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'arcelforce and Royal Nail plan to slash fleets
Page 9
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Guy Sluggard 'iceiforce and Royal Mail are reduce the size of their corned fleets by up to a 25% over i next year after abandoning ns to outsource them.
The drastic cut-back will be Iieved through increased iicle utilisation and greater .1 of planes and trains.
A spokeswoman for Royal il Group denies that some id transport operations will re to be contracted out to et the target.
She explains that slimming Nn the two fleets, which total ire than 40,000 vehicles, is 3essary to become greener more efficient.
"We know that congestion charging is coming in and councils are becoming more strict about the type of vehicles we use," she adds. "For secondclass post and parcels, trains will be used far more than they have been. More first-class will go by plane.
"There will be more doubling up of staff and better use of vehicles than in the past. The fleet could be reduced by about 25% over the next year."
However, a spokesman for the Communication Workers Union, says the cut-back is simply not practicable when the company is obliged to deliver to every address in the country. "They have not yet put the proposals to us," he adds. Parcelforce says it is already nearly half-way to its target of making 450 of its van drivers owner-drivers by the end of this financial year. The number of people employed by the division is due to fall from 11,700 to 5,600 by then as well.
The decision to abandon the idea of outsourcing has never been announced officially but follows the appointment of Allan Leighton as group chairman eerier this year.
"He looked at all aspects of the business and where we could save money" says the spokeswoman. "He decided that in the light of all the other things going on, he did not want to outsource that part of the business."
2 The fleet owned by telecommunications giant 61, which was part of the Post Office before privatisation, is also facing big changes. The company is looking at ways of using its 37,000 light CVs and 400 HGVs to provide services for other companies.
The most efficient way of doing this is to partner up with someone else with similar aims,' says a BT spokesman.
One company rumoured to be finked with the project is LEX. but he could net confirm this.