A claim that InPost is paying last mile drivers as little as 15p per parcel has sparked a wider conversation across the delivery industry about whether current rates reflect the real cost of getting parcels to the door.
The figure was raised by a reader of Delivery News, who claimed InPost was considering the rate for last mile delivery work. While unverified at the time, the claim was subsequently corroborated by a contractor who confirmed they had held a service contract with InPost and could confirm 15p as the agreed rate for locker delivery and collection.
The response from across the industry was swift, and largely unsurprised. One operator, speaking to Delivery News this week, said drivers in the Midlands are considering strike action over poor pay rates a sign, they argued, that the pressure has reached breaking point in some regions.
The wider criticism centres on how these rates are calculated in the first place. As one commenter, working in a different corner of the haulage industry, put it: rates are typically set on the assumption that everything runs perfectly no missed drops, no delays, nobody off sick. In reality, a 15p rate only holds up if every single delivery goes exactly to plan, and when it doesn’t, it’s the driver who absorbs the shortfall, not the company setting the rate.
That gap between assumption and reality, several in the conversation argued, says as much about where last mile margins have gone as the number itself. Whether 15p is precisely accurate or not, the fact that so many found it entirely believable points to a sector where thin margins have become the norm rather than the exception.
Others pointed to straightforward market pressure: with more operators competing for the same delivery volumes, rates have been pushed down accordingly a race to the bottom, as one recruitment specialist in the space described it.
The underlying tension, raised repeatedly throughout the discussion, is who ultimately pays for the true cost of last mile delivery. Until online shoppers are willing to pay more for home delivery, several contributors argued, operators and drivers will continue to be squeezed to make the numbers work leaving pay rates as the primary lever being pulled to keep prices low for the end consumer.
InPost has not yet publicly responded to the claims raised in the discussion.