UK Mail aims to profit from the e-commerce boom with the launch tomorrow (April 1) of a newsmall parcels service targeted at mail-order and online retailers with delivery through Royal
Mail.The British mail and parcels operator, which already collects up to 17 million mail items a day,said it has signed a breakthrough agreement with Royal Mail enabling it to extend its mail serviceinto the fast-growing packets industry.
UK Mail’s new ‘Packet+’ service will deal with fulfilment items weighing up to 5kg and willutilise Royal Mail for the “final mile”. Providing a three-day definite, non-signature service,Packet+ is an economical, efficient and easy way for customers to send out fulfilment items todestinations across the UK.
UK Mail will collect the unsorted packages from customers’ locations after which they will besorted for onward despatch to the Royal Mail for the final mile delivery. Packet+, which will beavailable from 1 April, offers a comprehensive UK service with full track and trace facilitiesup to the point of Royal Mail handover.
This new service is targeted primarily at larger mail order and internet retailers, many of whomneed to ship more than 1,000 items per night, UK Mail said. Online retail is a rising phenomenonwith sales growing at a rate of 12% in 2010 and online shopping accounting for around 10% of allretail sales. UK Mail said it has thus been quick to capitalise on the retail industry’s mass shiftto cyberspace by offering a modern and responsive service that reflects the trends in today’sshoppers.
With customers now able to send items that exceed the previous 2kg maximum specification throughthe standard mailing system, this latest development represents a further breakthrough incooperation between UK Mail and Royal Mail following the two businesses’ historic co-authorship ofthe first ever Downstream Access agreement for letters in 2004.
Guy Buswell, Chief Executive of the UK Mail Group, commented: “Packet+ represented the nextlogical step for UK Mail given the phenomenal success our mail business has enjoyed since its startup just under six years ago. The new agreement is a positive step for us but it’s also a stepforward for the Royal Mail and it’s good to see that they’re still in a strong enough commercialmindset to be forging new deals.”
