TNT Logistics has extended its UK distribution contract with Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings and delivered a new vehicle fleet. TNT Logistics and parent Dutch chemical group Akzo Nobel NV have been cooperating for 22 years. The current deal extends TNT Logistics’ northern UK distribution contract for additional three years and its southern distribution contract until 2010.
Read MoreThe UK Home Delivery and Fulfilment 2006 report finds that delivery cost is the biggest gripe among consumers, with one in five saying these are too high. Consumers would use home delivery more if it was cheaper, the report says.
Growth in the UK’s £37bn home delivery sector hit just 3.2% in 2005, almost half the 5.6% growth in 2004.
Mail order home delivery sales have tumbled by £585m from 2002. While online ordering grew by £1.8bn in 2005, it has not helped the home delivery markers cause.
Nick Gladding, the report’s author, recommends that making home delivery seem more affordable is a key solution to drive up sales.
“One of the barriers consumers listed for using home delivery was the price. The evidence suggests that retailers that have made an effort to lower prices on home delivery have seen big gains. Free home delivery is something to aim for but it’s not always practical.” he says.
Parcels operators at the UK Express Delivery Conference in Birmingham this week were unimpressed.
Jonathan Smith, managing director of Amtrak, stressed the importance of getting the right price for delivery, noting that “in real terms, the prices parcel companies are getting for movement are the same as they were eight years ago.”
Matthew Robertson, project director of TNT UK’s new B2C division, TNT Post, did not anticipate a trend towards free delivery: “I don’t think you will see that in a number of providers,” he told us.
A spokesperson for e-tailer Firebox.com told Motor Transport that the company already subsidised its delivery costs to account for a standard £3.95 charge.
Read MoreRed-faced Royal Mail bosses have been forced to deny they are launching a new postal service, which would see consumers opt in to receive bundled direct mail, after one executive publicly suggested the scheme was in the pipeline.
Royal Mail head of media propositions Fraser Chisholm was speaking at a conference in central London last week, entitled DM Personalisation, at which a pre-recorded interview with OgilvyOne vice-chairman and creative director Rory Sutherland was aired.
Sutherland joked that, if pricing in proportion (PIP) forced brand owners to standardise their mailings, Royal Mail might as well bundle up all direct mail, place it in a big envelope and deliver it to households once a week.
Read MoreTNT Post’s acquisition of home shopping company JD Williams’ courier delivery network, representing another major step in TNT’s assault on the UK deregulated postal market, has had a mixed reaction from the DM industry. The deal, announced last month, gives TNT Post UK, formerly TNT Mail, an 80 per cent coverage of business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer parcel delivery networks across the UK. Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post UK, said that the move was part of a three-pronged attack on the market. “We have a three-pillar strategy: access; rolling out mail sortation services and creating an end-to-end network, which could include packets and parcels,” he said. “Ultimately, it would be nice to create a network for letters, but that will be separate to the parcel network, and take time. We won’t have orange pillar boxes just yet.”
Read MoreANC’s run of success in winning prestigious national awards continued at the National Business Awards held in London on November 8 where the company took top honours in the Health & Safety category.
The Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane was again the venue for another glittering awards ceremony and ANC was soon the centre of attention with its win in the first category to be announced. The judges of these keenly contested awards were impressed by ANC’s innovative approach and attention to detail in developing a ‘best in class’ health and safety culture.
The judges were looking for an organization that “best demonstrates that Health and Safety is an integral part of its management processes, has its leaders, managers and employees fully engaged and, where appropriate, tales its policies into its supply and distribution chains”.
The National Business Awards are among the most coveted in the country and are keenly contested by both large and smaller companies from diverse backgrounds. Each finalist has to win an equally competitive regional final before progressing to the grand final in London. This year, leading companies such as Barclays Bank, British Airways and the Royal Bank of Scotland competed in 16 catagories from “Employer of the Year” to “The Best Use of Technology”. One of the main sponsors, Orange, told the finalists that they represented the best in British business making ANC’s award particularly impressive among such celebrated company.
Read More
Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.
