THE BALANCE OF POWER
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I The dominant players in the parcels sector are highly visible and well known: Parc*!force, NT Express Services, Securicor Omega Express and the like are to be seen everywhere. But these are lust the tip of the iceberg All agree there is a huge diversity of smaller firms taking a sizeable chunk of the market
This is hardly surprising, because the burners to entry are very low. Tom Bell, managing director of TNT Express Services, says his rivals range from other major international players like Securicor Omega Express and Parcelforce right down to the ubiquitous "man with a van". TNT Express Services, unlike many of the bigger carriers, does a lot of same-day deliveries, which brings the company into direct competition with many small local firms in urban centres around the country. "I estimate that we've probably got about 10,000 competitors," he says.
At the very bottom of the heap are the local dello ery services set up to shuttle parcels backwards and forwards in a local area. This is haw many courier services got started in our larger cities. Strictly speaking, alit takes to set up such a business is a van or bike and a mobile phone. There are close similarities between this sort of operation and the minicab sectoe virtually no official regulation, low start-up costs and a proliferation of fly-by-night outfits operating out of dingy premises.
This sort of business seldom lasts very long, according to Jeremy Thompson of London courier service Mach I. Because most customers are businesses they demand a professional level of service.
Thompson's company cannot be said to be fly-bynight: it is part of a larger group, G Thompson. which has a background in the travel business and was founded in 1865 by George Thompson who, incidentally, was a station master at St Pancras Station.