Tag: UK

Wincanton trucks into home delivery

Posted by | Oct 11, 2006 | |

What a difference profit makes. Warehousing and delivery company Wincanton has just bought two companies with similar sales paying GBP 2 million for one and up to GBP 27 million for the other.
Lane, which delivers white and other household goods to your doorstep, fetched just GBP 2 million for its GBP 47 million of sales. Over-expansion had left the company making losses with debts of GBP 6 million which Wincanton (WIN) takes on.
Finance director Gerard Connell, who claims Wincanton is number two in logistics in the UK to Exel, says Lane provides a good ‘beach head’ to the fast-growing home delivery market. He admits home delivery companies have historically struggled to make money.
The other acquisition, RDL, specialises in delivering bricks and other building material for the likes of Hanson and Ibstock. In its last figures it made profits before interest and amortization of GBP 3.8 million on sales of GBP 57.6 million.
Connell says a number of big construction companies are expected to outsource their trucking and warehouse operations soon so there are plenty of opportunities.

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Cybit partnership with SPL World Group will use dynamic data to underpin dynamic routing

Posted by | Oct 10, 2006 | |

Cybit, the UK’s leading online Telematics Service Provider (TSP), has partnered with SPL World Group, to combine its Enterprise RealTime Scheduler and Cybit’s leading telematics solution, Fleetstar-MRM. This unique offering will use dynamic, company-specific vehicle data to underpin dynamic scheduling capabilities, so that organisations in the field service and home delivery sectors can achieve unprecedented accuracy in their business planning. The use of actual vehicle and road speeds in the scheduling process ensures that plans are neither over- nor under-stated and this calibration of data in the system will enable businesses to enhance productivity by as much as ten per cent.

The unique proposition moves away from previous approaches that used average road speeds to design schedules, so that businesses can now ensure their plans match reality. Closed loop planning using historic GPS-based travel times ensures accuracy within the schedules so that companies can clearly identify the resources they need and when they need them. These calibrations can be updated at regular intervals to ensure that they match the planned journey times.

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One in every four post boxes still without a tab

Posted by | Oct 9, 2006 | |

A nationwide survey undertaken on 19th September by Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services, has revealed that one in every four post boxes fails to display the correct collection tab – despite Royal Mail’s commitment to fully reintroduce the tabs by June.

The survey found that of 1,647 post boxes visited:

” 301 did not display a collection tab
” 95 displayed an incorrect tab
” Leaving 1,251 post boxes displaying the correct tab – 76 percent of the total surveyed

Collection tabs are important to customers as they indicate the daily final collection from a post box has been made. Royal Mail removed them in 2002. Following customer complaints and a Postwatch campaign, the company then agreed to reintroduce collection tabs.

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Royal Mail: British automobile industry sees 12.3 percent increase in DM

Posted by | Oct 9, 2006 | |

The automotive industry in Britain has experienced a 12.3 percent increase in direct mail volumes in the second quarter of this year, according to figures released on Oct. 6 by Royal Mail.

Between April and June 2006, volumes rose to 12.32 million, up from 10.97 million in the same period in 2005, London-based Royal Mail said.

Other sectors to perform well were charities with an increased volume of 10.5 per cent to almost 97 million direct mail pieces, the health sector with a 10 percent increase to 13.89 million pieces, and the travel and tourism sector with an uplift of 7.8 percent to 52.04 million pieces.

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New results show significant increase in direct mail volumes for the travel and tourism sector

Posted by | Oct 6, 2006 | |

New figures today revealed that the travel sector has experienced a 7.8 per cent increase in direct mail volumes.

During the second quarter this year, volumes rose to 52.04 million, up from 48.28 million in the same period in 2005, revealed Royal Mail.

These strong results, reported between April and June 2006, are indicative of the yearly focus on driving summer holiday package sales. Direct mail is increasingly being used to drive response to brand marketing campaigns, resulting in the uplift in targeted direct mail. For example Virgin Holidays uses direct mail as a key part of its brand response campaigns, to increase sales of its US and Caribbean holiday destinations.

Interestingly, there has also been a significant lift in volume of direct mail sent to the 55-64 age bracket. This is a result of the marketing community identifying the ‘grey market’ as a responsive and valuable target audience.

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