TNT leads attack o
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• Britain's leading overnight parcel carriers have been hot on the Post Office's heels all week, bidding to cam Royal Mail letters and to accelerate what they seem to see as the inevitable ending of the Post Office monopoly.
TNT managing director Alan Jones led the pack last week by publicly offering to take over parts of the Royal Mail delivery network if 140,000 Post Office workers went ahead with their national strike.
Jones said TNT's network of 500 depots around the country gave it the resources to offer a "viable alternative domestic postal service", and called for urgent talks with Confederation of British Industry directorgeneral John Banham to discuss the Post Office mail monopoly in general.
Barry Ellis, chief executive of fellow Australian-backed carrier Parceline, joined the fray, saying that his company was busily investing in business mail laser sorters at its brand new £5.2 million hub at Sandwell in the West Midlands.
According to Ellis: "The Post Office monopoly is being reviewed in October 1988," and "in the advent of state monopoly regulations changing, Parceline will be well placed t take on commercial mail for ti business community."
Securicor chief executive Roger Wiggs is less sanguine about it all, calling his rivals' claims "extravagant and irresponsible".
"Even if our own substantia parcels service was added to