Scottish cities first for deliveries by Royal Mail rival

Edinburgh and Glasgow are expected to be among the first cities in Britain to test run a full business postal service to rival the Royal Mail.

Sources at Postcomm, the postal services regulator, say TNT Post is building up its capacity in the two cities so that it can trial a full “end to end” service for Scottish business.

A number of private companies have moved into delivering postal services in the UK since the introduction of full competition to the market on January 1 last year. While some companies offer competitive rates to pick up mail or deliver it to its final destination, all still rely on the Royal Mail network for at least one part of the delivery process. In most cases, Royal Mail is used for what has been termed the ‘final mile’.

But TNT Post UK, the British branch of the Dutch postal group, aims to start offering a full service where post is picked up from businesses by TNT postmen, sorted at its own offices and then distributed by TNT’s delivery staff.

A spokeswoman for TNT Post refused to confirm whether Edinburgh and Glasgow will be among the first cities to receive the service, but did admit that the company is developing its network in several locations in the UK so that it can start trials before the end of the year.

She said: “TNT Post UK maintains its ambition to develop an end to end service in the UK so as to be able to offer customers a complete postal and delivery solution. As part of its growth strategy, TNT Post is currently looking at a number of potential locations in which it can develop an end to end solution. To make our own end to end delivery service viable, we will first need to grow our letters business in these key areas through the acquisition of customers and mailing volumes.”

She added that TNT Post will reveal the locations before December. It intends to aim the service at both big companies which shift large volumes of post each day, as well as small, local businesses.

TNT Post has emerged as the main competitor to the Royal Mail since the market was opened up. It handles over 1.2 billion items of mail a year and has recently won several high profile deals, including a three-year contract to deliver the Phone Book to 3.2 million homes.

In Scotland, the company has targeted the small business market in particular. Its ‘PremierSort Flex’ service is aimed at local businesses that send a maximum of 250 letters and parcels a day. At the moment, the service uses the Royal Mail network for the ‘final mile’.