s My Parcel?
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00A toy for the kids, a present for your partner, a gift for grandma.
00:11This Christmas, millions of us will be relying on delivery companies to make sure our presents get there on time.
00:19About 25% retail sales go through online. We'd expect e-commerce to be even bigger this Christmas than it has been before.
00:26Every is one of the biggest courier companies in the UK. It's also got one of the worst reputations.
00:35With Every, you feel like you're playing Russian roulette as to whether it's going to arrive or not.
00:39Some Every delivery drivers aren't happy.
00:43I think Every are making a fortune off the courier specs.
00:48We go undercover at Every to discover the tricks of the trade.
00:52Increasingly, people are relying on couriers to deliver their Christmas.
01:02So can they depend on Every?
01:05Hello. Nice to meet you, I'm sorry.
01:25It's 30 years since my granny taught me to knit, but here goes.
01:30I am finding it quite therapeutic, I have to say.
01:34Last year, you and Ply were getting ready for the Christmas rush.
01:38We send out an average of 12 to 15 parcels a week, so it's not huge.
01:43And we really offer it as a service to our customers, so they can get in touch with us.
01:48They know that they can order more stuff online.
01:51For a decade, they'd used Royal Mail to send parcels.
01:55But they switched to Every, thinking it would be better value.
01:59It sounded like we were going to be able to offer a cheaper service to our customers.
02:04And everything was fine for the first, I don't know, first couple of weeks.
02:09Then we started getting emails from customers, where is my parcel?
02:14And this makes your heart sink.
02:17When this was going on is when people are starting their Christmas knitting for Christmas presents.
02:23So it starts to get really busy.
02:25And then parcels started to get really delayed.
02:28And then a parcel didn't turn up at all.
02:31And then another one got damaged, turned up really damaged.
02:35They say they had problems with eight parcels.
02:38Six were delayed for between one and two weeks.
02:42A survey by industry regulator Ofcom suggested Every customers experience the most delays.
02:4914% reported a parcel was delivered late.
02:53Nearly double the industry average of 8%.
02:57Lawyers for Every say it disputes the accuracy of Ofcom's data.
03:03Every didn't give refunds for the two parcels that were damaged or lost.
03:09We had comments through social media saying things like,
03:12Had I known you were sending parcels with Every, I would not have placed my order.
03:18Since then, Becca and Terry have stopped using Every and gone back to Royal Mail.
03:24Over the ten years that we've been in business, Royal Mail have lost, damaged,
03:32Inretrievably, I think.
03:35About a handful of parcels.
03:37A handful of parcels.
03:38Over ten years.
03:39Over ten years, yeah.
03:40Over ten years, yeah.
03:41Whereas Every, in the course of eleven weeks.
03:44Did the same thing, hit almost the same numbers in eleven weeks.
03:48So, well done Every, that's cracking.
03:51I've just got to, I've just got to have a little.
03:53Look!
03:55It looks a little bit squiffy, but it's not too bad.
03:59I think my granny would be quite pleased.
04:05Lawyers for Every say contact information wasn't available for two of Ewan Ply's deliveries.
04:11It says Every responded to one of the shop's customers on social media to resolve their issue.
04:17Every is one of the big players in parcel delivery.
04:23It says it will deliver about 900 million parcels this year, going to almost all homes in the UK.
04:32Every's about the third biggest parcel carrier in the UK.
04:35The biggest is Royal Mail.
04:37Second is Amazon Logistics.
04:38Every's got about a fifth of the market, depending on how you calculate it.
04:43Every made a profit of almost £120 million last financial year.
04:49But what about the quality of its service?
04:52Ofcom monitors the eleven biggest delivery companies.
05:01Royal Mail had issues with delays.
05:04Yodel leaving parcels in an inappropriate location.
05:08Every though, was the worst performer for delivery issues.
05:13On five out of ten measures, it came bottom.
05:16Every's lawyers say there are flaws in these statistics and the sample size was too small.
05:22Some customers have become so fed up, they've posted footage of their deliveries on social media.
