Tag: Royal Mail

Mobile working solutions sought by Royal Mail

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Its intention is to establish contracts with providers in the areas of service management, mobile application, systems integration and in-life management support. The deal will provide up to 130,000 hand held devices and is thought to be the largest of its kind in the UK and possibly the world.

Having put out a tender, Royal Mail is aiming to enter negotiations with up to five service providers. The hand held device management will be the subject of a separate contract to oversee hardware operation and updates.

Included within the tender is a service management requirement. This is intended to handle various aspects such as incident, problem, release, security and change management.

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Royal Mail confirms that industrial action harmed services

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Figures recently released by Royal Mail confirm that industrial action during the second quarter of 2007-08 damaged services for postal customers.

78.4 per cent of First Class letters reached their destination the working day after posting, compared with an on-target performance of 93 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Royal Mail Marketing Director Alex Batchelor said, ‘We are very aware that our customers simply didn’t receive the service they deserve as a result of this year’s strike action by the Communication Workers Union —and we’re very sorry that they were let down.

‘Customers are all too aware that strike action continued during the third quarter of the year which means that targets will also be missed for the autumn period. The recent vote in favour of our pay deal is good news for customers —it’s a green light for Royal Mail to invest in new technology and modernise our operations so that we can return to the record highs in quality of service reached in the last two years and build on that success for the future.’

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Go west! Home movers fall for the charm of the West Country

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

UK home movers are flocking to the West Country, a unique study of over half a million address changes by Royal Mail revealed today.

Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset all make appearances in the top ten most desirable areas to live in the UK. Calculated by net moves*, they claimed fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth places respectively.

The study of mail redirection data revealed that, between them, the four counties attracted 10,847 new householders who travelled more than one million miles to relocate from other parts of the UK.

Kent tops the table with an impressive 5,068 moves into the area. Only London and Surrey achieved higher move-in levels, but because they have also experienced significant moves out, neither makes it into the top 10.

Other counties to appear include West Sussex (2nd), Suffolk (9th) and Essex (10th). Hampshire (3rd) and Lincolnshire (7th) also performed well.

Royal Mail’s Home Movers Barometer is managed and compiled by data value management specialist DQM Group, based on 0.6 million mail redirection requests over a 12-month period. It also shows that, while not making it into the top 10, smaller regions have been successful in attracting new residents.

Most significant are the Scottish Isles (not including the Shetland or Orkney Islands), which welcomed 289 new households, who moved an average of 217.82 miles each to relocate.

Additionally, existing residents of Hampshire, Kent, Essex and Devon have been proved extremely loyal, all demonstrating a high level of moves within their respective county. People from Kent were most fond of their “Garden of England”, clocking a substantial 12,646 internal moves and an average of just 5.39 miles per relocation.

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Cash-strapped holidaymakers could lead to city breaks explosion

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Eastern Europe’s emerging city break destinations could be set to benefit from the UK’s economic downturn, just as Barcelona, Prague and Dublin did after the stock market crash 20 years ago – according to a new report by Post Office® Travel Services.

The report, which examines the growth of city breaks over the past two decades, concludes that demand for city breaks may explode in 2008 as it did after Black Monday in October 1987.

Cities like Krakow, Tallinn, Riga and Dubrovnik are among those predicted to grow in popularity this year – for many of the reasons that people flocked to Barcelona, Prague and Dublin in the late eighties and nineties, according to the Post Office².

Short breaks to eurozone cities still dominate – taking eight of the top ten places – but the Post Office® warns holidaymakers to be prepared for the pound in their pocket to buy less in these cities. Sterling has slipped by 11 per cent against the euro since last March. However visitors to Prague will feel the pinch even more, because the pound has fallen by 22 per cent against the Czech koruna. Only in New York – a new entrant to Superbreak’s cities top ten – will the pound stretch further – by five per cent

Of the Eastern European cities, Budapest is likely to offer best value to UK visitors this year as its currency, the forint, has strengthened least – by eight per cent – against sterling. In Krakow, which has benefited from the biggest increase in the number of flights from UK regional airports, the pound will buy 19 per cent less than a year ago.

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Councils 'kept in dark' on post office plans

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has been accused of obstructing plans by councils to save hundreds of post offices from closure.

The Government says 2,500 branches must close to preserve the network’s GBP 150 million annual subsidy and cut its GBP 4 million-a-week losses.

Up to 50 councils in England and Wales are investigating ways of saving threatened branches, offering rescue packages of GBP 18,000 per branch over three years from council tax receipts.

But some local authorities claim that Royal Mail is standing in the way of such plans by withholding key information about branches until a consultation period has elapsed, so the councils cannot assess whether they are viable businesses to take on.

Royal Mail has also allegedly stipulated that authorities who want to use the Post Office branding must meet criteria on minimum turnover and the number of counters.

Sir Simon Milton, the chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents 410 councils, claimed that Royal Mail executives lacked enthusiasm over the plans.

He said: “There is not the high-level commitment within the Post Office to engage seriously with alternative means to keep post offices alive.”

Ideas put forward in December 2006 by Lord Bruce Lockhart, Sir Simon’s predecessor, to help keep branches open included charging peppercorn rents and letting councils run services from their own premises, such as town halls and leisure centres.

The suggestions were made personally to the Royal Mail boss, Adam Crozier, but nothing came of them.

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