UK carriers suffer from Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush

Records are showing parcel volumes in the UK as struggling as carriers face difficulties keeping up as a result of last-minute changes to available services for e-commerce retailers. This comes as a result of the UK's recent adoption of the American Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.

This week, e-commerce company eBay extended its delivery estimates for all Royal Mail deliveries within the UK by one working day as a result of "record-breaking" parcel volumes.

Parcel courier Yodel has had to fully suspend its parcel collections as a result of the effects of Cyber Monday, giving the company opportunity to catch up after "unprecedented" parcel volumes.

Hermes, meanwhile, suffered differently this week when a small fire broke out at one of its facilities. The fire, which started on one of its conveyor systems, saw the facility out of action for one day with delays to delivery times of up to five days. Since the occurrence, the company has managed to reduce its estimate to two days. Hermes confirmed: "Further to our hub fire last week we are pleased to announce that nobody was hurt, no parcels were damaged, the hub machines are now repaired and we are fully operational again."

UK online retailers to start Christmas early: survey shows advance in promotions to boost international sales

It has been reported that UK SME online retailers have begun their Christmas promotions this week - a week earlier than last year research from Royal Mail has revealed.

From the 300 SMEs that were studied, 57% surveyed said it planned to use price promotion to secure sales this Christmas. Free delivery and free returns are other promotions tactics companies are set to use.

64% of businesses are expecting its international orders to increase this year. Last year's run up to Christmas saw 51% of retailers expecting international sales growth. This year USA is anticipated to act as the largest international market, with France at close second place.

Royal Mail's Director of Royal Mail Parcels, Nick Landon, has said: "Royal Mail's study of UK SME online retailers shows competition for customers will start earlier this year, with price promotions the key tactic for online retailers as well as offering free delivery and returns to their shoppers."

Landon added: "Royal Mail has also been preparing for the busy festive period and is opening a dedicated network of parcel sort centres to handle the additional volume we experience every Christmas."

Selling UK postcode database with Royal Mail was a mistake, admit MPs

The government's choice to include Royal Mail's national database comprised of addresses within the company's privatisation has been blasted by a committee of Britain's House of Commons.

A report has been issued by the Public Accounts Committee, illustrating the access to data, in which it was said that the Postcode Address File, otherwise known as PAF, should have been saved as a public data set and considered as a "national asset, available free to all, for the benefit of the public and the widest benefit of the UK economy."

Evidence in its review showed uncertainty in both the government's and Royal Mail's assurances that the PAF will carry on to be made readily available to small businesses, said MPs. The Committee has said that removing the PAF, in a bid to improve Royal Mail's share price, would prevent economic modernisation and innovation, as well as growth, within the UK.

The MPs have admitted that "the sale of the PAF with the Royal Mail was a mistake." They went on to claim that "the Government must never make a similar mistake", and advised they were aware that "public access to public sector data must never be sold or given away again."

Royal Mail announced in July 2013 that its PAF would be available and accessible free for the use by independent, small businesses for one year. It has been said that MPs were informed by open data company, FlyingBinary, that the free year of access would be "no help". This was due to the amount of months it could take to reel in a product to market solely dependent on PAF data.

The Committee were informed by ministers that the PAF was an "integral part" of Royal Mail. "It is a fundamental operating asset on which the business depends. It is the Royal Mail that collects the data and makes sure it is up to date", commented Business Minister, Michael Fallon. Fallon also said: "Royal Mail incurs considerable costs in collecting and maintaining this data and keeping it up to date. It is only reasonable that they should be able to recover some of those costs from the companies that use this data."

Royal Mail warns Christmas season could be affected by CWU strike

The UK's Communications Workers Union has announced that it will hold a ballot for a full national postal strike if ongoing talks with the universal postal service are not concluded by the 20th September. The union is currently working to get a better deal than the "below-inflation" Royal Mail pay offer as well as protesting the proposed changes to the employee pension schemes and the effect of privatisation on postal workers' terms&conditions and job security.

If a solution is not reached in time, then 125,000 Royal Mail workers will be eligible to vote in a ballot on industrial action, the result of which should be released around 3rd October. If approved, the Union is required to give at least 7 days notice before going on strike, meaning the earliest possible strike date is around 10th October.

