Coverage, codes and cost
Which SR districts are covered? The six the city's streets fall into: SR1 and SR4 on the south bank through Bishopwearmouth, Deptford and Millfield, SR2 towards Ashbrooke, Hillview and Chester Road, SR3 out by Grindon and Thorney Close, and SR5 and SR6 on the north side and along the coast at Roker and Monkwearmouth. Send the full postcode when you order and the point is matched to it.
Does the Wear change which cabinet I should use? It is the biggest thing to weigh up, because the city sits on two banks. Keel Crossing and the Queen Alexandra Bridge both join Deptford to Southwick, but crossing either of them twice is a long way to go for a parcel. If you are in SR5 or SR6, look north of the water; if you are in SR1, SR2 or SR4, stay south.
Carley Hill and Red House sit on the north-west edge. Are they served like the centre? Yes, and they show how tidy the postcodes are out there: Carley Hill came back SR5 throughout, and the whole of Red House falls inside SR5 as well. Nothing changes about dispatch or timing. The one local difference is that the nearest cabinet may be a walk down towards Southwick's village green rather than a site on your own street.
Is the charge higher at Roker than in Barnes? No. One charge per order applies across every SR district, coastal or inland, north bank or south. The coastline, the distance from the centre and the size of the basket are all irrelevant to it.
Is there a minimum order in Sunderland? None. Nothing must be met first, and the fee does not move with the size of the basket.
How long does a Sunderland order take? It is dispatched inside 24 hours of ordering, Monday to Saturday, and then the locker network carries it. Allow two to three working days after the dispatch day for it to be ready. There is no timed drop and nothing to wait in for.
Collection
Who decides the cabinet the parcel goes to? You decide, order by order. The address on your account is not the same thing as the cabinet the parcel is routed to, and in a city cut by the Wear, by the A1231 and by the A183, the nearest point on a map is rarely the easiest one to reach.
Which point suits me if I am near Park Lane or University Metro? A station-side cabinet is the easy answer for anyone on the Metro, since Park Lane and University both put the centre within a short walk. Anyone heading out towards St Peter's on the north bank may just as well collect on that side instead of carrying a parcel back through the city.
What is the collection deadline once the parcel is waiting? Seventy-two hours from the alert reaching you, which is not the same as the day you ordered or the day it went out. Use the first day. A parcel that is never collected goes back to the depot rather than back into the locker network, and nothing is credited or replaced.
What do I need at the cabinet? The code and the location of the locker. There is nothing to sign and your name is not asked for at any point, because the code does all the work. If somebody else is going for you, pass on the code, the location and the time remaining.
Can one account cover two Sunderland addresses? It can. A term address near the university and a family house across the water can both sit under one login, with the cabinet chosen afresh for each order as the year goes on.
Ordering and payment
What is used to pay for an order? A balance held with the account. Card top-ups appear immediately; USDT appears once the transfer has confirmed. Orders are drawn from that balance, so no card is presented at checkout and nothing is re-keyed for later orders.
Who is allowed to order? People aged 21 or over. That is checked once, at the point the account is opened, rather than at the cabinet, which is why nothing is checked at collection.
Can an order be changed once it is placed? Ask us early. Until the parcel goes into the network, details can often still be adjusted; afterwards the carrier's timetable applies and there is very little scope. Choosing a point you can reach over several days is the sensible precaution.
Lettered estates, the coast and match days
Some streets in Red House and Witherwack look almost identical. How should the address be given? In full. Both estates were laid out to a rule, with every street in Red House beginning with R and the Witherwack names beginning with W, which produces a lot of near neighbours that read alike, and the ground between them is open rather than a continuous grid. House number, street and full postcode settle it.
Does the seafront at Roker, or a Stadium of Light match day, change anything? The streets get busier; the dispatch does not. Roker and the promenade fill when the weather is good, and a Sunderland home game empties the roads either side of Monkwearmouth and the Wearmouth Bridge for a couple of hours. Carley Hill's higher ground and the walk down to Southwick behave the same way on a busy afternoon.
