Tag: Royal Mail

First class plan (UK)

Posted by | Aug 12, 2008 | |

Royal Mail wants to build a new bulk mail distribution centre as part of a GBP 51 million investment programme in the north west.

As a result of the plans Liverpool Mail Centre, in Copperas Hill, and Crewe Mail Centre would both be relocated to the current regional bulk distribution centre, which is based in Warrington.

The move comes after a six-month consultation period with the Communication Workers’ Unions and Unite and it will see mail centres in Stockport, Oldham and Bolton closed.

Steve Cameron, Royal Mail territory director, said: “It is essential that we have the most suitable postal network to enable us to compete effectively in the years ahead. We need to invest to defend our market share and to retain existing business and win new customers.

“That means reshaping our network in a way that increases efficiency, makes the best of our investment in technology and allows us to improve our service to customers. We are also determined to provide a more modern working environment for our people.”

The changes are part of a GBP 1.2 billion programme to bring new technology and sorting equipment and will not take place until 2009.

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Greece elected chair of the next Postal Operations Council

Posted by | Aug 8, 2008 | |

Greece will chair the next Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union, in the person of Dr. Andreas Taprantzis, Chief Executive Office of the Greek postal operator, ELTA.

The 40 member countries newly elected to the Postal Operations Council held their first meeting to elect their chair, a position Great Britain, Greece and Switzerland were vying for.

Greece received 22 votes against 18 for Great Britain in the second round of voting.

In thanking the members for their support, Taprantzis added that Greece would devote itself and its resources for the benefit of the UPU and all its member countries.

The Postal Operations Council deals with technical and operational issues affecting the international postal sector. It promotes the introduction of new postal products and makes recommendations to member countries concerning standards for technological, operational or other processes. The Council’s programme of work aims above all at helping postal services to modernize and upgrade their postal products.

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Qatar to host Universal Postal Congress in 2012

Posted by | Aug 7, 2008 | |

Qatar will host the 25th Universal Postal Congress (CPU) in 2012. This was decided by a vote held here yesterday (7th August) on the sidelines of the 24th Universal Postal Congress.
More than 180 participating countries voted for Qatar for efforts being made by its delegation headed by Ali Mohammed Al Ali, Chairman and General Manager of the General Postal Corporation (Q-Post).
Qatar also for the first time joined membership of the CPU Board by election as part of the Asia and Oceania grouping.
The CPU board consists of 41 elected countries as per various regional groupings.
Following the announcement of Qatar winning the bid for hosting the coming congress, Al Ali expressed overwhelming pleasure over this achievement, saying that the Qatar bidding file was a satisfactory one and meets all conditions set by the CPU to host such a universal gathering most important of which are stability, security availability of infrastructure and services including health, transportation and housing, etc.

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Royal Mail – Massive restructuring in North West (UK)

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

Royal Mail blames falling mail volumes for a massive restructuring of sorting operations in the north-west of England that are likely to see the closure of mail centres in Liverpool, Stockport, Oldham and Bolton.

However, Hellmail has learned that plans had been in the pipeline for some ten years with a proposal to combine sorting operations on a new site at former air-base Burtonwood, close to both Manchester and Liverpool and the cessation of its use of the rail network by 2004, key to plans to make better use of the road network. A planning application for development on the Omega South site at Burtonwood had already been submitted.

Preliminary plans included transferring processing from three mail centres, five outward vouching offices and three centres for bulk mail handling to new mail centres and a new regional distribution centre. A new sorting and distribution centre at Warrington to replace Crewe and Liverpool mail centres, a new Chester mail centre replacing the current Chester mail centre were already penned. It also, at that time, included five outward vouching offices in the Wirral and north Wales, and a new Crewe regional distribution centre replacing Brunswick Dock, Westhoughton and Lostock bulk handling centres.

Putting more mail on to Britain’s roads rather with less reliance on the rail network has clearly altered the network structure as well as access and selecting logical sites for distribution, the subject of much controversy, are rapidly reaching the final decision stage.

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NFSP campaign to save PO card account (UK)

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

The National Federation of Subpostmasters continues its campaign to highlight the threat to remaining post offices beyond those currently being closed, if the contract for the Post Office card account is lost.

The NFSP points out that the post office network will go into further decline with as many as 3,000 post offices going out of business. The NFSP says that if Post Office Ltd does not need to pay out GBP 27 billion in cash each year through POCA, it will not need to raise large amounts of cash through other services, and the entire business model will unravel.

Post Office Ltd is currently on a mission to reduce massive losses in the post office network by closing 2,500 post offices across the UK. Rural areas have been particularly badly hit where smaller post offices were also the only village shop. Many have already been closed and replaced by outreach services which consist of mobile or limited hours services. The long-term funding of outreach services is the subject of some controversy after the Commons business and enterprise committee raised concerns over the level of funds afforded to the Post Office by Royal Mail.

Business has been lost to post offices in more recent years as many bill payments were transferred to online facilities or contracts put out to tender. Many post offices depend on the POCA and see it as a building block towards a sustainable future for the entire post office network.

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