Along with the threat of a national strike, Royal Mail is also contending with multiple localised disputes, most recently in Plymouth. Royal Mail are reported to be "very disappointed" that a timeline has been issued for a national ballot and have warned that the proposed industrial action could threaten operations in the run up to the festive season. A statement issued by the organisation declared: “Any industrial action, or the possibility of disruption, is damaging to our customers, and our business, especially in the run up to our busiest time, Christmas.”

In the meantime, door-to-door couriers are also gearing up to the Christmas period.

Source: Post & Parcel

E-commerce precipitated Royal Mail privatisation

Earlier this month, the government confirmed its plans to privatise Royal Mail, following legislation passed in 2011 to pave the way for the sale. Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that a majority stake in the business will be sold through a flotation on the London Stock Exchange, and that 10% of shares in the business would be given to Royal Mail employees. The exact size of the stake to be sold will depend on market conditions at the time of the sale, which will take place before 31st March 2014, and which the UK media have speculated will happen this Autumn.  

The main reason for the sale given by the government, along with Royal Mail managers, is that the organisation requires private capital in order to develop in the way demanded by changes to the mail market. E-commerce has been cited as a primary factor in this: less letters are posted at a time when the demand for parcel delivery is rapidly increasing due to growing numbers of people shopping and doing business online. Royal Mail currently faces competition from private door-to-door couriers such as TNT Express and DHL Express. 

Unions and other campaigners against the sale warn that privatisation could eventually lead to reduced service levels, and poorer terms and conditions for postal workers. At a time when door-to-door courier services are available at much reduced rates when purchased through resellers such as Transglobal Express, it does seem that maintaining Royal Mail as a commercially viable entity will prove challenging if it plans to guarantee its six day service and set prices regardless of UK destination.

Royal Mail research reveals massive growth in UK e-commerce

The number of online-only e-retailing business has more than doubled in the past five years from 6,700 in 2008 to 14,400 in 2012, according to a nationwide study commissioned by Royal Mail. While the number of businesses contributing to the British economy fell an annual average of 0.4% for the years covered, the number of companies selling goods online saw a staggering 21.3% average annual growth. 

Speaking of the study, Managing Director of Royal Mail Parcels Nick Landon commented: "Online-only e-retailing has become an increasingly strong area for business start-ups and is making a strong contribution to the overall UK economy. With continued growth in online shopping, we can expect more significant contributions to the UK economy in current years."

Online sales are also way ahead of the retail sector as a whole, according to a recent CEBR study of ONS data: e-retailing grew by almost 50% while the total retail sector saw only 13.6% growth. Given that increased online sales means increased demand for postage and delivery Royal Mail are set to take advantage of this increase as part of their growth strategy. Courier services resellers such as Transglobal Express are are also set to benefit from this increase, given that their highly competitive rates for services such as UPS, DHL Express and TNT can rival Royal Mail in terms of price and service, as well as offering much lower costs than customers would incur by booking directly with the courier. 

TNT Post UK scores major deal with NHS’ PRO-CURE agency

TNT Post UK has scored a two-year contract with PRO-CURE, an NHS service agency and its two partners, NHS Commercial Solutions and East of England.

300,000 GBP postal savings are expected from the new partnership with TNT UK which promised to eliminate the use of traditional franking machines. By offering letter prices of less than 26.8 pence per letter for transit times of two days (max.), TNT Post is outperforming its biggest competitor, Royal Mail.

“More than ever before, public savings are paramount”, said TNT Post UK CEO, Nick Wells. 

In fact, Royal Mail has announced a rate increase, i.e. 50p for Second Class and 60 for First Class letters.

“The NHS is under enormous pressure to make efficiency savings and we are really pleased that with TNT Post we have secured cash savings on postal collection services at a time of escalating prices”, confirmed Lee Collins, managing director of PRO-CURE.

TNT UK’s new postal service was launched for PRO-CURE trusts in Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire at the beginning of June 2012.

