Amazon denies ending Royal Mail contract

Amazon.com’s British unit denied it had cancelled a long-term parcel delivery contract with Royal Mail, after a report in The Guardian newspaper said it had lost the business after strike threats, reports Reuters. The article continues:

“We have not cancelled any long-term contracts with the Royal Mail. They continue to be one of a number of carriers we use,” Amazon.co.uk said in a statement. But it added it was making contingency plans with other carriers because of possible strike action in the near future.

The Guardian said in its Thursday edition in an unsourced report that Amazon had cancelled its long-term contract to use former postal monopoly Royal Mail for parcels over 500 grams because of worries about a wave of strikes in the busy pre-Christmas period.

The Guardian reported that Amazon was Royal Mail’s second biggest customer, and said Amazon would give the business to rival Home Delivery Network.

The Communication Workers Union is expected to escalate its programme of local strikes which have already disrupted postal delivery across the country in a dispute over the handling of modernisation at Royal Mail.

Royal Mail was not immediately available for comment.