UK sees ‘largest increase’ in lost or stolen parcels as 8m go missing in one year

UK customers are having to spend £320 million in missing goods, Mustafa Qadri reports

One in ten people are less likely to do their shopping online due to concerns about loss or theft, it is claimed

The UK is seeing a huge increase in doorstep parcel theft costing the public millions of pounds, a new report claims.

More than eight million parcels were lost or stolen between May 2021 and April 2022, according to the first-ever Penn Elcom Global Parcel Theft Report.

Of the countries looked at, including the US, Australia, Canada and the UAE, the UK has seen the largest increase in missing or stolen parcels with a 5% spike on the previous year.

The missing items have cost customers an estimated £320 million in missing goods, with Wales the worst affected of the four nations.

Have you experienced parcel theft? If so email mustafa.qadri@independent.co.uk

The report, which includes research by pollsters YouGov, said: “The UK has suffered the greatest increase in parcel problems worldwide.

“This is up more than 5% compared to the previous 12 months. Many analysts believed porch piracy would start to fall as we come out of the pandemic.

“However, this has not been the case as online shopping continues to surge; UK residents reported a blanket increase in parcel problems across the nation since the previous 12 months, with 12% of people reporting a parcel lost or stolen.

“The survey broke the results down to each individual region to discover the worst-affected areas, both in terms of total parcel theft and loss and the biggest increase in missing parcels.

“Surprisingly, Wales witnessed the largest rise in parcel theft compared to the previous 12 months; the sharp rise of 12% was higher than any other area, surpassing London.”

The report also revealed that 32% of people surveyed in the UK have had a package lost or stolen in their lifetime, which amounts to 21.5m parcels.

Parcel box manufacturers Penn Elcom’s chairman, Roger Willems, said: “The rate of increase in parcel theft and loss in the UK is a wake-up call for consumers, retailers and couriers.

“We’re a small island with a lot of people, meaning densely populated areas with front doorsteps that are often easily accessible from the road, making it rich pickings for opportunistic porch pirates as well as more organised criminals who have been reported to follow delivery vans,” he continued.

“What’s more, this is a low-risk crime: there’s much less chance of getting caught lifting a package off a doorstep than shoplifting with CCTV and security guards.”