Winter 2008/9

Royal Mail has expanded its collect-at-depot overnight parts delivery service by adding night-time deliveries by 8am to field engineers' workplaces, homes and even vehicles.

It is claiming to be able to offer a delivery rate above 99.5 per cent, and also offers real-time tracking, a returns service through the same network, and a dedicated helpdesk.

For some time Royal Mail has marketed a Parts Express service, under which engineers can collect parts from its local delivery offices (of which there are 1,400) by 7.30 am. It has been developing the full delivery service for well over a year, and says it has proved the concept on a major operation for electrical appliance supplier Indesit.

This company says it needed a reliable service to deliver half a million items a year to its 1,000 field-based engineers, who provide service to 1.8 million customers. According to Indesit spokesman Simon Lill: 'Royal Mail's urgent parts solution É has enabled us to improve efficiency and customer service as well as reducing costs through improved stock management.'

 

Now Royal Mail is extending the service to other companies with similar requirements.