Tag: Royal Mail

Competition in UK starting to benefit smaller businesses

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

Research commissioned by Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has found the benefits that large mailers have been experiencing since the market was opened have now started to slowly spread to smaller businesses. However, much more progress is needed and the challenge posed by growing alternatives to mail confirms the need for mail operators to continue to pursue greater innovation.

The market research, which forms part of Postcomm’s latest annual Business Customer Survey, revealed:
Although Royal Mail remains the dominant operator, one in five small and medium mailers and more than a third of large mailers are using more than one mail provider;
one in five respondents have explored alternatives to mail and have moved some of their mail to other media in the past 12 months which confirms the need for all postal operators to place more emphasis on customer service and innovation; and more than half of respondents agreed that competition has improved choice and more than a third believe competition has improved Royal Mail’s quality of service.

Also published today is Postcomm’s annual Competitive Market Review (CMR), which looks at factors affecting competition in the postal sector. Key findings of the CMR included:
– mail volumes were 2 per cent down on last year but there are indications that direct mail is growing in sectors such as building societies, charity, and health;
– end-to-end competition has declined by four million items and stands at less than one per cent of total mail volume, but mail volumes collected by ‘access’ operators and delivered by Royal Mail have more than doubled and now represent 19 per cent of revenue-derived mail volumes.

Both documents were launched at the UK Mail Show.

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Consultation Starts On Changes To Post Office Network – Post Office Ltd announces plans for Cardiff and Glamorgan Valleys

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

Post Office Ltd opened a six-week local public consultation on its Area Plan for the Cardiff and Glamorgan Valleys area. In line with the criteria and factors set by the UK Government in its Response Document (DTI The Post Office Network, Government response to public consultation May 2007 – www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page36024.html), the Area Plan proposes future provision of Post Office services through a network of 153 branches across the area, resulting in the closure of 31 existing branches (see full list below).

Under the proposals, more than 99.7 pct of the area’s population will either see no change, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

The detailed Area Plan proposal for Cardiff and Glamorgan Valleys area is now available from Post Office Ltd at: www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange or by emailing: [email protected] or by writing to: Post Office Ltd, Freepost Consultation Team (no stamp required)

Post Office Ltd is now seeking views on the proposed future service provision in the area, in particular views on access to Post Office services, the accessibility of alternative branches to those proposed for closure. Consultation is due to end on December 10, 2007.

The UK Government has already undertaken a 12-week national consultation before reaching a decision to reduce the UK-wide network of Post Office branches by up to 2,500 from its current level of over 14,000, while continuing to provide funding (subject to EU state-aid clearance) to support a more sustainable network in the future. The proposals now published support the national accessibility criteria introduced by the UK Government.

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Royal Mail stops Sunday collections

Posted by | Oct 27, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is to stop Sunday collections from post boxes and business from tomorrow.

The company, which introduced the service in 1990, had collected from 18,000 post boxes across the UK each Sunday.

But it said there was limited customer demand and that Sunday collections accounted for less than 1 pct of all mail posted each week.

Royal Mail said it also cost four times as much to handle Sunday mail compared to items collected on other days.

Information on the affected post boxes has been changed and those in areas of high usage will be monitored and emptied if there is a risk of overflowing.

Postal watchdog Postwatch carried out a survey into the demand for Sunday collections earlier this year and found that 68 pct of people said they used the service ‘very seldom’ or ‘never’.

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Homeserve deals Royal Mail another blow

Posted by | Oct 26, 2007 | |

Homeserve, the emergency policy and repair business, has handed TNT Post its mailing contract, signaling another blow to Royal Mail.

The deal, which will see Homeserve move its business from Royal Mail to TNT, is due to competitive prices and TNT’s clearer view of its business delivery service.

The move will cause another blow to Royal Mail – already in the midst of internal turmoil – as Homeserve is just one of the many businesses that has moved its business out of the postal operator in the past year. Royal Mail lost out to TNT for Emap’s GBP 1.6m subscriptions contract in August and BT’s delivery of The Phone Book contract in April.

The repeated loss of business and necessity to keep up with competition is one of the main reasons why Royal Mail wants to modernise its business, which has resulted in weeks of postal strikes recently.

TNT also handles contracts from customers including Centrica, Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Barclays.

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Royal Mail opts for SAP to cut sourcing costs

Posted by | Oct 26, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is aiming to save GBP 300m on procurement costs by 2009 with the help of a hosted e-sourcing application from SAP.

The SAP application went live in June after a relatively short two-phase implementation of just over three months and is being used by more than 100 Royal Mail staff.

The SAP-hosted software will help the procurement team manage £2.3bn of annual expenditure by Royal Mail. It replaces disparate systems and gives staff greater visibility across the contracting process.

Daniel Cameron, Royal Mail procurement director of performance and transformation, told silicon.com: “What’s become very evident is the technology gives us more bandwidth and shortens the procurement process.”

The application being used is from SAP’s 2006 acquisition of Frictionless Commerce.

Cameron said going for the hosted option represented a change in approach by Royal Mail.

Royal Mail is working with SAP on extra functionality for the future, including features such as vendor management.

His advice to other companies is to take a phased, rather than a big-bang, approach and do plenty of road testing to ensure it is fit-for-purpose from day one.

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