Low volumes and scattered delivery points make the process slow and energy-intensive, which turns out to be expensive as labour and fuel account for 85% of total costs. In many places, delivery is simply not available while in others the last mile is outsourced to local providers, which results in delivery surcharges (e.g. £45M in 2021 in Scotland, 1M people concerned i.e. 1/5 of the population).In addition, despite £50M spent by the UK government every year, one-third of post offices open for less than 5.5 hours/week, with some providing services only for one hour/week. The situation slows down the local economy and under-serves rural market segments.