BT shows interest in running Post Office vans

British Telecommunications has expressed an interest in running a fleet of 40,000 vehicles owned by the Post Office in a marked reversal of its recent disposal strategy.

Consignia, the renamed group which runs the Royal Mail, has asked for tenders from companies interested in managing the Post Office fleet, which is one of the largest in the country.

Since April, BT has been involved in a similar process with its own fleet of 58,000 vehicles as part of a strategy to focus on its core telecoms business.

However, the telecoms giant has decided to broaden this review to include possible alliances with other fleet operators instead.

This may still include an outsourcing agreement with a third party, but BT is prepared to consider keeping control of both its own and the Post Office fleet if this proves more profitable.

The strategy contrasts with other recent outsourcing projects at BT where the company has sought to pass on risk and balance sheet assets in exchange for signing long term leases.

Example of this include a recent deal to sell and leaseback BT’s large property portfolio for around £2bn at a time when debts of £30bn were threatening to cripple the group.

Since a £5.9bn rights issue in May, BT has been more financially flexible and is keen to maximimse the value of internal skills and assets even if they are non-core.

On Monday the company confirmed it had approached Consignia for preliminary discussions but said it was too early to say what the outcome would be, or what would happen to its own fleet. “We regard our fleet as non-core but mission critical,” BT said.

The company is particularly proud of its ability to service and maintain a fleet of emergency repair vehicles and believes its facilities could be shared with other utilities.

However, any deal to manage the Consignia fleet require an external source of finance, according to one person close to BT. The telecoms group is thought to be unwilling to put in large amounts of its own cash.