05:32Why do delivery companies feel they can miss people about Christmas?
05:41Panorama's been talking to more than 30 former and current Every workers.
05:45Some say Every's couriers are being put under increasing pressure.
05:49They're speaking anonymously because they're worried about losing work.
05:54I believe Every's couriers, they are cutting corners because they have to deliver so much volume now for a decent pay.
06:04They are not doing the job correctly.
06:14We sent an undercover reporter to get work as an Every courier.
06:18He wants to remain anonymous, so we're calling him Sam.
06:22He worked at the West Hallam delivery unit near Nottingham for a week in October.
06:27Morning, I'm here for the induction service.
06:29Oh, right, no problem. Are you parked over here?
06:31I'm just there.
06:33After he does some online training, his manager talks him through what's expected.
06:38You scan the delivery parcel, that's gone green, you press Continue and a list comes up and this is the list.
06:44Knock on the door. Delivery!
06:47Some people in the back garden doing, I don't know, whatever.
06:50His manager continues to help him find his feet.
06:54But Sam quickly finds out the delivery unit doesn't have some basic facilities.
07:00Where are the toilets?
07:03The toilets are a bit of a drive away, so are you desperate?
07:06This is really important, no pissing in the fence.
07:09No pissing in the fence.
07:11We've had a massive issue last week because, and we have the security marching on to our sites
07:16and giving one of our couriers what for.
07:22That's only the one-way street, so you drive down there.
07:25Yeah.
07:26The toilets are more than 300 metres away.
07:31Most drive.
07:32And that's not the only problem of this delivery unit.
07:37The uneven ground outside makes it difficult for couriers to get parcels to their cars.
07:43Oh, it's rubbish though, isn't it?
07:48Yeah.
07:49In Carmack.
07:50Yeah, you're right, yeah.
07:52Yeah, and it's done my shoulder twice.
07:55Yeah.
07:56You break it.
07:57Not break it, but I can feel it.
08:00You know what I mean?
08:01Yeah.
08:06Every says it takes health and safety very seriously.
08:10And it audits sites to check safety and compliance.
08:14It says it has accessible facilities at all locations.
08:18The company's lawyers say couriers can ask for help when loading parcels.
08:29Sam's contract says he should provide Every with a certificate showing he has no unspent criminal convictions.
08:36We've seen other every courier contracts that say the same thing.
08:40It's known as a DBS check.
08:43I've done my DBS check.
08:45They haven't asked me for it.
08:46So do I need to go to them and then tell them that I've got the DBS check?
08:51They didn't check mine.
08:53I did it.
08:54They never asked for it.
08:55So I won't bother.
08:56Just don't worry about it.
08:58I know an awful lot of couriers that have never had a criminal record checked.
09:02People that work on the next round to me haven't had one done.
09:06John has worked for the company for more than a decade.
09:10I believe that the company are putting the public at risk because of the lack of background checks that they do on couriers.
09:20Royal Mail and Amazon say all their delivery drivers are required to have a DBS check.
09:25Every says it's under no legal obligation to do them.
09:31This every courier says there's been a problem with theft.
09:35I know on several occasions where parcels have disappeared from delivery units and either delivery unit staff or the delivery unit manager has been detained by the police and carted off with a whole load of parcels.
09:49It does happen.
09:50So you think theft is happening?
09:52I know theft is happening.
09:54In the village of Twyford in Hampshire, residents have been trying to work out what's been happening to their every parcels.
10:08Three months ago, Becky ordered a new Barbie for her daughter.
10:12My dog had ripped the head off and so we had to replace it before my daughter found out.
10:19Just managing expectations in the household was quite an interesting effort for a few weeks.
10:24Around the corner, Jonathan was waiting for some tools.
10:30I'd ordered a couple of things from eBay and they told me they were going to deliver the first one on a Sunday afternoon.
10:39They both got messages from every.
10:42Then I got an email an hour later saying it's been delivered.
10:46The photograph was a parcel on a car seat.
10:52So it didn't say name, address or anything like that.
