Autumn 2007

As Royal Mail struggled to contend with the threat of strike action over pay and terms during the summer, Amazon.co.uk announced that it was terminating a contract with the organisation to provide second-class postal deliveries. The value of the work is put by Royal Mail at £8 million. However, Amazon has left its first-class postal deliveries with Royal Mail.

Neither side was prepared to tell us what proportion of the Amazon fulfilment business handled by Royal Mail was represented by the second-class operations, but Royal Mail made no secret of the loss, which it publicised widely at the time, and clearly regards as a significant blow.

Other suppliers such as HDNL already undertake home delivery work for Amazon, but it is not clear exactly how the withdrawn work is being handled. We understand that the transfer was not immediate, but was due to be phased as new suppliers came on stream.