Post workers' fury at parcels on milk floats
MILKMEN in Merseyside yesterday began delivering parcels as part of a major new contract.
Express Dairies has signed a contract with leading direct marketing firm ADM and yesterday began delivering books in Liverpool from an international book club.
The scheme was piloted in Wirral when Royal Mail, then Consignia, paid milkmen to deliver parcels earlier this year.
Company bosses at the dairy now say they expect to handle over 4.5 million items over the next 12 months and are hailing the contract as a major development in their service.
Tim Smith, executive director of Leicester-based Express Dairies, said: “Winning this first contract represents the further development of our home delivery business.
“Our previous experience of parcel deliveries makes us confident that we will be able to successfully meet the needs of our new customers.”
The contract was signed after the award of a licence from Postcomm.
Express Dairies, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of doorstep milk, plans to expand its operations into Manchester and Nottingham.
If successful, bosses hinted yesterday that further expansion in the future was likely.
Officials at Express Dairies say they have already had approaches from a number of household names interested in Express delivering for them.
But unions fear it could open the floodgates for other companies to take contracts away from traditional postmen.
Mark Walsh, area representative for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said: “We’ve argued all along that this work can be done by us.
“When the dairy in Wirral first started up, we helped them get going.
“We were involved in showing them the ropes – but now we find we’ve set them up to go against us.”
A total of around 400 jobs will be lost across Merseyside in the coming week with the closure of Parcelforce’s Bootle and Upton, Wirral, depots.
The Bootle depot is already closed with just a skeleton staff remaining. The site in Upton is due to close towards the ends of September.
Mr Walsh added: “It seems to have set a precedent and this was something we were worried about when we first handed parcels to the dairy “We’ve lost quite a few jobs already and more are on the way, both here and nationally.”