Sources: Post&Parcel/PRO-CURE/TNT Post UK

SNP Concerned about Royal Mail's Commercial Pricing

Mike Weir MP and spokesperson for SNP Postal Affairs recently challenged the latest recommendations made by Ofcom with regards to the Royal Mail and its commercial pricing freedom.

Scotland’s governing political party warned about price increases for parcel deliveries into rural and remote areas such as the Highlands or Scottish Isles. Moreover, Mike Weir called upon people’s mutual understanding of the current one-price-policy which would ensure parcel deliveries to any area.

The MP also expressed strong concerns about the takeover of online parcel delivery services and disadvantages for SMBs or private customers.

“Ofcom’s attitude appears to be that Royal Mail could not raise the costs too high or large companies may simply go fully electronic and use email and the internet. That does not take account of the fact that the postal service serves both senders and recipients and many recipients, especially in more remote areas, do not have access to fast broadband, or indeed broadband at all."


The consultation on the future of the universal service obligation will close on 5^th January 2012.

Related articles

• The Great Christmas Parcel Rush - Ways to Avoid Long Waiting Hours (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)
• Increase in UK's International Market Growth & Parcel Volumes thanks to E-Commerce (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)

Source: SNP / Post & Parcel

Increase in UK's International Market Growth & Parcel Volumes thanks to E-Commerce

"Not only has online shopping become increasingly popular for people buying Christmas presents in the UK, our retailers are in demand with people overseas." (Nick Landon, MD of fulfilment and packets, Royal Mail)

Image c/o Britishcurlies.co.uk

As stated by the Royal Mail's MD, Nick Landon, the UK e-commerce industry has seen record-breaking sales this Christmas. Not only have Brits sent parcels nationwide but international parcel deliveries have increased rapidly, especially during this week. 

The Royal Mail reported figures of over 600,000 parcels and packages being processed at its Worldwide Distribution Centre at London's Heathrow airport. The parcel volumes are currently twice as high as normal. 

Moreover, people have been particularly keen on importing and exporting goods to Australia with a large majority being purchased via e-commerce websites. Down Under's growth market saw an increase of approximately 31% in November this year followed by Greece (21%), Finland (20%) and the Netherlands (20%). 

These figures suggest that the eurozone crisis may not have affected the UK's international markets as much as we thought it would. 

Source: Post & Parcel / Royal Mail

Related Articles

• The Great Christmas Parcel Rush - Ways to Avoid Long Waiting Hours (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)

The Great Christmas Parcel Rush - Ways to Avoid Long Waiting Hours

According yesterday's reports by the Daily Mail,

Royal Mail customers have increasingly "experienced difficulties" over their parcel collections from local post offices.

Waiting times varied between 20 minutes in North Shields, North Tyneside and up to 90 minutes in Cambridge where approximately 70 people queued to collect their Christmas parcels.

Teacher, Jo Starkey (31) from Chorlton-cum-Hardy near Manchester, complained that she could "never park so [she] had to walk" despite being highly pregnant.

Image c/o North News & Pictures Ltd / Daily Mail

The Royal Mail stated that it would extend its opening hours for 1,400 local post offices whilst also delivering on sundays - but who knows if weather changes or else may affect deliveries...

Door-to-Door Parcel Deliveries - A Time-Saving Alternative

These days rarely anyone can afford to waste time on queuing up at the post office when this time could be spend somewhere else. Online courier services like Transglobal Express have enabled us to fit our parcel collections into the right slot in our dairies. With collection windows of as little as 3 hours, we can have our collected from our doorstep can send our parcels on the same day and have them collected from our doorstep.

On top of that, we can track and trace shipments using the Internet. Like Transglobal Express, many online courier services have discovered new ways of contacting a customer service advisers, i.e. about packaging guidance or insurance. Those of us who prefer instant online contact, can simply log into a live chat, tweet, Google+ or Facebook their questions.

Why not spare ourselves long waiting hours in the cold especially if online courier services offer the same service as booking with the carriers directly?

Source: DailyMail.co.uk / TransglobalPremium.co.uk

Related articles

• Online Shopping - How to Save on Delivery Costs (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)
• Track your Parcel with DHL & UPS (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)
• The Benefits of Individualised Parcel Courier Services (transglobalexpress.blogspot.com)