09 October 2008 - Steve Lawson - © Hellmail Postal News

Some might say it has been a long time coming, but with WH Smith now partnering with DHL, consumers might be seeing some real competition in the UK postal market. Granted you won't find a WH Smith within one mile, unless of course your local WH Smith actually happens to be less than a mile away, but its certainly a start.

The deal between DHL and WH Smith will go some way towards establishing DHL’s presence on almost every high street around the UK and offer consumers an efficient and convenient way to send letters, documents and parcels throughout the UK and anywhere around the world, seven days a week - thats the plan anyway.

To my mind, deregulation of postal services in the UK has been a half-hearted affair that has left hundreds of post offices gasping like stranded goldfish. Clearly if competition is ever to be seen in the domestic postal market, choice as well as sufficient access points will be crucial. Unfortunately the postal network is shrinking and has been since Post Office Ltd lost key contracts and the Internet established itself as the communication tool of choice.

For senior citizens it hasn't been good news at all, and although theres a strong band of 'silver surfers' out there, age as well as physical limitations makes learning that much more difficult. Most five year olds (and younger) can tackle using a mouse but its a steep learning curve for many older people. Even with access criteria for post offices, the latest wave of closures has made life difficult for many pensioners.

In any event, post offices are struggling to find business, partly because they are so tied into Post Office Ltd, and because the population as a whole, prefers the internet to stamped mail. Parcels are a different matter, but competition for parcels in the domestic sector is limited because Royal Mail still has a monopoly in terms of value for money and access points to rival services are few and far between. There just isn't a multi-service network and without that, competition in domestic post is floundering and that will remain the case unless the postal network becomes more inclusive.

Most post offices have to abide by strict rules on what they can and can't sell and Postcomm will ultimately need to look at this if competition is not forever limited to bulk business mail.

The new arrangement between WH Smith and DHL, will see service points rolled out to 400 WHSmith High Street stores over the coming weeks and will more than double the total number of DHL Servicepoints stationed in various locations around the country, bringing the total figure to over 750.

The partnership between DHL and WHSmith will expose the DHL brand to around an additional one million customers who frequent the 400 WH Smith high street stores each day. The new in-store concept gives consumers the option of sending items in one of the six available boxes that range in size from an A4 envelope to a box large enough to fit a printer or fax machine. The service points conveniently enable customers to pack and pay for their parcels at WHSmith stores which are then collected by a DHL courier each day. Good news for customers, bad news for Royal Mail perhaps but DHL have clearly seen the potential.

DHL Express UK and Ireland CEO, Ken McCall said:

“We identified a gap in the market and our research showed us that consumers want choice, easy access and well priced express delivery services which is exactly what the Servicepoints offer."

“In the lead up to Christmas the new DHL Servicepoints located within WHSmith stores will help consumers around the country to do their shopping on the high street and then send their packages via an express network quickly and easily every day of the week.”

All this is still only a tentative step towards competition that consumers can access via the high street and whilst Royal Mail may still work out to be the cheapest option for the moment, faster delivery times may just persuade consumers to look at what DHL has to offer.

The real shame is that the post office network is likely to shrink yet again if it loses the Post Office Card Account (POCA) and in the process, ultimately fail to meet the demands of consumers. For postal services to thrive in a competitive market, the access points need to be there and the scope for subpostmasters to inject ideas of their own. That sadly, is not yet a reality.

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