Amtrak Express Parcels has won a GBP3.6 million two-year contract with JD Williams, one of the UK’sleading catalogue companies, and will work as a complementary carrier to TNT Post, which acquired
JD Williams’ 1,500-strong courier network earlier this year.Amtrak said that it has started delivering what is expected to total 200,000 parcels a yearto homes across the UK. It replaces another overnight carrier and will be delivering larger andheavier items as well as serving areas where geographically other carriers fail to provide an offerfor out of scale product.
JD Williams, with annual turnover of GBP750 million, is growing at 10-15% mainly from growingonline sales. The mail-order company operates over 20 successful catalogue brands that offer up to16,000 lines of clothing and other products.
Amtrak said that it won the contract on the strength of its home delivery capabilities andleading edge IT. “Already we have seen a big improvement in first time delivery success and we areexperiencing significantly less returns,” said Philip Jackson, Distribution Contracts Manager of JDWilliams. “Also we have seamlessly integrated our respective IT systems so that Amtrak’s livetracking information and Pod’s are instantly available to everyone via the web and that is a realstep forward for customer service.”
JD Williams will be using Amtrak’s Unattended next day services for most deliveries, althoughAmtrak’s premium services such as evening or Saturday delivery are expected to be useful wheredeliveries are inconvenient during working hours. The Unattended service allows deliveries to beleft in a safe place on agreement with customers and helps improve first time delivery success.
“Amtrak’s services are very good at meeting the often difficult needs of the home deliverymarket and their IT capability really makes a big difference. For JD Williams, it means we canexpand freely knowing that Amtrak services can integrate completely and handle fluctuating volumesand customer’s requirements” says Philip Jackson.
