PRO-CURE, a service agency for the National Health Service in four southern English counties has just signed a two-year deal for the private sector mail company to provide its postal collections.

The contract covers the agency along with its two partners in the NHS Commercial Alliance – NHS Commercial Solutions and the East of England collaborative Procurement.

The partnership covers more than 70 NHS trusts, and while PRO-CURE’s agreement as part of the alliance covers postal services for 19 trusts, translating into around 7m mailpieces a year.

The organisations say the TNT Post UK deal will eliminate the need for franking machines and mean GBP 300,000 in postal savings compared to Royal Mail for the 19 trusts already involved.

Further savings are possible for trusts switching to TNT Post UK, the Berkshire-based agency said.

PRO-CURE is telling its customer trusts not to pay more than the 26.8 pence per letter price of the TNT Post contract when sending correspondence on a two-day delivery service.

The agency has been warning its customer trusts that by comparison, Royal Mail put retail (stamped) postage rates up to 60p for First Class and 50p for Second Class services. Franked letter prices for business customers went up to 44p for First Class and 31p for Second Class.

Four of PRO-CURE’s trusts began the new postal service at the start of last month in Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.

Pressure

Lee Collins, managing director of PRO-CURE, said: “The NHS is under enormous pressure to make efficiency savings and we are really pleased that with TNT Post we have secured cash savings on postal collection services at a time of escalating prices.”

TNT Post, one of Royal Mail’s biggest rivals in the postal sector, said today that it is now offering a three-month trial, along with staff training regarding managing machine-readable post, to attract other NHS Trusts to consider switching postal service providers.

“More than ever before, public savings are paramount,” said Nick Wells, the TNT Post UK chief executive.

“TNT Post is committed to effective and sustainable competition which reduces costs, incentivises innovation and encourages efficiency, and we are excited to be contributing to NHS savings.”

TNT Post UK, which has its head office in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, is part of Dutch postal company PostNL, and currently handles around 3.6bn items of mail each year.

The company won a public service sector mail contract earlier this year involving NHS Scotland, to provide ad hoc mail services and encourage a switch to a hybrid mail solution to generate cost savings.

Source: Post&Parcel/PRO-CURE/TNT Post UK

Tags: NHS, NHS Trusts, postage rates, Royal Mail, TNT Post UK, UK