10:54And you couldn't tell where it was because it was in a car.
11:00I got a delivery notification that said your parcel's been delivered.
11:06So it went to the front door, but it wasn't there.
11:08I noticed that the image that they had sent wasn't a location that I recognised.
11:15Jonathan took it up with Every, but got nowhere.
11:19I tried to contact Every, they're uncontactable.
11:23They don't respond.
11:24Somebody called Sophie responds, who I presume is a bot.
11:28So it's very frustrating.
11:31Becky then found out there were others looking for their parcels.
11:35Somebody else in the village Facebook group had said, has anybody seen my Every parcel?
11:40And their picture was in the identical location to my picture.
11:45Then somebody else jumped on and somebody else jumped on and it kind of snowballed.
11:49Did you get to the bottom of where this was, this picture?
11:52No, no one knew where this location was.
12:01Becky turned detective.
12:03She started a spreadsheet for other people in the area to list their missing Every parcels.
12:10It was clear that something not quite right had gone on.
12:13And because of the consistency in these images, we then reported it to the police.
12:18None of the missing parcels turned up.
12:21Hampshire police received reports of 89 missing parcels.
12:25They made an arrest, but no one was charged.
12:29Lawyers for Every say this was an isolated incident and Every took prompt action.
12:35Every says, couriers are tracked in real time with mandatory photo proof for Every delivery.
12:46In the end, Jonathan got his tools replaced by the seller.
12:50Becky also got a refund and bought a new Barbie.
12:55Offcom's survey suggests Every has the worst reputation for parcels not being delivered,
13:04with 7% of customers reporting they'd recently had an Every parcel go missing,
13:10compared to an industry average of 4%.
13:14Every lawyers say only a tiny fraction of parcels are lost and dispute these figures.
13:21In Twyford, there used to be a regular Every courier.
13:29Six months before the parcels went missing, he quit.
13:33I'm a friendly guy and I would always go out of the way for customers.
13:38Dave was a courier for more than six years.
13:42Together with his wife, they did three delivery rounds
13:45and between them earned around £60,000 a year.
13:50But in February this year, he says his earnings took a hit.
13:54The last pay cut was the most severe in terms of how much they were actually going to take.
14:04Like all Every couriers, Dave was self-employed.
14:08But because Every pays couriers by the parcel and sets the rate per parcel,
14:13it felt like they were in the driving seat.
14:16You were always looking over your shoulder wondering what might come next
14:21in terms of reducing your rates so that you're paid less for what you're doing,
14:25even though you're doing the same job with the same amount of hours.
14:29After paying the running costs for their vans
14:34and working out how much they would make an hour,
14:36Dave and his wife found they couldn't make a living
14:39if they accepted the pay cut.
14:42I'd actually worked it out that on the Twyford round,
14:46if I had taken it, I would have been well below minimum wage.
14:52If you'd included fuel into that, the total that you'd earned,
14:56I might have made £10 an hour.
15:00Dave was on an Every Plus contract,
15:03which guaranteed him pay equivalent to the then minimum wage
15:06of £11.44 an hour,
15:10plus extra benefits like holiday and sick pay.
15:14You were left at £200 to choose between feeding a family of four for a month
15:21or fueling two vans for a week.
15:25We wanted to find out how much Every couriers were getting paid right now.
15:33As a starter, our undercover reporter is on what Every calls a flex contract.
15:39He doesn't get sick or holiday pay.
15:42Thousands of Every couriers are on these contracts.
15:46It can be difficult for new couriers to earn the current minimum wage of £12.21,
15:58as they don't know their patch.
16:00Every's lawyers say new starters get extra money to ensure they earn adequately
16:06while they get up to speed.
16:08Sam asks an experienced courier how much she earns.
16:14I can earn about probably £12 a month.
16:17£20 a month.
16:18How many hours do you serve?
16:20Probably about 20, 25 hours, 26.
16:24You say a week?
16:25Yeah.
16:26Probably a bit more.
16:27You don't get...
