TNT, Murdoch to compete with UK Royal Mail
Rupert Murdoch has linked up with another giant of Australian business, TNT, in its bid to compete with Britain's state-owned postal service Royal Mail.
Transport and delivery company TNT has entered Britain's letter market with its TNT Premier service which guarantees delivery in 48 hours and handles one million items a week.
As its service expands and the market opens up, however, TNT and other private mail providers have complained about Royal Mail's "dirty tricks" and uncompetitive behaviour.
Murdoch's pay TV network BSkyB is the latest of five major customers to defect from Royal Mail to TNT, including food distributor Booker and mail order firm Express Gifts, the British newspaper The Guardian reported.
After launching the premier service in August last year, TNT Mail said it now had 25 customers and should deliver 200 million items in 2005, while it expected further expansion.
"We are already conducting test runs with a number of other clients but we cannot disclose their names at this time. Things are looking rosy for 2005," TNT Mail chief executive Nick Wells told the Guardian.
TNT and other private mail deliverers have made formal complaints to the postal regulator Postcomm about uncompetitive behaviour by Royal Mail.
Wells would not detail the problems but said Postcomm would not want "dirty tricks to undermine the opening up of the market".
BSkyB's link with TNT strengthens Murdoch's ties with the company.
TNT trucks are used by Murdoch's News Limited newspapers in Britain and drove through the picket lines of striking printers in London during industrial disputes in the early 1990s.
Pressure grows on Royal Mail as Sky opts for TNT
The Guardian, p 18 01-19-2005
By Terry Macalister
Rupert Murdoch has thrown his weight behind TNT's private sector bid to compete with the state-owned Royal Mail.
The move came as new entrants to the letter delivery market revealed they had complained to the regulator about alleged uncompetitive behaviour by the Royal Mail.
TNT revealed Mr Murdoch's Sky television company to be one of five significant customers that have defected from the Royal Mail to use a "TNT Premier" service, which guarantees delivery in 48 hours.
Others include food distribution company Booker, mail order firm Express Gifts and telecoms group, Caudwell Communications.
TNT Mail said its client base had now reached 25 customers and the company was handling a million items every week. It expected to deliver 200m during 2005 as a whole. TNT – originally from Australia like Mr Murdoch himself – has a long history of collaboration with the media magnate.
TNT trucks are used by Times publisher, News International, and infamously drove through picket lines of striking printers during the Wapping dispute of the 1980s.
The TNT Premier service -launched in August 2004 – has been able to pick up letters and parcels from a customer and truck them to a major sorting centre where they are delivered the next day by Royal Mail postmen and women.
The company is also operating end-to-end services using a relationship with Express Dairies. Kevin Trever, procurement manager at Sky, said he had been "extremely impressed" with the TNT operation.
Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Mail said Sky and the other five Premier service customers represented the beginning of its attempt to be the number one competitor to the Royal Mail.
"We are already conducting test runs with a number of other clients but we cannot disclose their names at this time. Things are looking rosy for 2005."
Mr Wells said TNT, Hays and other private mail providers had made a formal complaint to Postcomm about the Royal Mail, which was being treated very seriously.
He declined to go into details about the particular problem but believed the regulator would not want "dirty tricks to undermine the opening up of the market".
Royal Mail last night dismissed the allegations saying that it scrupulously abided by the open access agreement. "We are confident that we have acted fairly at all times," said a spokesman. There was no comment on the Sky and other defections which, although insignificant in number of customers, are hugely important in terms of volumes.
