We have lost the Amazon contract

[LouBarlow]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/0 ... al-strikes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All parcels over 500g now sent via HDN. More companies will no doubt follow. More pressure on Royal Mail.

[adb2aber]

Can't say I'm surprised, HDN sent my last super-saver delivery packet, the two I ordered this week are going via them too. At least they track the packets - although aren't perfect, my other half is waiting on one that has been returned as "Incorrect Address" to the depot twice so far...

[spilie]

not lost just saying they are considering thier options with the strike looming, but a great headline anyway!!!

[tatt]

Didn't they do this last time and soon came back.

[Big Daz]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/0 ... al-strikes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail has lost a crucial contract with its second largest customer, the online retailer Amazon, as a wave of strikes threaten parcel deliveries in the busy pre-Christmas sales period.

The news comes on the eve of a national strike announcement by the Communication Workers Union that is likely to bring the simmering industrial dispute to the boil and further disrupt deliveries across the country.

CWU members are angry about the Royal Mail's handling of its modernisation programme and are expected to escalate their programme of local strikes in a dispute they say is about consultation over changes to working practices.

But a backlog of undelivered mail has worried customers, particularly small businesses and internet retailers who argue that the unpredictable nature of the strikes has led to a collapse in reliability. The loss of this business will be a severe blow to Royal Mail, which was relying on the growth of online shopping to compensate for the decline of its letters business due to rising email use.

Customers of eBay have already been particularly vociferous, claiming the strikes are causing damage to small businesses that suffer negative feedback and lose their online reliability ratings.

Now the Guardian has learned that Amazon.co.uk has cancelled its long-term contract to use the Royal Mail for parcels over 500 grams and will use a rival service, Home Delivery Network (HDN), which also delivers for Tesco and Argos.

HDN declined to comment directly, citing commercial confidentiality, but the Amazon contract is thought to be worth at least £25m and is one of the first times a major sender of medium-sized parcels has chosen to defect from the Royal Mail in this way. Until now, the state-owned operator has won the bulk of new internet business.

HDN's chief executive, Brian Gaunt, said he expected others to follow suit once the national strike ballot was passed. "We are seeing a number of our customers preparing to start marketing their deliveries as free of Royal Mail risk," he added.

Two years ago Royal Mail lost a smaller Amazon contract worth £8m to deliver second class parcels during the last national strike, but fought hard to win the business back, claiming improved industrial relations. Losing the new, bigger contract will exacerbate the operator's financial woes, which lay behind its need to cut staff, but more worryingly sends a dangerous signal to other suppliers about Amazon's faith in the network during the crisis.

Last night the CWU said it regretted disruption caused by the strikes, but added: "We are very concerned that if we don't get this right now, there will be a lot more disruption to customer services in future." It blames the way private competition has been allowed to "cherry pick" profitable parts of the postal market and fears more damage will be done in future: "The scale of change planned … is frightening."

Royal Mail declined to comment.

Even if private sector rivals do step in to take some of the contracts, it is unlikely to prevent major disruption. HDN says it would be unlikely to get enough resources in place at short notice to compensate.

More importantly, there is very little alternative for delivery of letters, with private operators such as TNT and DHL using Royal Mail for crucial parts of their delivery infrastructure.

The last time CWU members called a national strike in 2007, it was solved when Royal Mail managers agreed to series of pay deals and also offered to talk further about consulting the union on changes.

Complaints against Royal Mail
Local strikes have been spreading across the country, largely unreported. This week alone, 24-hour stoppages are scheduled in locations including Bristol, Kilmarnock, London, Carlisle, Coventry, Chelmsford, Leeds, Nottingham, Swindon and Warrington.


There have been reports of mountains of undelivered mail in sorting offices and claims that postal workers are not waiting to see if customers are in before leaving cards asking them to pick parcels up from the sorting office.

The Royal Mail disputes some of the claims, but has used managers to try to shift the backlog, exacerbating tensions. The CWU is not expected to give details of its strike plans, but they are likely to involve rolling action, targeting different parts of the chain on different days, causing maximum disruption without too much loss of pay.

[stodgy88]

Presenter reviewing morning papers on BBC said spoken to head man at AMAZON and he knew nothing about it denied it completly ,so who knows .

[stodgy88]

bloke from BBC reviewing morning papers said he had spoken to main man at AMAZON and he denied it completly ,saying no contracts had been cancelled or changed .

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Telegraph I think reporting it as contingency planning.

Amazon working on contingency measures to avoid Royal Mail disruption

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/a ... ption.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amazon, the online retailer, is working on contingency plans with other carriers to avoid disruption caused by a possible Royal Mail strike in the run-up to Christmas, the company said.

An Amazon spokesman said it wanted "to ensure that we can continue to deliver to the high standards that our customers expect from us".

Royal Mail workers in the Communication Workers Union are expected to vote in favour of a walkout in a bitter row over jobs, pay and services.

"We have not cancelled any long term contracts with the Royal Mail. They continue to be one of a number of carriers that we use", an Amazon spokesman said.

"However, with the possibility of strike action in the near future, we have been working on contingency measures with our other carriers to ensure that we can continue to deliver to the high standards that our customers expect from us."

Brian Gaunt, chief executive of rival service Home Delivery Network (HDN), told The Guardian: "We are seeing a number of our customers preparing to start marketing their deliveries as free of Royal Mail risk."

Amazon, one of the UK's biggest online retailers, will use HDN instead of the Royal Mail for parcels over 500 grams, the newspaper reported.

Two years ago Royal Mail lost a contract worth £8 million a year to deliver second class post for Amazon, which is one of the UK's biggest online retailers.

At the time, a Royal Mail spokesman said customers like Amazon were ''critical'' and the loss of the second class contract showed ''very clearly that Royal Mail's higher costs, directly caused by our failure to fully modernise our operations, are costing us business''.

[Phantom]

And did losing the contract have any impact on delivery times? Nope!

[Fred B]

The correct title of this thread should be: "They've Lost Us the Amazon Contract."

[flaminmoses]

amazon are pants anyway.
i stopped using them because they cant even send out the right stuff

[Spedley]

All parcels over 500g now sent via HDN.

i.e. it's cheaper not to use Royal Mail for heavier packets so they've got a different supplier. And what does this have to do with the strikes? If we are unreliable then why are they still relying on us for the vast majority of their deliveries?

[Midge]

amazon are pants anyway.
i stopped using them because they cant even send out the right stuff

SHOCK! Horror!

Amazon have just lost my custom!

It's about time, anyway, seeing as they are so vehemently anti-union.

I definitely won't be using them if they decide to send packages by some cowboy firm that has it's depot 10 miles out from anywhere, near a motorway junction, and who force you to go pick it up yourself when they decide they can't be arsed to find your house...

[Darren Bent]

Amazon will come back once they realise the HDN is poor and can't cope with workload.

[andy2007]

Amazon have NOT cancelled the contract with RM. They've set up a separate contract, with a rival company, to get their goods through during the Strikes!

They did exactly the same thing in 2007. It's just more sloppy Journalism, creating unneccesary bad feeling.