Tag: Parcelforce

Firms counting cost of UK postal walk-outs

Posted by | Aug 26, 2007 | |

Businesses are still counting the cost of postal strikes and say the action has the potential to lose them thousands of pounds. Royal Mail workers walked out in two 24-hour strikes followed by a campaign of staggered action, in which each division was allocated a different day to revolt in a bid to cause continuous disruption.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were protesting at job losses which they say will come from modernization of the firm and have rejected a 2.5 per cent pay offer.

Royal Mail, which has been losing business to rivals since the postal market was opened to competition, says the changes are needed for it to stay competitive and vowed to keep delivering mail during the action.

Smaller businesses have felt the biggest impact from the strikes as orders and deliveries have been delayed.

Burslem-based Lorna Bailey Artware depends on Royal Mail to bring in responses to its mailshots.

“Potentially, it could cost us thousands of pounds. When mail shots go out they can turn over GBP 20,000. If it is late, it puts back the manufacturing and painting – all very problematic.

“It puts us in an awkward situation because we can use Parcelforce for larger parcels, but we don’t want to pass extra charges on to the customers.

Toy and book supplier Everything Dinosaur, based in Middlewich, relies heavily on the post for its mail order service.

Owner Mike Walley said the biggest concern was not knowing which division was on strike each day.

Mr Walley has introduced a new service using couriers in an attempt to overcome disruptions but said this is costing the company money.

He added: “We’re using couriers for some of the larger parcels, but it’s costing us money because we have offered it at a discounted rate.

The national strikes have now been called off and Royal Mail and the CWU are expected to reach an agreement by September 4. Royal Mail has pledged to get services back to normal as quickly as possible.

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Work 5 years longer or your pension is cut

Posted by | Jul 24, 2007 | |

Royal Mail workers will have their pensions slashed unless they work five years longer under secret plans revealed by the Mirror today.

The move would cost staff members thousands of pounds a year. Some could see their retirement pay halved.

In addition the posties’ final salary scheme would be closed to new members from next year.

Last night, on the eve of two weeks of pay strikes, union leaders vowed to fight the “hammer blow” proposals.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: “This is a savage attack on pay and conditions.

“Our members aren’t going to roll over and accept this. It will only galvanise support for strike action.”

The radical plans – which would hit workers at Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide – are in a 24 page document leaked to the Mirror.

They are designed to tackle a GBP 6billion shortfall in the pension fund by saving GBP 1.5billion over five years.

The age staff could retire with full pensions would be raised from 60 to 62 next year and 65 from 2010.

Future rises in pensionable pay would be capped at the inflation rate.

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UK postal workers fury over pensions stitch up

Posted by | Jul 24, 2007 | |

Unions have accused the Royal Mail of a “stitch up” over leaked proposals to cut workers’ pensions.

The Daily Mirror reports it has seen a 24-page document on plans to tackle a GBP 6 billion shortfall in the pension fund.

Under the shake-up the final salary pension scheme could be closed to new members from next year and the age at which staff can retire with a full pension will be raised from 60 to 65 in 2010.

Union leaders vowed to fight the proposals, which would affect workers at Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told the Mirror the plan was a “stitch up”.

He said: “This is a savage attack on pay and conditions. Our members aren’t going to roll over and accept this.

“It will only galvanise support for strike action. It’s a stitch up. They may say they’re consulting but that’s a charade.

“It’s clear from the work in producing these plans that they’re determined to drive them through.”

The leaked document stresses no formal decision has been made and the proposals are designed to form a consultation basis.

According to the newspaper, the document says: “These changes would gradually reduce the Royal Mail’s overall pension costs and therefore reduce the future risk to our business, jobs and existing pensions.”

Future rises in pensionable pay for the company’s 167,000 workers would be capped at the inflation rate and lump sum payments on retirement would also be hit.

A Royal Mail spokesman said no decision has been made on the future of the pension scheme.

He said: “Royal Mail said very clearly earlier this year that it would be consulting on the future of the pension scheme for both new recruits and existing members but no decisions have yet been taken as we have not even begun the formal consultation.”

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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.

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Parcelforce reveals crucial role of IT change in turning loss into profit

Posted by | May 1, 2007 | |

An IT-based streamlining program has helped Parcelforce turn around initial losses of GBP 193m to make a profit of GBP 18m over the past 27 months, Vanessa Leeson, managing director of the delivery company, told the spring meeting of the BCS Elite group.

Following its split from Royal Mail in 1992, Parcelforce embarked on a series of major IT changes to cut costs, improve the delivery rate and reduce its headcount. Leeson told the BCS IT directors group that simplification was key, with every aspect of the organization’s systems subject to rationalization. The network was downsized and the company reduced the total number of systems used from 47 to 21.

A key project was to increase the functionality in the handheld devices used by delivery staff and ensure that they were integrated with the company’s streamlined IT set-up. As part of this, the company introduced a policy for all handhelds, which run bespoke software, to be upgraded every three years.

The IT team also developed a strategy to use simpler systems and make the business more web-focused, said Leeson. It learnt from other organizations along the way, including the military with its “department in a box” mobile system and its satellite technology. This led to a web-enabled parcel tracking system, which lets Parcelforce check that a parcel has arrived at its destination via text messaging. “IT should never be the reason to lose or fail to win business,” said Leeson.

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