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Clothing collections :
1. Delivering leaflets and bags
2. Collecting the bags

Headings on this page :

Collection leaflet from The Hand of Help Ltd (2009)

Related pages

• Clothing collections - Leaflets, bags and labels
• Clothing collections - Theft of filled bags
• A-Z list of house-to-house clothing collectors
• Choosing the best way to donate your clothes
• The law on charitable house-to-house collections

Notes

• Most of the statistics on this page are our own figures, and are estimates.
• Most of this page applies to all clothing collections - whether charitable or not.

1. Delivering leaflets and bags

Leaflets or bags?

xStatistics:Leaflets are very light and compact.  Most are A5-sized, 80gsm weight ('gsm' is grams per square metre).  So a whole day's supply is equivalent to a ream (500 sheets) of A4 paper - weighing 1-2 kg.  This can be carried easily in a small rucsac.

xStatistics:Bags and bag-kits are bulky and heavier.  Each is about 10 grams (just under half an ounce) -  so a day's supply is around 10 kg (22 lb).  For this you really need a car or van to be parked nearby - so you can collect new supplies every couple of hours.

For details of leaflets and bags - see the page: Clothing collection leaflets and bags.

Delivery rate

xStatistics:We estimate the average delivery rate for leaflets or bags is about :

• 2.5 homes per minute
• 150 per hour
• 1,000 per day

The rate depends on several factors :

• speed of walking - 4 mph is typical
• type of properties - flats, semis or detached
• spacing of homes - the width of the frontage
• length of drives
• whether there are gates
• whether you cut across drives house-to-house (or go back to the pavement each time)
• the weather

Junk mail

With much junk mail, the deliveries are done by Royal Mail postmen, people delivering local newspapers or direct leafleting with several different leaflets at the same time.

However, clothing collectors generally don't use these methods - they deliver their leaflets/bags themselves.

Some householders put up notices by their letterbox, saying they don't want junk mail.  We've seen a few which specifically mention clothing collection leaflets and bags.

Delivery costs

xStatistics:Wages - Most of the deliverers are low-paid - typically around the National Minimum Wage (NMW) - which is around £6 per hour at 2011.  We guess a lot of them are on piece-work - paid a fixed sum to deliver a certain number of leaflets.

In-house staff or contractors? - Many collectors use their own staff for deliveries.  But some use contractors.

1xStatistics:Example:  At November 2009, a Worcester-based company was offering to deliver charity bags for £15-30 per 1,000 - depending on the quantity.  This is 1.5p to 3p per bag.

See:  http://advertising-direct.co.uk/Charity.aspx  

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - a loophole

Because most collection leaflets are delivered by the collectors' own staff, it makes it more-or-less impossible for the ASA to take effective action against misleading leaflets.

This is because the ASA's powers rely on putting pressure on intermediaries (reputable third parties) which carry the advertisements - such as publishers of newspapers or magazines, or broadcasters.  For details, see the page on the ASA.

2. Collecting the bags

General

1xStatistics:Number of days between delivery and collection

• Usually there are two working days between.  Examples :
  - If the bag comes on Monday, it says they'll collect Wednesday.
  - If the bag comes on Thursday, it says they'll collect Monday.
• A few have a three-day gap.
• Occasionally it's even longer - eg seven days.
• We've never seen a collection which takes place the same day or the next day.

1xStatistics:Day of collection

• Most collections take place Monday-Friday.
• Around 1 in 20 take place on a Saturday.
• We've never come across a Sunday collection.

Time of collection - Normally 8am or 9am to 5pm or 6pm ('rain or shine').

Vehicles - Most collectors use a light van - such as a white Ford Transit - with rear doors.  On one occasion we saw a collector using a brown-coloured Volkswagen camper-van (with glass windows all round).

Vehicle livery - Some collectors used liveried vans - in other words the details of the collector and/or charity are displayed on the outside of the vehicle.  A few collectors use easily-removable signs - eg magnetic ones.  A lot of these are fraudulent.   Clothes Aid (a reputable collector) always uses liveried vehicles.

Staff - Most collections use two people - one to drive and one to pick up the bags.

With some collections, one person walks the route and one drives.
With others, they're both in the van - which stops when they see a filled bag.

Collecting unused bags - A few collectors put a note on their bags, inviting you to put out the bag even if it's empty.  The collector picks up the empty bags, for re-use.

Van containing stolen charity bags
seized: Cardiff (courtesy of BBC)

1xStatistics:Filled bags per day - We reckon a typical collection van picks up 50-200 filled bags per day.

2xStatistics:Content of filled bags - In our experience, people put about 5-10 items in a bag on average - and the total weight is about 3kg.

Speed - About 10 mph is typical, with frequent stops (to pick up each bag).  If they go faster, they're likely to miss a lot of bags - especially the ones which are well back from the pavement (eg on people's doorsteps).

2xStatistics:Delivery speed versus collection speed - We estimate that a van covers more streets per day than the person delivering the leaflets.  We guess :

• the delivery person spends 2 or 3 days in an area
• the collection van only spends 1 day in the area

Travel - Most collectors have only one depot.  Some collectors may travel a hundred miles or more to a collection area.  However, many collection organisers use local sub-contractors to do the collecting.

The donation success-rate (%) - and profits

%

This is :

• the number of homes which donate any goods, divided by
• the number of homes receiving the leaflet or bag.

2xStatistics:In our experience, with an average collection, the donation success-rate is around 1 in 35 homes, ie 3%.  This means (say) two or three bags per street.

The success-rate for a collection is higher :

1. if it refers to a 'good cause' (genuine or not) - rather than just being commercial
2. if it refers to a named charity - rather than saying vague things like 'third world clothing collection'
3. if it refers to a British charity - rather than (say) an East European one
4. if it's a well-known, trusted charity 'brand' - eg British Heart Foundation or Age UK
5. if a bag is provided
6. if there have been no collections in the street recently
7. if there are no charity shops nearby
8. If there's lots of families with young children living in the area (as they produce more unwanted clothes than most households)
9. If there's lots of old people living in the area (as they find it more difficult to take clothes to charity shops - eg no car)
10. If it's a low-crime area - with less risk of bags being stolen

Collectors and partner-charities

2xStatistics:With item 2 above (a reference on the bag to a named charity) this has a big effect on the number of bags collected.  It can result in 2 or 3 times as many bags per street (and better quality donations).

This is why commercial collectors are so keen to get a charity as a partner.  Then they can put the charity's details on the leaflet or bag.  In return, the collector has to pass on some of his profit to the charity - but he can afford to do this because he's collected more bags.

Most of the costs of a collection are fixed - especially the expenditure on leaflets/bags and delivering them.  So the revenue (and profit) depends on the number of filled bags collected (and the quality of the donated goods in them).

If a collector gets (say) one bag in a street - it covers his costs.  Any more bags in the same street are then pure profit.

Licensing of 'charitable' collections

'Charitable' collections need a licence from the local council (or a 'national Exemption Order' from the Cabinet Office).  The law on this is contained in the 'House to House Collections Act 1939' (the '1939 Act').  See the page on collection law.