Parcelforce

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Parcelforce Worldwide

Type	Limited
Industry	Postal Service
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Parent	Royal Mail Group Ltd
Website	www.parcelforce.com

Parcelforce delivery vehicle

Parcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd.^[1]

Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide. Its European delivery partner, also part of Royal Mail Group Ltd, is called GLS (General Logistics Systems) and delivers more than one million parcels a day across 34 countries in Europe.^[2]

Parcelforce Worldwide is a direct competitor of other worldwide delivery brands such as DHL, DX Group, FedEx and UPS.

Parcelforce Worldwide operates a "hub and spoke" collection and delivery system with two hubs based at Coventry, adjacent to the airport. One hub is for UK parcels and the other for international parcels. The UK hub, one of the country's largest buildings, is a highly automated tracking and sorting centre covering 43 acres (170,000 m²) which can handle up to 40,000 parcels an hour.^[3]

Parcelforce Worldwide was the first express carrier in the UK to give its customers the option of sending their parcels with carbon offsetting.^[4]

Depot network

Parcelforce Worldwide operates its collection and delivery services via a network of 53 local depots. These have been strategically located around the UK from Inverness in the north of Scotland to Plymouth in the southwest of England. There are two depots in Wales, one central depot in Northern Ireland (serving Belfast) and two smaller satellite depots.^{[citation needed]}

The largest posters also have the option of a direct feed collection. In other words, rather than a local depot collecting parcels for sorting, a trailer is left on site, filled up during the course of the working day and then taken directly to Coventry for processing.^{[citation needed]}

Customer service

The company has come under criticism for perceived failure to meet acceptable service levels for the safe delivery of parcels and all their contents.^[5][6] In recent years the company has won industry awards for information technology^[7] and health and safety.^[8]

History

The Parcel Post service of Royal Mail was started in 1883,^[9] though parcel services operated by the railway companies, later Red Star Parcels and British Road Services, were also heavily used for many decades.

Royal Mail's business was separated into three divisions in 1986,^[9] and in 1990 Royal Mail Parcels was rebranded as Parcelforce.

At the time of its inception the post office reform (regarding future privatisation) was being debated in Parliament^[10] leading to Michael Heseltine amongst others debating all aspects of the dissolution of the national postal service including the proposed livery of the Parcelforce operation and the loss of the Royal crest.

In 2002 the universal parcels service was transferred to Royal Mail leaving Parcelforce to concentrate on time-guaranteed, next day and two day express deliveries.^[11]

References

1. ^ http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/content1?catId=26300677&mediaId=26000668
2. ^ Royal Mail Group website - Our brands
3. ^ Parcelforce Worldwide website - Our business
4. ^ Parcelforce Worldwide website - Send my parcel carbon free
5. ^ 'Parcel Farce' by Guardian
6. ^ Lost in the post from BBC News Working Lunch Tuesday, 8 April 2003, 14:14 GMT 15:14
7. ^ Award for Technology IFW Freighting Industry Awards 2006
8. ^ Healthy Workplaces Business in The Community Awards 2006
9. ^ ^{a b} The British Postal Museum & Archive - Key Dates
10. ^ Hansard debate 15 Jul 1992
11. ^ http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=82484

External links

• Official website