Parcels operations under the spot light
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• Overnight parcels customers do not always need a "frantic" 24-hour service and many users would prefer cheaper, but less speedy door-to-door deliveries which still meet consignees' requirements says Geoff Walker, distribution manager of the giant electronics group Thorn EMI.
He warned delegates to a special express parcels conference sponsored by Freight Express in west London last week that "express parcels carriers may have led the way, but don't always think in terms of express."
Users want a simple-tounderstand, low cost parcels service which guarantees delivery within a couple of days says Walker. Consignors only really need to know two things: where their parcels are in the system whenever they call the carriers; and that the service is completely 'reliable.
Walker's presentation was full of home truths for the parcels industry. Its rates pricing system is too complex he says, and the way weights and measures charges are calculated is crazy. Flat rates would be much more acceptable he thinks and only the Post Office has really got doorto-door deliveries taped.
He told the conference "there is often an unreasonable relationship between capacity and weight. Very few services include delivery to private addresses; the surcharges for early delivery appear to be swingeing; insurance cover varies enormously and is frequently inadequate and there is excessive marketing of the express and more expensive services which frequently encourages a client to use a service he does not really need."
Walker also blasted the guarantees offered by the express parcels carriers. They usually mean that the consignor will get his carnage charge back and nothing else he says. "The real cost to the consignor can be huge losses." The Road Haulage Association conditions of carnage have been changed so that express parcels companies could bring in better guarantees he says but so far there has been a "deafening silence" from the industry.
Alan Jones, managing director of TNT Roadfreight (UK), gave the carriers' point of view and says that two future growth markets for his company will be the "Sameday" delivery service and bespoke contracts where TNT structures its whole approach for the single customer — like News International.
"Same day transit times were unheard of five years ago, but Sameday is now one of our fastest growing divisions, so you can see the way the market is moving," says Jones. "Tailor-made services are also the way forward in the UK for larger shippers. At News International we have been moving 38 million newspapers a week."
Bill Stratton, Federal Express' industrial and international affairs manager, says mergers and acquisitions will go on making the big companies bigger and that high yield inter-continental box business will continue to grow.