16:28I do more sometimes.
16:30Oh.
16:31Assuming an average of 25 hours a week, this courier's pay works out at about £12 an hour.
16:37She doesn't think she gets paid for the time spent scanning and loading parcels into her vehicle.
16:43Do you get paid for the... when you're loading?
16:47No.
16:48You have to try and pull that back.
16:49I don't think we do anyway.
16:51I'm not 100% sure what's that one.
16:53Only I do.
16:54Because it's changed that one.
16:56Is every good company to work for...
16:59Is this company a good company to work for?
17:02Why not?
17:06Give it a try.
17:07Give it a go.
17:08Give it a good go.
17:10Yeah.
17:11If you're doing the same round all the time, you get faster.
17:14Yeah.
17:15Because you know where you're going.
17:19Sam met other experienced couriers who say they were satisfied with their work and pay.
17:25Lawyers for Every say couriers in West Hallam were paid £17.04 per hour on average.
17:32Every pays their 34,000 couriers by the parcel.
17:36They're not the only courier company to use this model.
17:39But how it's worked out is complicated.
17:42First, it's to do with size and weight.
17:46There are four different payment rates depending on the size and the weight of the parcel.
17:52Next, it's to do with distance travelled.
17:55The further a courier goes on their round, the more they get paid per parcel.
18:00And finally, it's to do with the contract they're on.
18:04If they're on Everyplus, they might get more benefits from the company.
18:08But actually, they get paid less per parcel than Everyflex.
18:12Sue and George are on the Everyplus contract.
18:21They both say at times they earn less than the minimum wage.
18:25If I've got sort of 170 parcels, I won't be finished until 5, 5.30 at night.
18:35From seven in the morning, it's a long day.
18:38And have you got an idea of how much you think on a day like that you would be getting an hour?
18:44If it was 170, it would probably be about £120 a day.
18:51Then I'd have to deduct the fuel and the running cost of my van and the insurance, which is pretty exorbitant.
18:59So, at the end of the day, some days it's sort of £7-8 an hour that you're working for.
19:07Sue gave us pay slips covering three months so we could estimate her hourly rate.
19:14It can be between £7 and £10 an hour.
19:18Is it worth doing the job?
19:21Not now, I don't think so. Not now.
19:30This shouldn't be happening, according to what Every told a parliamentary select committee.
19:35We do pay couriers on a per parcel basis.
19:40Those rates are calculated according to the sort of geography of the area in which they're delivering.
19:46So, it's basically the number of parcels they're able to deliver it in an hour.
19:50Because we model that to make sure that couriers earn well above the national minimum wage.
19:56We showed some of our evidence to Liam Byrne, the chair of the committee.
20:01The last pay cut was the most severe in terms of how much they were actually going to take.
20:09So, the test is really simple. Are people working for Every enjoying the minimum wage or not?
20:15You know, are they basically getting a minimum wage per hour to cover all of the work that they do?
20:20Not bits of their work, all of their work.
20:22We were given categorical assurances that people were not paid below the minimum wage.
20:27So, those are clear grounds for us as a committee recalling Every to Parliament
20:33with a view to making a report and with one very simple recommendation
20:37that a full and thorough investigation is conducted into what the hell is going on at this company.
20:43Every says all of its couriers generate earnings significantly above the national living wage,
20:53averaging over £20 an hour.
20:55The sector is highly competitive, but it benchmarks pay locally.
21:00Couriers have told us about another way they think Every is reducing their earnings.
21:12It all comes back to parcel sizes again.
21:15In January, Every introduced a new parcel size at a lower price rate, the small packet.
21:23While the rates vary, Every pays couriers as little as 35 pence to deliver a small packet.
21:32Small packets is the second lowest earning for us couriers,
21:37and that is about 80% of our daily volume down, so it's a huge cut to couriers.
21:44Dave says the small packet was a big reason why he stopped working for Every.
21:51It was going to be with the new packet rate that they brought in,
21:56combined with the reduced rate that they were going to offer.
