Amtrak Express Parcels has broken Parcelforce’s monopoly on home delivery for Comet, with a contract to deliver small electrical items. It will make around 45% of the 7,000 deliveries a day expected in the Christmas peak. “We will do the higher value work,” Amtrak says. Amtrak, backed by 3i, made a (pounds sterling)1.9m pre-tax profit in the year to May 31, against a loss of (pounds sterling)5.5m a year before.
Read MoreParcelforce is axing part of its Teesside workforce in a cost-cutting drive, the company’s parent group Royal Mail has confirmed.
The Royal Mail is to make 13 redundancies from its 75-strong workforce at the Parcelforce Worldwide depot at Riverside Park, Middlesbrough.
The company says the redundancies will be voluntary and the cuts at its loss-making parcel division are part of company cost cuts. A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We are currently reorganising our Parcelforce network on a nationwide basis.
Read MoreParcelforce is to scrap its extra charge for deliveries to the Highlands from anywhere in Scotland – but it has decided against extending the concession to deliveries from England and those to the islands.
The limited concession followed a year-long review and is to apply from late this summer. It was greeted with widespread disappointment.
It means deliveries from the main postal catalogue suppliers in England will still cost more, and many will continue to pass on the delivery premium.
Read MoreThe UK Royal Mail’s parcels arm, Parcelforce Worldwide, continued to haemorrhage money in the year to March, doubling its losses to £187m (t261.8m).
Parcelforce, which in the last year has completed its transformation to an express-only service for time-guaranteed deliveries, is continuing to eliminate its unprofitable products and inefficient operations, although progress has not been as rapid as in mail operations. But Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman, said Parcelforce remained on course to break even in 2004/2005 after 10 years of losses.
Business-to-consumer deliveries may be tricky, but express carriers are getting smarter at handling them effectively, and are streamlining their B2B service as they do so.
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