Logistics Article: Consigned To The Post

The strengths of Royal Mail against other distribution systems are well known. No other organisation can undertake to deliver to any and every address in the UK at nothing like a comparable price. Unfortunately, there are equally well known weaknesses.
The objective of delivering First Class mail the next day is a long way from being achieved. For the quarter April- June. the most recent period for which figures are available, only 86.5 per cent of First Class mail was delivered on time.
'Consignia has a lot of work to do if it is not to breach its licence conditions towards the end of its financial year. admonishes the regulator Postcomm.
'It is particularly striking that over 20 per cent of much First Class mail posted in london and the South East failed to be delivered next day within the same Postcode area. Indeed, the detailed figures show that First Class mail posted in SW and WC London and in Uxbridge was delivered more promptly outside those areas than within them.’ So kM faces a huge challenge in meeting the Postcomm target of 92.1 per cent for next year
Controversially, the consumer watc hdog Postwatch has suggested that Royal Mail would achieve better delivery rates if it abandoned its efforts to make residential deliveries before 9.3) am. The argument is that this would make it easier to find reliable stati while not inconveniencing consumers since, in iiiv event, few receive their post before going to work. However. this does not take into account the needs of the growing number of people who work partly or wholly from home.
Although instances of lost or heavily delayed parcels have been highlighted on TV consumer progranunes. Parcelforce has tired rather better. But it still has to improve on 85 per cent on-time delivery of standard parcels to iiieet next year’s target of 88 per cent.
While first the fax and now the e-mail and c-commerce have whittled away at Royal Mail’s letter market, together with Parcelforce it has benefited from the growth of home shopping. Parcelforce is in fact the UK's largest home shopping dchverv service.
Meanwhile, with the ending of RM's monopoly for lower weight letter post,
Postcomm has awarded its first competitive licence. This is to I lays DX, enabling the collection of mail from customers of H lays’ existing document exchange service and a pre-8am delivery service of lcticrs to businesses in parts of London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
It has vet to be seen whether this is the first trickle in a flood of successful applications. Most express carriers either
they hive no plans to seek a Postcomni operating licence or are keeping a closed mouth about them.
Midlands—based national and international operator Business Post is an exception. 'We are looking to taking Out licenccs under Postcomm arrangements’. says Marketing Manager Bill Wallis. He agrees that there is no way the company could compete with Royal Mail in a universal letter service, hut hints that opportunities are being examined in the area of business mail.
If specialist document and package
companies are preparing to takes bites out of RM’s market, so Consignia is gearing up to compete with them more directly in international express traffic.
Notes Lynx Express: 'The strategy of the four principal European postal authorities appears to be aimed at achieving a hedge against the predicted decline in mail volumes in future years. The route to a future business is to expand the parcels operations into full cross-border network operations. Royal Mail and Parcelforce h ave acquired business interests in many new terntories, following the lead of TPG (Netherlands), DeutschePost (Germany) and La Poste France:’. The issue is now the speed at which these investments will yield financial benefits’.
Lynx quenes Consignia's ability on its own to finish what it has started. Instead, it sees ‘a new era of alliances between integrators and postal authorities, driven by the need to move more quickly than first anticipated’. It looks as though changes will come thick and fast over the months to come. DM