Tag: BT

Post Office broadband service to be launched under deal with BT

Posted by | May 17, 2007 | |

The Post Office will launch a broadband service later this year under a strategic partnership with BT Wholesale, it was announced today.

The agreement marks a key step in the Post Office’s drive to expand its range of services and products to generate new revenues to support the branch network by helping replace lost income from a decline in its traditional business.

“The agreement provides the platform to enhance the Post Office’s existing HomePhone service while offering customers some of the best deals in the market for both voice and internet broadband services.”

Under the four-year deal, BT Wholesale will provide an integrated range of telephony and broadband services.

It builds further on the Post Office’s growing range of new services and products, including car and home insurance, Instant Saver accounts, the Post Office credit card and personal loans, as well as increasing sales of foreign currency and travel insurance.

The first benefits from the agreement will be unveiled next month when Post Office HomePhone launches a new price and service package that will strengthen further its existing competitive offering. HomePhone has already won 400,000 customers with the lowest line rental prices of any major provider if payment is by direct debit, along with itemised billing, and discounts against favourite numbers.

Work is already underway by the Post Office to launch a broadband service in the autumn that will compete head to head with the major players in the market.

Read More

Parcelforce Worldwide extends its parcel redelivery service using advanced self-service technologies from Eckoh

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

Parcelforce Worldwide has significantly extended the scope of its contract with BT and Eckoh, one of Europe’s leading providers of outsourced automated solutions, with a series of innovative enhancements to its parcel redelivery service.

The new and enhanced service builds upon the automated speech recognition solution for redeliveries developed by Eckoh and BT and implemented by Parcelforce Worldwide earlier this year.

The extended redeliveries service will see Eckoh take responsibility for Parcelforce Worldwide’s entire end-to-end redeliveries support service, which includes management of the front end web interface, as well as co-ordinating customer instructions with Parcelforce Worldwide’s delivery depots and customer contact centres. With further developments planned for later this year, customers will soon have the convenience of making payments for additional service options, such as requesting a redelivery on a Saturday or to a different address, using a fully automated telephone based payment system.

The fully hosted service will provide a high level of consistency across all contact channels, whether web or telephone based. The overall solution utilises Eckoh’s extensive speech recognition expertise and self-service technology platform, but also leverages Eckoh’s substantial web design and deployment heritage, which now forms an integral part of the enhanced solution.

Eckoh expects to manage in excess of 1 million calls on behalf of Parcelforce Worldwide during 2007.

Read More

New deal for BT bill payers at the UK Post Office®

Posted by | Feb 13, 2007 | |

Post Office Ltd and BT have signed a new 5-year deal which allows four million BT customers to continue to benefit from the convenience of paying their phone bill at Post Office® branches.

The agreement will enable BT customers to pay their bill by cash, cheque or debit card at any of the UK’s 14,000 Post Office® branches. Over 94 per cent of the UK population lives within a mile of a Post Office® branch.

Customers can also continue to save towards their quarterly bill by making regular payments using their BT payment card in Post Office® branches too.

Nearly 25 million people visit the Post Office® each week, making over 270 million bill payments every year for a wide range of utilities and local councils. It’s free to pay almost any bill at the Post Office®.

In addition to paying bills, customers can access a wide range of other services at their local Post Office®, such as banking and financial services including free cash access over the counter, travel services including travel insurance, passports and commission-free currency, and mail and postal services.

Read More

TNT plans UK expansion

Posted by | Jan 25, 2007 | |

TNT NV said it is considering plans to intensify its challenge to the UK”s state-owned postal group Royal Mail as it declined to comment on speculation that it is planning a bid for Deutsche Post AG.

Chief Executive Peter Bakker said TNT is conducting pilot schemes in a number of UK cities to assess the financial viability of setting up “end-to-end” mail networks, which would enable TNT to deliver mail as well as collect and sort it.
Bakker told AFX News in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that TNT is conducting experiments in Manchester and Glasgow to assess whether it can generate sufficient mail volumes to make end-to-end networks viable.
Meanwhile, the company refused to comment on speculation that it is interested in German logistics giant Deutsche Post AG.

Shares in the latter outperformed the market on Jan 18 amid the rumours, although one Frankfurt-based trader said he thinks the rumours are unrealistic because TNT is much smaller than Deutsche Post.
Bakker said, meanwhile, that TNT is undertaking a number of initiatives to try to reduce carbon emissions from its planes and trucks.

It is experimenting with biofuel-powered lorries in Amsterdam and with zero-emission electric trucks in the UK.

Read More

Blow to Royal Mail as BT and British Gas defect

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

Royal Mail suffered a twin blow yesterday after UK companies BT and British Gas switched postal contracts worth around GBP150m to its rival operator, TNT.

BT is the largest bulk mailer in the country, and the contract won yesterday by TNT, part of the Dutch post office, is the biggest since deregulation of the UK postal market in 2004. The BT contract is worth GBP90m over three years, and will involve TNT handling 170 million items a year – mainly bills and statements. No announcement has been made of the British Gas deal, but the contract is thought to worth GBP60m. TNT declined to comment.

The loss of the two huge utilities is a further setback for Royal Mail following the decision by the Department for Work and Pensions to switch a GBP12m contract to another of its privately owned rivals, Business Post, two weeks ago.

The BT contract involves a so-called access agreement, whereby TNT collects the post and trunks it to Royal Mail sorting offices for final delivery. However, TNT is planning to launch its own end-to-end postal service, and is in the final stages of selecting a number of UK cities to conduct trials. It has already signed up a host of blue-chip clients including Virgin Mobile, Sky, Next, Sainsbury’s. HBOS, Lloyds TSB, npow-er and Thames Water.

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post UK, said he aimed to win more business from BT.

Business Post’s letters division, UK Mail, has also picked up contracts from Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and Powergen while DHL, owned by Deustche Post, counts Tesco, John Lewis and Debenhams among its customers.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

What's the future of the postal USO?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!



View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest