Royal Mail presses on with Amazon-style parcel service
ROYAL Mail will press ahead with the rollout of a nationwide Amazon-style dedicated parcel delivery service despite resistance from trade unions.
Everyday postmen are to be stripped of responsibility for delivering parcels that are larger than the size of a shoebox under reforms, staff were told yesterday.
Larger items will be sorted at Royal Mail’s “super hubs” and taken to one of 350 delivery offices before being sent to homes across the country on dedicated parcel delivery routes. It is a similar model to the one operated by Amazon which has its own dedicated service and does not deliver letters.
The move is likely to further inflame tensions with trade union leaders as a ballot for strike action opened yesterday in an industrial dispute over pay and working conditions.
Company sources said that the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 115,000 members of staff, wanted all larger parcels to continue passing through Royal Mail’s network of about 1,200 local offices.
Grant Mcpherson, chief operating chief of Royal Mail, said: “We have been discussing the roll out of dedicated parcel routes with CWU for more than three years. Our dispute resolution procedure has now concluded without agreeing a mutual way forward. We are disappointed that the CWU is not supportive, especially as the plans will help us grow as a business.”
The new service will also be used for next-day parcel deliveries.
The email to staff, seen by The Daily Telegraph, said: “We need to become more competitive for next day and larger parcels. This is where the growth in the market is. At Royal Mail we are seeing next day parcels growing at 50-60pc per year, and consumers are ordering more larger goods online such as clothes, gifts and electronics, rather than the smaller books and CDS we were used to delivering in the past. Dedicated parcel routes will make core and ‘on foot’ deliveries more manageable by removing the largest parcels.”
Royal Mail’s first “super hub” opened earlier this month in Warrington with a second in Northampton slated to be launched next summer. A third site is being considered. Bosses said that the changes to new dedicated parcel service would not result in any job losses.
The CWU yesterday sent out ballot papers to its members after it rejected Royal Mail’s offer of a 2pc pay increase. It is demanding a bigger rise in line with inflation, which hit 9.1pc in May. The CWU is also involved in pay disputes at BT and the Post Office, with unions threatening a “summer of discontent”.