Parcel delivery firm Evri says it is investing millions in customer service and operations ahead of the Christmas period.

The delivery giant says a new automatic call back function via a new dedicated phone line, is among the £46 million planned improvements it hopes will help customers with any issues in the coming weeks.

The news of investment comes as Ofcom has revealed it has fined Royal Mail £5.6million for failing to meet its First and Second Class delivery targets in the last financial year, which it says has caused ‘considerable harm’ to customers.

Evri, which used to be called Hermes, says its new contact system will connect around 40% more of its customers to a UK-based advisor at its contact centre and should give them a response within 24 hours.

Gearing up for its busiest period of the year for parcels, which begins in late November with Black Friday and ends just before Christmas Day, the company is also hiring more than 6,500 staff – double the number recruited last year.

Couriers, customer care team members and workers for hubs and depots are all being drafted in to support the company deliver Christmas.

The new callback function, reveals Evri, was prompted by feedback at customer insight panels, first launched in 2020, which were created to help the company better understand customers’ needs.

Chris Ashworth, Chief Customer Officer at Evri, said: “Over the last five years we have tripled the size of our business to become the UK’s leading dedicated parcel delivery company, handling a staggering 730 million parcels each year. As more of us send and receive parcels every day, it has become more important than ever for Evri to invest in its customer service capabilities to answer customers’ questions as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“We have made significant progress as a business this year, with a renewed focus on service delivery standards.

“As we head into our peak period, we know that every parcel matters and we will be doing everything we can to deliver for customers at this important time.”

Under Ofcom’s rules, Royal Mail is required each year to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days, and complete 99.9% of delivery routes for each day on which a delivery is required.

However Royal Mail’s reported performance confirmed it had missed those targets – delivering just 73.7% of First Class mail on time and 90.7% of Second Class mail on time, and completing 89.35% of delivery routes when needed.

The communications regulator says Royal Mail has ‘breached its obligations by failing to meet its targets by a significant and unexplained margin’ causing ‘considerable harm’ to customers.