Spring 2008

Parcelforce Worldwide is to offer parts delivery customers the option of having engineers' overnight deliveries made to the ParcelXchange network of 'intelligent boxes' operated by Business Direct.

In effect Business Direct will be working as a subcontractor to Parcelforce under the three-year deal. Parcelforce makes the point that many customers 'prefer a single logistics provider'. Parcelforce itself will be delivering to the drop-off points, rather than Business Direct, becoming one of the first carriers to do so.

According to Nick Landon, Parcelforce Worldwide's head of UK marketing and commercial strategy: 'We needed to be confident that the supplier could meet the current and future needs of both our business and that of our customers.'

Business Directs operators over 4,200 drop-boxes through its ParcelXchange network, mostly at filling station forecourts and supermarkets.

Parcelforce Worldwide already has a range of other options for overnight deliveries, and Royal Mail runs a Parts Express operation, in which deliveries are made during the night to local delivery offices or direct to engineers' homes.

The ParcelXchange network is also being harnessed for a home delivery drop-off service.