1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144 
Post Office knocks parcels carriers
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Martin Hayes
• A startling condemnation of established parcels carriers is contained in an article just submitted to the editors of trade journals by the Post Office. The article is intended to encourage retailers and manufacturers to use the parcels post. In the process it takes a hearty sideswipe at other operators in the parcels business — by inference road haulage operators specializing in this sector.
"Heavy reliance by trades on independent carriers rho cover certain areas only on a onceor twice-a-week basis has helped to create the present situation in which the general Public and retailers have been conditioned to long delays in deliveries", says the article. It goes on to quote Mr E. G. White, director of postal marketing, who says: "Those firms who use more than one carrier inevitably inflate their overall cost of distribution by the additional segregation of parcels, accounting and claims procedures they involve themselves in. Anything they gain on the swings is immediately lost on the roundabouts. Our contract deal, then, makes very good sense."
The author of the article is clearly conscious of the reasons why the parcels post is not favoured by many business users. These reasons, of course, revolve around the issue of timekeeping and reliability. Parcels post — "now even more reliable as a result of increasing use ofmechanization and constant refinement" — is claimed to deliver one-third of parcels the working weekday following posting and four out of five by the day after that. There is, it is claimed, a very low loss or damage rate. The author points out that the PO offers a truly nationwide service, with 19 million delivery points and almost 25,000 acceptance points, and that it is one of the few carriers "whose published tariffs are applied irrespective of distance at each weight step." None of the PO's competitors handles anything like so much traffic, says the article. This amounts to 170m items a year under 22Ib in weight.
The article can be expected to raise not a few eyebrows in the distribution industry. Very few established parcels carriers are likely to be seriously troubled by the PO's claims until they are proved in practice. They may well argue that four out of five parcels delivered within two days is not a particularly good achievement when seen against their own level of service.