Highland MP, Drew Hendry has praised the Inverness, Badenoch & Strathspey Citizens Advice Bureau and Nairn Citizens Advice Bureau for their local Fair Delivery Charges campaign; which seeks to raise awareness of the detriment caused to local people by delivery surcharging and the lack of transparency around the use of surcharges. The campaign led by Citizens Advice Scotland also seeks to promote the Scottish Government’s ‘Fairer Deliveries for All’ map tool, which allows consumers to explore delivery prices charged by different companies and create a more transparent system.
With online shopping rates growing by 129% in the U.K. during the pandemic, there is a real shift in how consumers are purchasing goods. However, consumers living in affected Highland areas still pay an average of 30-50% more for receiving items bought online than in the rest of the mainland UK. Further analysis carried out by the Scottish Government in 2019 found that consumers in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey paid over £7,000,000 in delivery surcharges, relative to the rest of the UK.
Mr Hendry has long campaigned against rip-off delivery charges and previously took a fairer delivery charges bill to the UK Parliament as part of his campaign to end excess delivery charges to rural areas. He also helped the Highland Council launch the national reporting tool it spearheaded as part of the ongoing work to end rip of delivery charges http://www.deliverylaw.uk/. The SNP MP praises the CAB for their renewed efforts to support ongoing work to highlight the unfairness of excess delivery charges.
Commenting, Mr Hendry said:
“Every one of us living in the Highlands is familiar with the problem of unfair delivery charges; whether it’s surcharges being added to deliveries, or simply no delivery option available, despite offering delivery to mainland UK.
“Whilst I would always urge folk to support local where they can, we all know this is not always possible and consumers should not have to pay the price for companies shortcomings.
“I am pleased to see our local Citizens Advice teams prioritising this campaign and I would urge everyone in the Highlands to get behind it too, to raise awareness of ongoing unfair delivery surcharging faced by folk in the North of Scotland.”
“For my part, I will continue to press the UK government for legislation to end unfair delivery charges and take on companies charging constituents outrageous delivery charges. We can all play our part by reporting instances of excessive delivery charges at deliverylaw.uk, and folk can also make use of the Scottish Government’s Fairer Deliveries For All tool at https://fairdeliveries.scot/explore-your-postcode.”
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