Dutch postmen in orange uniforms start to deliver post in Britan
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Postmen in orange uniforms working for a Dutch postal company have started to deliver mail to homes in Britain for the first time.
Holland's TNT and other private sector rivals currently use Royal Mail postal staff for the "final mile" doorstep delivery - and pay for the service.
However TNT said it had now started to run a trial doorstep delivery service in Liverpool for the first time.
The service, which covers only a few thousands addresses, is for business consumers sending post to private addresses.
If the scheme is successful, its UK business TNT Post could start delivering to thousands of homes in other towns and cities.
Under the trials, letters and parcels are delivered within 48 hours by TNT Post branded "delivery operatives", the company said.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “The priority for Royal Mail is to secure the future of the one-price-goes-anywhere six-days-a-week service to all 28 million UK addresses, while at the same time competing fully in the open communications market in which we now operate.”
TNT handles a fifth of all mail in London for organisations including BT, Barclays and Sky, as well as councils and hospitals.
This year TNT Post will handle 60 million letters and parcels - more than twice the figure for last year.
However TNT Post's chief executive Nick Wells denied reports that the company's delivery men would be working in London by 2011. He told The Daily Telegraph: "In the foreseeable future we can't see orange postmen on the streets of London."
The Dutch operator is separately in talks with the Government about taking a one third stake in Royal Mail in a controversial part-privatisation of the organisation.
The plans are being opposed by postal union the Communication Workers Union, which is threatening to break with the Labour party if the plans go ahead.
This weekend the union raised the tempo of its campaign by sending every MP a Valentine card, signed by "postal workers in your constituency".
A rhyme inside the card says: "Roses are red/Violets are blue/Keep the post public/And we'll vote for you".
