BF3CM8 A man opens a letter delivered by TNT Photograph: Apex News and Pictures Agency/Alamy
I’m hitting a brick wall with TNT’s passport delivery service. I was informed by HM Passport Office three months ago that my replacement passport had been dispatched. Since then, there’s been no attempt at a delivery. TNT’s customer service is fully automated and every time I call it informs me that the consignment is out for delivery “tomorrow”. There’s no option to speak to a human. The Passport Office says it’s unable to act unless TNT confirms it’s lost the passport. I have a trip to Italy booked for next month and face losing my money if I am unable to travel.
JG, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Thousands have taken to Twitter and review websites to complain after waiting in vain for passports and residency permits. The Passport Office says that waiting times are currently about 10 weeks, but that’s for the document to be issued. Some complainants claim to have been waiting more than six months for TNT to make it to their door.
The US-owned company, part of FedEx, signed a £77m three-year contract with the Home Office to deliver official travel documents in 2019, but Brexit and Covid appear to have wrought havoc. There are also concerns that the service does not allow recipients to live-track their item or log delivery instructions. A petition on Change.org, signed by more than 700 people, is calling for an inquiry into how TNT was selected by the Home Office and why service failings have not been investigated.
SDD contacted me from Hampshire after his spouse visa was delivered to the wrong address without a signature, despite government rules requiring residency permits to be handed over in person after identity verification. The visa was reissued and delivered to the correct address, but again without being handed over in person.
Londoner VH says that TNT erroneously claimed he was out on four occasions when it tried to deliver his biometric residency permit. “I checked my CCTV for the dates and times of the attempted deliveries shown on TNT’s tracker,” he says. “On the first occasion, the driver approached the property, took a photo and drove off without ringing the bell. The other times they didn’t even do that.”
JG was contacted by TNT the day I alerted its press office, and his passport was miraculously discovered and delivered within 24 hours.
TNT has apologised and blamed a surge in passport applications after Covid restrictions were eased at the end of last year. “This regrettably impacted our service levels,” it says. “We took a number of actions to restore service levels across our HM Passport Office network – including operational resources, extra team support and additional customer support resources – and we are currently operating within the service level requirements agreed with the Home Office.”
TNT did not comment on allegations that drivers attempt deliveries without ringing the door bell, or that its helpline is unhelpful.
Surprisingly, the Passport Office told me that, unlike with residency permits, a signature for passport deliveries is not part of its “secure delivery requirements” unless the mail box is communal. It would not specify what these “secure delivery requirements” are, or comment on whether it plans to renew the contract with TNT when it expires in July. It says: “We work closely with our UK delivery supplier and passports are being delivered within the required service level of 48 hours for standard deliveries.”
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