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Couriers delivering the goods
SMALL courier firms in Yorkshire are growing as Royal Mail faces tougher competition to retain business customers.
The county's same-day package delivery operations
are competing for work nationwide, with one Leeds courier winning a contract from a top 10 law firm.
It comes as Royal Mail faces pressure to hold on to its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers, shown last month when TNT Post said
that it had grown its SME customer base in Yorkshire to 1.2m items a week, with 160 of the county's businesses using its SME service.
Mail Box Express, a same-day and next-day courier based in carbon-neutral offices in Leeds, has grown to have 43 staff since it was founded in 1994, despite not having a sales team. It says that all its new business comes from recommendations.
Its work ranges from serving papers, to delivering and constructing exhibition stands, to over-night or same-day deliveries. It recently won a 250,000-a-year contract from a major law firm for domestic and international couriering.
Mail Box had benefited as larger industry rivals could
not provide a reliable service, said managing director Darren Shaw. "The majors are a bit hit and miss."
His firm has integrated its ordering, parcel tracking and e-billing services to make it easier for customers, many of whom are in the City of London.
Customers can track in real time the progress of their package online and the website also provides traffic information which allows users to see what has happened if a driver has been held up.
Mail Box expects to achieve turnover of just under 900,000 in the year to the end of September. "We are not just one man and his van," Mr Shaw added.
Another courier firm, recently set up by a businessman with 15 years' experience in the courier industry, hopes to challenge Royal Mail in the same-day package delivery market.
Dave Marsden and Marguerita Lee set up Dragonfly Services in March this year and hope to succeed by ensuring their vans are occupied a greater amount of time than that of their rivals.Dragonfly uses GPS software to determine which jobs are most economical for their vans.
"Most courier companies run their vans empty 50 per cent of the time. However, we have managed to reduce that to approximately 25 per cent," said Ms Lee.
The firm is a member of two national courier networks so has access to 3,000 van owners and drivers. So if, for example, a Dragonfly subcontractor has made a delivery in London, they could be asked to pick up a package on the way back to Leeds, ensuring the van is not empty for the entire journey.
Dragonfly also hopes to take business from Royal Mail's sameday delivery service, added Mr Marsden, a former computer games programmer.
"For parcels and letters no-one will touch Royal Mail but its sameday arm is typically perceived to be a bit inflexible and we will take work from them."
Last month, Andrew Goddard, managing director of TNT Post's North division, which includes 62 staff in Yorkshire, said its success should "sharpen up" Royal Mail, adding: "When you have a monopoly for decades there is bound to be a bit of complacency."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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