Post Office customers will be able to use an app to prove their identity to collect parcels and letters from tomorrow, rather than showing a passport or driving licence.
The Post Office EasyID app can also be used to verify age when buying restricted products such as medicines or lottery tickets, or when shopping online.
Post Office chief Nick Read told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Customers can now collect items using something they likely have with them anyway: their phone. We also hope this will make things quicker for postmasters.’
Sign of the times: The Post Office EasyID app can also be used to verify age when buying restricted products such as medicines or lottery tickets, or when shopping online
The free app has been created by digital identity specialist Yoti, which already provides digital IDs for staff at clients including the NHS and Virgin Atlantic.
Read added: ‘This is about giving people an extra choice – and that’s an important point to make, because the Post Office’s customers include people who won’t want to use an app, including some who are vulnerable. We are very mindful of that, and all the usual ID verification methods remain very much available.’
Read is attempting to modernise the 360–year-old organisation through the introduction of new technology for customers and operations to improve efficiency. From this week the Post Office will allow DPD customers to pick up packages from its branches, the first time it has worked with an external courier, loosening its ties with former sister company Royal Mail.
Consultancy McKinsey has estimated the UK could unlock economic value equivalent to 3 per cent of GDP in 2030 through the widespread introduction of digital IDs to speed up purchases and smooth legal processes.
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