LTB 076/25 – Transfer of Post Office Limited Collection Work from Parcelforce to Royal Mail – National Deployment
No. 076/25
16th April 2025
For the Immediate Attention of All:
Postal Branches
Regional Organisers
Divisional Representatives
Parcelforce Unit Representatives
Area Delivery Representatives
Area Distribution Representatives
Area Processing Representatives
Dear Colleagues,
Transfer of Post Office Limited Collection Work from Parcelforce to Royal Mail – National Deployment
Branches will recall that during 2024 trials took place on the concept of utilising, the synergies between Royal Mail and Parcelforce in relation to collection activity (LTB 147/24 refers). The initial trial took place in the Stoke area to ascertain if Royal Mail could perform Parcelforce collections, consolidate the items at the Collection Hub or Outward Mail Centre and repatriate the traffic into the Parcelforce Network to meet service.
This activity was viewed as a success and a further trial took place in the PFW Exeter Depot area later in the year. This was a far more complex trial as the geography covered by the depot spanned two Mail Centre catchment areas. That trial was again successful from a Royal Mail perspective and showed that the model could work.
Royal Mail & PFW have since been modelling what a national deployment could look like, and discussions have been taking place with both departments to review options. While it is noted PFW would like to move all collection work from PFW to Royal Mail in areas where the traffic can onward connect through the network, they have agreed to adopt a phased approach addressing POL Collections first, followed by a review of Ad-Hoc and the Scheduled Collections.
As part of an organised project known as First Mile Integration (FMI) and supported by dedicated collection planning support, RM Plant catchment areas will migrate over to the full collection of all available PFW items from POL. Some interim exemptions will remain where current connectivity does not allow for the PFW items to meet the cut off times, these will be reviewed to understand the potential changes which may be required.
All PFW items collected from POL will be returned to the RM Collection Hub or passed to the RM Outward Mail Centre depending on the workplan. These will then be conveyed to the Parcelforce LD to then enter the PFW outward network ready for dispatch. Where sufficient volume allows, direct runs between RM Outward Mail Centres to the PFW National Processing Centres (e.g. Coventry Hub) will be considered.
This activity will be monitored through the Table of Success National Working Group in PFW and the Collections Joint Working Group in Royal Mail.
We have secured with Parcelforce commitments that all workloads will be balanced to ensure that the time saved by removing collections is fully utilised with delivery traffic. The expectation is that the traffic will migrate from External resource and PFW have agreed that all headcount reduction will come from External resource.
A National launch call with the business took place today with the Parcelforce Regional Organisers and Royal Mail Divisional Representatives to ensure they are fully aware of the change and are able to cascade the information down to the impacted Parcelforce Depot and Delivery Offices.
Attached to this LTB for your information are the SOP’s and SSOW for this activity along with the slides used on the launch call. These will be used to ensure that the criteria is fully understood and deployed consistently, ensuring that connectivity and quality of service is maintained.
Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: jrodrigues@cwu.org or Tony Bouch, Assistant Secretary, email: Pharacz@cwu.org quoting reference LTB 076/25.
Yours sincerely,
Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary
Mick Kavanagh
A/Assistant Secretary
LTB 076.25 – Transfer of PFW POL Collections to RM
PFW POL Collections Transfer – National Deployment
PFW Collections – POL National Launch16 Apr2025 Final