Tag: UK

Royal Mail axes 37 post offices (UK)

Posted by | May 13, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is axing 37 post offices across County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire.

A Royal Mail spokesman said the first closures were scheduled to take place towards the end of June.

Areas affected include Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Northallerton and Richmond.

In addition to the closures, another two branches in North Yorkshire are being replaced by limited services in village halls.

The closure decision follows a six-week consultation process.

Adrian Wales, post office network development manager for the North East, said 99 pct of people in the region would still be within one mile of a branch, or would see no change to their existing services.

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DHL trials new eco vehicles (UK)

Posted by | May 13, 2008 | |

DHL Exel Supply Chain is offering retailers within its UK Fast Fashion Network the opportunity to trial its latest electric vehicle, a specially fitted nine tonne Smith Newton truck.

The vehicle runs on four batteries, which are recharged while in use through braking, with each providing up to 100 miles. It has a top speed of 50mph and is designed for city centre operations where roads are busy and there is a lot of stopping and starting involved.

The new truck had its first three-month trial with Burberry Retail UK, delivering to its central London, West End and Heathrow stores and there are plans for further trial to take place with Ben Sherman and Selfridges towards the end of the month.

Although more expensive to run, the low emission truck is exempt from the London Congestion Charge, London parking costs and the road fund licence.

The move comes as DHL aims to improve the carbon efficiency of its operations by 30 per cent by 2020 and follows the introduction of its first fully electric vehicle last year.

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Royal Mail to carry on fight for zonal pricing (UK)

Posted by | May 12, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is seeking a judicial review of Postcomm’s decision to reject plans for the introduction of a retail zonal pricing scheme.

As competition increases in the commercial postal market, Royal Mail proposed zonal pricing to reflect its obligation to deliver anywhere in the UK.

Royal Mail’s ‘zonal pricing’ refers to a system where senders of postal items would be charged variable rates depending on the geographic location of the recipients.

Direct mail and magazine printers have been eagerly watching developments as they could impact on the cost of campaigns

In most cases, the zonal pricing structure will make rates higher for deliveries to rural areas and lower for deliveries to urban areas and business districts.

The changes would affect the pricing structures of bulk mailers using Royal Mail’s Mailsort (120, 700 and 1400), Presstream and Walksort services, while not affecting the pricing for regular stamped mail.

Neither Postcomm nor Royal Mail would comment further, but the regulator said it had not ruled out any future moves towards zonal pricing and was open to alternatives that overcame the problems in the recent application.

Royal Mail already applies a zonal pricing structure to some of its independent agreements, under which it delivers mail the final mile for large customers and other postal operators.

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Disenchanted companies desert Royal Mail (UK)

Posted by | May 12, 2008 | |

Business customers are deserting Royal Mail and most firms do not find the postal group an efficient organisation to work with, a study by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) for The Times has revealed.
The BCC sought the views of nearly 1,000 businesses throughout the country about their use of Royal Mail and their experience of the organisation.
Sixty-eight per cent said that they did not find the postal group to be a “professional, efficient organisation to do business with”; 55 per cent said that Royal Mail was less reliable than it was five years ago and only 8 per cent thought that it had improved.
In a striking example of how much electronic communication has hit the use of postal services, nearly 86 per cent of businesses said that they used the internet and e-mail for transactions that they would have put through Royal Mail five years ago.
The BCC survey comes as the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) gives warning today that 3,000 more post offices may be forced to shut if the Government withdraws post offices’ rights to handle benefits and pension payments through the post office card account.
Royal Mail is in the middle of a programme to shut 2,500 post offices in its loss-making network.
Subpostmasters will press the Government to renew the contract for the post office card account when it comes up for review next year.

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