Royal ail ditches rail • The Royal Mail is to
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move its weekend letter transportation from rail to road, and expects to improve delivery times by as much as 12 hours.
British Rail denies that losing the work, which was won last year as part of a five-year/ £200m contract, is any reflection on its efficiency. But it admits that last year Royal Mail imposed penalties for missing targets.
"It's simply a case of each operator doing what they do best," says BR. "Some of what the Royal Mail was moving by road is now going by air — it's part of them upgrading the system."
The Post Office will use 120 artics for the contract involving about 32 million items of mail, and will set up a hub system at 11 centres in key postal districts around the country.
The system should be up and running in the autumn, and the Post Office hopes that tightening up delivery times on Saturdays will improve the efficiency of its rolling Sunday collection programme, which should also be working nation wide by the autumn. The Post Office does not plan to recruit more drivers, but it is to launch an HGV training programme for existing drivers.
Last year Royal Mail improved its first-class delivery service by 3%, with 90% of first-class mail arriving on time. Managing director Bill Cockburn says he is "not complacent and realises there is room for more improvement".
The Post Office says that the road links that have been phased in so far have "worked very well", and believes it will be "smoother-running for us to use our own system".
El Royal Mail Parcelforce is dropping its £3 collection charge for using the company's dedicated service centres, which allow collections from a home or business address to be arranged by phone. The move is part of a drive by the Post Office division to increase awareness of the service, although Parcelforce says it is satisfied with the service centres' 16% growth rate.