Tag: UK

Postcomm reviews Royal Mail application

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

Postcomm is seeking views on Royal mail’s application to extend its Pricing in Proportion (PiP) framework to Packetpost Returns.

Packetpost Returns is a service that allows packets to be returned from customers with the postage cost being borne by the original sender.

Currently the price per item paid by the original sender is based on the average weight of the mail returned. Royal Mail advised Postcomm that Packetpost Returns was overlooked when it made its original PiP application in August 2003, and proposes that an item returned through this service should be treated and charged as a packet under its Pricing in Proportion framework.

Royal Mail has also requested that Packetpost Returns, consistent with the greater alignment of these prices to those of normal Packetpost, should be included in the same controlled services group as Packetpost1 .

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UK campaigners rally to save post offices

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

Groups opposed to the closure of post offices are staging a national protest today as part of a campaign to keep open threatened branches. Union leaders, politicians, countryside and pensioners’ organisations will join forces to call on the Government not to press ahead with plans to shut 2,500 offices. The campaign aims to secure the future of the postal network offering a range of government products and services including a Post Office card account. A rally in Westminster will be followed by a lobby of MPs and events across the UK. Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern said, ‘We are

pleased that the Government has started to wake up to our concerns about the future of post offices.

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Hickmans & Woodall join PalletFORCE

Posted by | Feb 19, 2007 | |

West Midlands transport companies Hickmans of Kidderminster and Woodall Transport Group (WTG) have joined the PalletFORCE palletised distribution network.

Both companies have long been aware of the benefits that membership of a palletised distribution network can bring, having previously been members of Palletways. The decision to switch networks and join PalletFORCE has been made in the long-term interests of the company and its customers, with a key objective being the continued enhancement of service levels.

“We’re a family business, and many of our customers come to us for precisely that reason,” explains Lorraine Hickman. “There seems to be a growing belief amongst customers that the ‘personal touch’ equates to good service, and we believe that PalletFORCE – with its member-owned structure – offers a comparable philosophy at a Network level.”

She adds that excellent word of mouth made PalletFORCE the ideal choice. “We have been aware of PalletFORCE for a long time and have worked with some of its members. They have all spoken positively of their experiences in the Network.”

This opinion is shared by Woodall Transport Group.

“Through our links with the Road Haulage Association and previously the Transport Association we know several PalletFORCE members and have been impressed with their reports of the Network,” comments Managing Director Richard Woodall.

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New Amtrak bosses start efficiency drive

Posted by | Feb 16, 2007 | |

The new owners of UK parcel company Amtrak claim they can make significant cost savings without wholesale redundancies.

But the linehaul and hub operations had to become “a lot slicker”, said new MD Alan Jones.

“It’s all about making sure costs are in alignment with revenues, ” he told IFW. “Clearly we cannot leave things exactly as they are. We have got to take costs out of the business, because you can’t just put GBP 1 on a parcel.

“But a couple of million off our trunking costs would go straight to the bottom line.” Amtrak has 14 double-deck trailers out of a total linehaul fleet of 120, and more will be added. “We carry a lot of fresh air around.

Double-deckers help to reduce that, ” Jones said.

Funding for re-investment in the business has been secured from Lloyds TSB, but it has taken no equity. Netfold, a five-man consortium, now wholly owns Amtrak.

Netfold comprises Ron Series, former executive chairman of Tuffnells Parcels Express, plus four former directors of the Seawheel shortsea business: Jones, Gerry Ruffell, Tom Naylor and David Bardsley.

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'Big Orange' adds Splash of Colour to its Range

Posted by | Feb 16, 2007 | |

TNT may be famous for it orange trucks, but it will be adding to its colour palette in 2007 thanks to deal worth in excess of GBP 1million a year with one of Britain’s biggest colourant suppliers to the plastics industries.

Britain’s leading business-to-business express deliverer won the deal with ColorMatrix to transport colourants from the company’s headquarters in Knowsley, Merseyside, to firms across the UK and Europe. The colours are used to tint transparent materials including bottles for big brand drinks manufacturers such as Coca-Cola and Robinsons.

From Knowsley, TNT transports the goods to its newly opened GBP 5.6 million gateway depot at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which handles domestic parcels for the North-West of England as well as international consignments to and from mainland Europe and further afield.

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