Interparcel takes off on the web
Interparcel, an online firm offering discounted parcels services with most of the leading international carriers, says it has taken 50,000 orders in its first eight months of trading.
Read MoreTag: UK
Drop-box solutions are gaining ground
An unattended delivery system for which Business Post now has the UK licence, called eBox, is on trial with several hundred customers.
Three sizes of eBox are available, taking deliveries or outbound shipments of up to 20kg. Business Post claims this makes the system suitable for the B2B sector as well as its HomeServe customers, such as service engineers and party planners. The company hopes by this means to reduce the problem of failed deliveries.
Parcel mergers could relieve price pressure
Recent acquisitions in the express parcel industry will help alleviate downward pressure on rates, according to Petar Cvetkovic, CEO of Target Express.
The wave of consolidation that happened a few months ago was for “negative reasons” as franchise operations such as Hellmann and NCN went bankrupt, Cvetkovic said. “They were offering low headline rates that were not sustainable.”
Alan Cook appointed Managing Director of the UK Post Office
Alan Cook, the Chief Executive of National Savings and Investments (NS&I), has been appointed to the new post of Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, it was announced today. Reporting to Adam Crozier, Royal Mail’s Group Chief Executive, Mr Cook will develop the Post Office network in its key role of providing products and services to 28 million customers each week in communities nationwide. Mr Crozier said he was delighted Mr Cook had accepted the role. “Alan has a fantastic track record in growing business at NS&I where investments in Premium Bonds and other savings and investment products have grown by an impressive GPB10 billion in the last three years. “The Post Office has had a long and productive relationship with NS&I. In Alan, we are fortunate to have a business director who understands our business and its customers.
Read MoreRivals gear up to take small firms' business off UK Royal Mail
Companies posting as little as 100 letters at a time could help to lead an exodus of trade from Royal Mail, after full competition opens up from today.
Postwatch, the consumer group, predicted that rivals to Royal Mail will begin targeting small businesses after the initial push for big customers such as banks, utilities and government departments recedes. A spokesman for Postwatch said: “Already UK Mail offers a service for people posting 250 items in one go. We think that will fall to around 100 by the end of the year. We are encouraging small firms to go on to the website of the regulator Postcomm, check who the rival operators are and contact them.” From today Royal Mail’s rivals will be able to offer small businesses and domestic customers a service alongside the larger business market in which they already compete. A large segment of the business postal market has been open to competition for nearly two years and Royal Mail has lost only 3 per cent of its revenue.
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