In the fast lane

Train beats plane? It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it's spot on when it comes to sending letters and parcels to Great Britain.

These are the findings of a First Choice workshop run by Deutsche Post Global Mail, which investigated the transit times of shipments sent to the UK and looked into potentially quicker alternatives.

The UK is one of Deutsche Post Global Mail's top five export destinations in terms of international mail volume. Post an item before collection time today and it will be waiting at Royal Mail in London for delivery tomorrow - this is the delivery time which must be met for 90 percent of items sent to Great Britain, according to transit time guidelines. Test items sent from Deutsche Post Global Mail revealed, however, that there were repeated delays before items were finally handed over to Royal Mail. A clear argument, then, for a First Choice initiative.

The road wins out

As part of a First Choice workshop a troubleshooting exercise was carried out and the transportation process to London-Heathrow analyzed. This found that only when on the home strait, as it were, at London-Heathrow airport, did target transit times start to go awry.

The Deutsche Post Global Mail items arrived on time ready to be handed over to Royal Mail in London, but handling problems at the airport meant repeated delays, which consequently affected deliveries to customers.

The First Choice initiative set the objective of reducing by two thirds the number of transit times exceeded as quickly as possible. The solution? It turns out to be quicker and also cheaper to transport mail by road. Consequently, coinciding with flight rescheduling in October 2008, the intention is to switch transport from the air to the road.

Increasing transit time reliability

The Channel Tunnel will in future be used to bypass the logistical bottleneck at London-Heathrow. By switching to sprinter trains, Deutsche Post Global Mail will also have better control over arrival times and completeness of shipments, which will further benefit customers.

This more reliable route to Great Britain will ultimately prove more cost-effective too. Deutsche Post Global Mail calculates that implementing this First Choice measure will lead to annual savings worth around half a million euros.