1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192 
Council auctions mail-delivery contract over the intemet
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
TNT POST HAS won a contract to deliver mail for Norfolk County Council (NCO) following a pioneering 'reverse e-auction' with another firm. The council says the new contract will save it £200,000 a year; its previous arrangements were with Royal Mail. TNT will handle about four million letters a year for NCC.
The internet auction, which lasted an hour and a half, was only the second to be organised by the council; companies bidding for contracts undercut each other as the auction continues, with the contractor who bids the lowest securing the business, subject to the council's conditions being met.
A spokeswoman for TNT says e-auctions are becoming common when bidding for large contracts like this and it isn't the first the firm has been involved in: "The government sector is very important to our long-term strategy and to be chosen by Norfolk County Council to provide postal services is a fantastic win for us." Jane Waring, head of NCC's corporate procurement unit, explains: 'We still have some work to do in streamlining our processes and further reducing the volumes of mail that we send, but this is a big step forward for us in reducing our costs." A spokesman for the county council adds: "It's likely that e-auctions are the way to go in the future. [But] they are quite rare at the moment."
The rival bidder was Business Post subsidiary UK Mail.