TV programme attacked
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• RoadExpress, the operator which carries out courier work for British Rail, has hit back at television allegations which cast doubt on the company's financial dealings with BR's parcel carrier Red Star.
British Transport Police recently seized documents from RoadExpress offices in London and the Midlands (CM 30 AprilMay 6), but director Willie Goldsmith says that a Channel Four documentary spotlighting the company contained "gross distortions."
"We cannot deny that British Transport Police raided our premises," says Goldsmith, "but Channel Four said things that we told them were not true."
In particular, Goldsmith denies that RoadExpress has overcharged Red Star by using the same vehicles for next-day and same-day services. The Channel Four programme, Dispatches, said that Red Star was being charged as if each parcel were on a separate journey. "Like any courier we charge for each job — that is standard practice," says Goldsmith.
Goldsmith denies that there was any impropriety about a rebate of £J50,000 his company received from Red Star. "It was part of the negotiation for the notice period we were given at the end of a same-day contract," he says.
Goldsmith says his company pays Red Star a rebate "in excess of that which we are obliged to" for volume of work carried out. "Red Star describes our service as superb," he says, adding that Red Star awarded his firm a contract for a new route the day after the police raid.
An associated company of RoadExpress, Routerich, which the programme mentioned, was set up with the full knowledge of British Rail to take over a failed Red Star agent, according to Goldsmith.
British Transport Police have not returned any of the seized documents, having told RoadExpress they needed to "secure the evidence", says Goldsmith.
Channel Four defends its film which it says "reflects the deep concern within British Rail and what was being said in internal documents and auditors' reports." A Channel Four spokesman says British Rail's auditors "strongly disagreed" that RoadExpress was providing value for money in using the same vehicles for its next-day and sameday services for Red Star.