Partner Article

Jobs in peril as Whistl stops deliveries

The private company Whistl is consulting 2,000 staff about redundancy, having has suspended its letter delivery services.

The development follows a decision last month by LDC not to invest in its planned expansion. LDC said this was because of “ongoing changes in UK postal market dynamics” as well as complexities in regulations governing the sector.

Whistl, previously known as TNT, had provided one in every four deliveries to households across Manchester, Liverpool and London.

In a statement, Whistl said: “Following the announcement from LDC that it would not proceed with the proposed investment to fund further rollout of E2E, we have now commenced an extensive review of the viability and potential for the rollout of an E2E postal delivery service in the UK.

“To stem the losses from the operations we have taken the difficult decision to suspend the current E2E service during the review process and all mail will now be delivered through our long-standing downstream access service until we have concluded the review.

“As part of this extensive review, we will begin consultations with the relevant employees who are affected by the suspension of the E2E service, and with their union representatives, with a view to identifying and exploring viable proposals to secure the continuation of this service.”

Whistl re-branded from its previous name of TNT last year under terms agreed in parting from its previous owners. It began deliveries in London last April, before rolling out its services in Liverpool and Manchester.

It was criticised by the Royal Mail for seeking to gain a commercial advantage by selecting to deliver only to major urban areas.

Operators such as Whistl do not have to offer nationwide coverage at a single price, whereas the (now privatised) Royal Mail is obliged to deliver to all addresses across the UK under the terms of its Universal Service Obligation (USO).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .