Royal Mail and DPD will be joined by Evri as Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s newest delivery partner amid the former’s struggle with a long-running worker dispute over pay and conditions.
Evri will join the list of ‘Seller Fulfilled Prime’ businesses, which stock and process orders on Amazon’s behalf, often offering a next-day delivery service.
Amazon’s move to appoint Evri, which was formerly called Hermes, follows months of industrial action by Royal Mail workers, which prompted a £1.04bn loss at the company last year.
The formerly nationalised courier has missed delivery targets in four of the last five years and has been lobbying the government to lift legal obligations to deliver letters on Saturday.
Amazon did not comment on the reasoning behind Evri’s appointment, rather explaining through a spokesperson: “We always want to provide a wide range of options to selling partners.
“After meeting the relevant requirements to participate in the programme, Evri has been added as an accredited carrier for seller fulfilled Prime.”
Evri delivered over 97% on time during a six-week trial with Amazon, while Royal Mail fell over 10% short of a legal mandate to run routes to all areas where orders were due in the year to March.
Regulator Ofcom is currently investigating Royal Mail over missed delivery targets, echoing comments in mid-May that the courier could no longer use Covid-19 as an excuse after making just 74% of first-class letter shipments when due, compared to a required 93%.
Shares in Royal Mail parent International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) rose 1.5% to 202.4p on the news.