UK parcel service Collect Plus last year handed over its last Christmas delivery at 1am on December 25; it took its first return eight hours and 10 minutes later.
No matter what those transactions say about procrastination over presents or the speed with which we now reject gifts, they also underscore two wider trends: that Britons are no longer content taking care of errands within the opening hours of the local post office; and that businesses are working overtime to profit from that.
Collect Plus does not rely on 24-hour delivery vans or the luck of a customer being home when the driver knocks. Parcels are dropped at, and returns picked up from, a network of 5,000 convenience stores that boast longer hours than most post offices or high street retailers. Last year’s late Christmas delivery was collected from a petrol station on the A1.