22:02So, yeah, it was a large chunk of my wage that was going to go.
22:06Every couriers have told us they're seeing more and more small packets,
22:15and it's eating into their earnings.
22:18They think it's partly because Every isn't checking
22:21whether parcels have been accurately weighed and measured by the sender.
22:25So they keep getting big parcels labelled as small ones.
22:29It's known as misbanding.
22:32Some of them I have measured.
22:36I had a 15 kilogram flat pack furniture that was a small packet.
22:42That was a small packet as well, which was 16 inches by 10 inches and weighed 5 kilos.
22:48Last week I delivered a set of car mats down as a poster ball.
22:53That meant that I was supposed to deliver those car mats through the letterbox.
22:59This one was a massive parcel down as a small packet,
23:04and it should have been a standard.
23:06You can clearly see that it's not a small packet.
23:09Some couriers say Every isn't doing enough to stop misbanding.
23:15I mean, isn't this just a mistake?
23:17It's not a mistake.
23:19We are witnessing about 20 to 30% of our daily volume of parcels wrongly banded.
23:27Every month there are irregularities with the amount that couriers are supposed to get
23:34that can be created by countless numbers of misbands.
23:38On a daily basis.
23:40Day after day we get this new evidence that there is yet another technique that Every has invented
23:47to try and make sure that the pay packets for their couriers are as light as possible.
23:52It's simply wrong.
23:53Every says parcels are labelled by clients, not Every.
24:0099.2% of all parcels are correctly banded.
24:05Couriers can request checks and upgrades via the courier app if they think a parcel has been misbanded.
24:12On small packets, Every says it introduced a new small packet sizing to remain competitive.
24:17Back at the West Hallam delivery unit, Sam is learning he needs to deliver quickly to earn more money.
24:31He gets talking in Punjabi to another courier.
24:36How many parcels are you?
24:3844.
24:3943.
24:4043.
24:4143.
24:4243.
24:4344.
24:4444.
24:4544.
24:4644.
24:4744.
24:4844.
24:4944.
24:5044.
24:5144.
24:5244.
24:5344.
24:5444.
24:5544.
24:5644.
24:5744.
24:5844.
24:5944.
25:0044.
25:0144.
25:0244.
25:0344.
25:0444.
25:0544.
25:0644.
25:0744.
25:0844.
25:0944.
25:1044.
25:1144.
25:1244.
25:1344.
25:1444.
25:1544.
25:1644.
25:1744.
25:1844.
25:1944.
25:2044.
25:2144.
25:2244.
25:2344.
25:2444.
25:25which meant it could have been stolen sam sometimes found it difficult to stick to every standards
25:31and deliver faster as the week went on his manager urged him to take more parcels
25:39so maybe i do not want to take more than 60 i guess that's okay you say um okay so
25:48i'll take 80 because third day should be should be doing it in the same time i need you to be fast
25:56i want you to earn some money how many parcels normally can you deliver in an hour look some
26:00people are 50 on that round every tells their couriers to make up to three attempts to deliver
26:09some more experienced couriers told sam they always left the parcel on their first visit
26:15oh so any parcels that i could not deliver today and i do a second attempt or the third attempt
26:29right only i get the money when i do the credit where i deliver them how many attempts do you
26:34normally do with this what just deliver it oh you'll make no money while trying to get all your
26:45parcels out get them all out okay it's always a safe place for everything mate
26:51every says it provides a fast reliable and cost-effective delivery service
27:19and that its couriers are local people and the vast majority do an excellent job and strictly follow
27:26its delivery standards it says if a courier receives a low customer rating for a delivery
27:32this is immediately investigated
27:40some customers have given up on every and won't be coming back
27:44the faceless nature of businesses like every they don't actually care about the service that they're
27:52providing every don't really want to engage with the communities that they're delivering to and their
27:57customers all they care about is making money our love of online shopping especially at christmas
28:05means the parcel delivery market is only set to get bigger
28:09as every grows can it win back the trust of some of its customers and couriers
28:25all right
28:37so
Be the first to comment