The Royal Mail’s traditional business of delivering letters has declined steadily over the last few years at an estimated rate of 5pc annually. The mail operation has recently faced direct competition from Whistl (formerly TNT Post), and may do so again from companies with a larger revenue base – and more committed backers - in the future. As an organisation needing to diversify away from traditional mail delivery, it faces competition from companies that can fulfil the increasing consumer demand for quickly-delivered and traceable packages, with tight time delivery windows. The Royal Mail is adopting a range of programmes to address the next 10 years.
Inefficiency and technology

Inefficiency continues to plague the business, with employees delivering fewer parcels per person than in other countries. The 191 households a Royal Mail worker delivers to is well below the 244 households to which Dutch postal workers deliver.
There are more challenges facing the Royal Mail as it continues its efforts to modernise. Its parcel competitors are implementing new technology including SaaS based route optimisation for faster planning, and more efficient routes. And some companies are also migrating from on-land delivery to the air, where drones are being tested for delivery.
The sorting of letters has also gotten an overhaul however and is now ‘fully’ automated. Lightweight trolleys are improving the company’s mail delivery as well. IncreasRoyal ed automation is resulting in a steady decline of employees – and a steady increase in savings.
Cutting to Save

Royal Mail reduced its number mail centres to 39 from 69 between 2006 and 2013 as well as investing almost £3bn in modernisation plans. This alone saved the company £500m annually. But the Royal Mail is also facing high costs to restructure its business, more than it initially anticipated. To counter this, the company has shed over 3,000 jobs in the last year, simultaneously adding new products and services as it improved on existing ones.
The Postage Credit Scheme
One new service the Royal Mail has introduced is the Postage Credit Scheme. The scheme lowers prices for individuals who intend to send a minimum of 250,000 pieces of incremental mail in the 12 months following April 29th 2016. Designed to assist businesses with testing new markets and approaches as well as add to existing campaigns, the scheme offers rewards to those whose advertising mail volumes grow over a twelve month period. This scheme is beneficial to consumers, as it offers a better return on the marketing investment of customers. As well, they can earn credits on future campaigns in amounts of 2.5p to 10.5p.
Although its measures are many and varied, the question looms about whether or not they are enough to sustain their business. The current economic environment is making it difficult for companies to profitably deliver their packages, and with Royal Mail just in the building stages of a competitive parcel delivery business, the job before them is daunting. The good news is that Royal Mail has increased its parcel market share by one percent between 2012 and 2015, and two percent by revenue, which is evidence that its implemented plans are working.
Many predictions abound about Royal Mail and its future over the next five decades. Whilst no one can really say for sure what the future holds, there’s no doubt that Royal Mail is and will continue to undergo many changes to adapt to a changing world. It has to, or it will fail.

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The widest possible definition of a parcel and /or postal service is any organisation that is concerned with the receiving, sorting and delivering of parcels, letters and tangible goods. For such organisations efficient and flexible multi-drop route planning is essential as they strive to minimise costs. Across Europe rapidly changing service offerings from organisations such as Royal Mail to Amazon are made possible from the implementation of multi-drop route planning software. Many companies in this sector are only just breaking even as margins are tight and competition fierce so they seek any source of competitive advantage they can find… or not; the recent demise of City Link being a case in point.

SaaS - Route Planning Software that Delivers Greater Bangs-for-Your-Buck

For a forward thinking company reducing the distance driven – or at least minimising any increase in mileage whilst delivering greater volume - enables them to manage and sometime lower delivery costs. Vehicle routing software enables organisations to improve customer service and offer an increased range of products, such as, 1 hour delivery windows. For instance, national service providers with thousands of vehicles that deliver hundreds of thousands of items, need to not only strive for constant efficiency savings which can be reinvested in the business but also need to differentiate themselves from competitors which, as some commentators have pointed out, is where City Link became a cropper. One way to achieve greater competitiveness and differentiation is from the impact of dynamic vehicle routing: Provided that vehicle route planning is holistic and fully integrated into the providers IT framework efficiency savings are practically guaranteed.

This last point is critical: “… holistic and fully integrated into the providers IT framework efficiency”. No point adding ££ worth of IT cost in buying licences and software, servers and better comms when the main aim is to reduce costs. This is where Routing-as-a-Service brings “bangs for your bucks” – a web services call though an API from the core ERP system to an online only, SaaS route optimisation solution delivers instant routes…. And savings! Savings which can be channelled into more service offerings or more attractive customer rates.

Competitiveness

The more reliable the parcel & post provider and the greater their overall level of service the more likely they are to undermine the competition. Repeated failure to meet such criteria will result in clients transferring their custom elsewhere. It is obvious that some routes are going to be more cost effective (and easily managed) than others. The cost of a delivery should not change merely because the item is being delivered to a remote location: The dynamic is that if a competitor can move an equivalent item with no reduction in service at the same list price to the same location then you should strive to also. Route planning software enables organisations to identify costs per delivery, per route, per area so that sales teams can be targeted accordingly.

The Carbon Foot Print Benefit

Vehicle route planning exists to deliver more consignments per day from a given number of vehicles / operatives. The delivery of an item in terms of outbound logistics is another side of supply chain planning and economics. Here, route planning software (at its most basic), seeks to decrease the total distance driven for a given quantity of cargo, that is the parcels, mail and other goods. There are two clear financial benefits from such an approach which are reduced fuel consumption and the concurrent reductions in logged driving hours. Furthermore, intertwined with such an efficient multi-drop route planner strategy is the associated benefit of a reduced carbon footprint.

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Thinking and Planning Ahead to Avoid Delivery Disasters

So, you are a delivery driver who has been up since the crack of dawn, you have been and collected your deliveries for the day and head toward your first destination. You have your radio tuned into Heart or Capital, but you fail to hear the traffic report that warns of severe congestion on the M25—Junctions five to six, Godstone to Sevenoaks—there’s a surprise. Too late, you’ve already climbed the on-ramp, and there’s no turning back now.

On the one hand that might have been the only route you could have taken to get from your point A to point B, but effectively there were probably about another five ways you could have got there. You probably chose the M25, despite your knowledge of it being the world’s biggest car park at seven in the morning, because you hoped it would be quicker…oops.

Getting around the Problem

There are quite a few ways you can get around the issue of choosing the right course for your delivery journey. One is to leave before the traffic gets going but on the M25 it could be a long wait. Another is to check the traffic reports long before you head on to the motorway so that you can choose an alternate route to avoid this kind of trouble.

Another is to have your company install a combined delivery route planning / in-cab mobile software solution that (a) not only plans the optimised route in advance but (b) can suggest modifications based on real time traffic alerts. Modern route planning software develops efficient routes that plan for fuel economy, reduced running costs and less wear and tear on the vehicle and also can take into account ‘real world’ driving issues.

Planning ahead for safety

In cold and icy weather - very topical this week - planning ahead is also a safety precaution. You never know what the state of the roads will be, and if you have to navigate around ice, snow and black ice, you could find yourself in all sorts of trouble. Delivery route planning gives you a look ahead so that you can see what’s coming – a number of clients have “winter routes” so drivers stick to the gritted primary road network avoiding smaller roads wherever possible. The delivery route planning software that is available has plenty of helpful features that can assist your drivers and your company in many ways and can prove highly cost effective. Looking into that would benefit you more than you could imagine.

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