Year: 2003

Ministers came under pressure to stop Royal Mail’s withdrawal from the railways yesterday, after a document emerged which suggested that the organisation could have saved half its postal trains. To the dismay of rail unions and environmentalists, the government-owned company announced last month that it intended to carry all letters, parcels and postcards by lorry or aircraft, in an effort to save pounds 90m a year. The controversial decision ended a 173-year tradition of “night mail” trains. However, an Australian company which took part in Royal Mail’s review of its distribution network has revealed that the organisation could have reached its target of pounds 90m cost savings by axing only 50% of its rail services. Opcom, a Queensland-based IT firm, provided a specialist logistics software package, Planz, which was central to Royal Mail’s reorganisation.