Will the Postman Always Ring Twice, asks ParcelHero

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International courier says the suspension of UK letter service Whistl has implications for postal services across the world.

International courier ParcelHero says it is unsurprising Whistl - formerly TNT Post – has sounded the Last Post for its UK door-to-door delivery service.

ParcelHero spokesman David Jinks MILT says: ‘ The BBC revealed on Monday the sad news that Whistl has blown time on its door-step letter service in the UK cities of London, Liverpool and Manchester, and is consulting 2,000 workers on redundancy. The traditional door-to-door letter service is a labour intensive low-margin market in which it’s hard to make money. And this is an issue not just for the UK but for the US and indeed the rest of the world.’

‘It’s not at all clear that the Postman will always be here to ring twice. The title of the famous novel and movie represents how its protagonist escapes his fate the first time, but doesn’t a second time. Letter service providers across the world have just seen that costs may catch up with them in the end.’

David adds, ‘Even though Whistl cherry-picked the market, choosing to deliver only in three major cities, it still found the going tough. And in the US the United States Postal Service is facing an equally torrid time. Its 2015 Integrated Financial Plan projects a loss of $6.1billion. In fact across the world a similar crisis is playing out. As reported in Australia's Newcastle Herald (29 October, 2014) Australia Post lost $328 million in letter profits during the 2013-14 financial year, while Post & Parcel (13 October, 2014) revealed that in Norway the State is now entirely subsidising the letter delivery service.'

Says David, ‘The suspension of Whistl’s service highlight the problems underlying the entire door-to-door postal services industry in the era of emails and the internet. Very low margins and an increasingly creaky infrastructure mean that the traditional postal market faces an uncertain future in many countries.’

He concludes, ‘It’s ironic that the parcels market ParcelHero, and its partners UPS and DHL, operate in is booming as a result of the growth of internet based e-commerce, but the same technology has perhaps sounded the death knell for the traditional door-to-door mailman.’