Royal Mail will take on 30,000 temporary workers to cope with the impact of the forthcomingnational postal strike amid last-ditch talks with the CWU union and as rivals plan alternative
delivery services for large customers.Up to 120,000 British postal workers will start a national strike on Thursday with two daysof strike action. About 42,000 workers at national mail sorting centres and network drivers will goon strike on October 22, and some 78,000 nationwide delivery and collection staff will take actionthe following day. Last-minute talks to avert the stoppages were being held today but abreakthrough was not expected.
Royal Mail announced at the weekend that it is recruiting up to 30,000 fully vetted temporaryworkers, double the normal number, to help keep the mail moving during the strikes and to help dealwith seasonal Christmas volumes. The temporary workers would not do the work of postmen on strikebut would help to clear backlogs and handle additional seasonal volumes. Around 85,000 people havealready applied for temporary seasonal work.
The UK national postal operator said it is also establishing five additional dedicatedsorting centres for packets and parcels, while some 5,000 managers will also be sorting anddelivering mail during any strike action.
CEO Adam Crozier said: “We are continuing to urge the union to halt its appalling andunjustified attack on customers. At the same time, we are absolutely determined to do everything wecan to minimise delays to customers’ mail, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Every year, RoyalMail recruits thousands of additional fully vetted, temporary staff as part of the operation whichsuccessfully delivers the Christmas mail.
“This year we’ll have twice as many people on board, and we’ll have them in place muchearlier in the autumn. Everyone who joins us undergoes a series of security checks before they areable to handle customers’ mail, and we will be maintaining these very high levels of securitythroughout our operation this Christmas, as in the past.”
Meanwhile, several rival operators are working on plans to offer alternative deliveryservices for letters and packages during the national strike, but also warning they have limitedoptions.
TNT Post UK chief Nick Wells was cited in British newspapers as saying the company would liketo roll out a nationwide network of ‘orange postmen’. “If anyone can do it [offer a rival service],TNT can,” Wells told The Guardian newspaper. “There are going to be operational challenges, wewould be ridiculously naive to think otherwise. It’s a massive challenge on a huge scale but thereality is we have the customers, appetite and resources.”
But he told the Financial Times that TNT would not do so until there was a levelplaying-field and barriers such as unequal application of VAT were removed. The company, whichreportedly had its busiest ever week, has already tested doorstep deliveries in Liverpool,Manchester and Glasgow. The two major private mail competitors, TNT Post and UK Mail, have about30% of the UK postal market for collecting and sorting, but have to rely on Royal Mail for ‘final-mile’ deliveries.
The only significant private mail company with an independent delivery service, the DX Group,said customers could use its ‘SecureDX’ service, offering secure, tracked next-day delivery to mostUK addresses, as an alternative to Royal Mail’s Special Delivery service.
In the package sector, leading B2C operator HDN announced the launch of a sub-2kg parcelservice called ‘HDN Lite’ to compete with Royal Mail’s second class mail service from January 2010onwards. HDN Lite, previously only available to existing customers, will provide retailers with areliable and cost-effective alternative to Royal Mail for their customer deliveries. It isspecifically targeted at sectors dispatching large volumes of sub-2kg parcels, such asentertainment products, books, electronics and clothing.
Whilst the Lite proposition has been in planning for some months, and has already been takenup by some of HDN’s existing clients, HDN said that the prolonged nature of the Royal Mail disputesand the threat of national action had prompted it to launch the service to give internet retailersan alternative to using unreliable delivery partners.
As well as guaranteeing delivery within 72 hours, the service provides a significantimprovement on Royal Mail – featuring full track and trace as standard, allowing customers tofollow their parcels both online and via HDN’s dedicated customer service centre. Other benefits,including insurance options, proof of delivery and scheduled returns, are also offered withinbespoke packages for retailers.
Brian Gaunt, chief executive of Home Delivery Network, said: “Our roll-out of HDN Lite is allabout offering retailers the widest range of options for their customer deliveries, each combiningvalue for money with improved customer convenience. With continued uncertainty about thereliability of Royal Mail deliveries the service is designed to meet growing customer demand forfully trackable and guaranteed delivery – all at the same price as competing non-tracked services.”
Separately, Carole Woodhead, head of rival B2C operator Hermes UK, told The Daily Telegraphthat the firm had seen volumes jump 25% last week but she warned that Hermes would have to givepriority to existing customers. “There will be delays. There is only so much capacity in the parcelnetwork,” she was cited as saying.
Meanwhile, DHL Express UK has set up a website called ‘Royal Mail Alternatives’ to promoteits 900 Servicepoint retail outlets and online shipping services for documents and packages.
