The Isle of Man Post Office has started a trial delivering packages in the late afternoon and evening this week in the hope more people will be at home for their deliveries.
The trial is an effort to improve service to customers and will involve non-express parcels in selected residential areas of Douglas.
Malcolm McPherson, managing director of mails, at the Post Office said: ‘The trial will help us determine whether there is any benefit to customers.
‘Many of our customers are out, at work, or elsewhere, when we attempt to deliver parcels earlier in the day.
‘We are always looking for ways to improve our service to customers and one aspect of this is to reduce the number of times where people are not at home when we attempt delivery.
‘As well as looking at any benefits of changing delivery times, we’re also asking for feedback from customers on what they think.
‘A short questionnaire will be delivered with every parcel as part of the trial.
‘Once we’ve gathered opinions, we can look at introducing any necessary improvements to the current parcel service.’
Throughout the trial period, letters will be delivered at normal times.
The Post Office is also running a campaign from next week to promote its ‘safe place’ service, which offers a wider choice on how deliveries are made.
This free service lets customers nominate a ‘safe place’ for an item to be delivered if no-one is at home to accept.
The Post Office say that a lot of people already use the service but they are looking to extend it.
There are two options to choose from.
1. If a package does not need to be signed for, but does not fit through a letter box, customers can nominate a ‘safe place’ for it to be left. The ‘safe place’ can either be on their own premises or with a neighbour.
2. If a package needs to be signed for, customers can authorise the postman to sign it on their behalf if they’re not at home. It can then be delivered as normal, or if too big, leave it in their ‘safe place’ or with the chosen neighbour. In either case, the Post Office will then put a note through the letterbox to let you know there is an item waiting for you.
Mr McPherson said: ‘This is welcome news to customers as parcels, letters and packets can be waiting for them when they get home without the inconvenience of collecting them from the sorting office, saving them time and trouble.’
A leaflet explaining the service was delivered to all residential addresses on Monday and all customers need to do is complete and return the form.
For more information visit www.iompost.com