New postal system with green appeal

EVERY business sends items by post at some time and two men are masterminding a new service for the Millennium which could prove a real cash saver for businesses, large and small, and help the environment.

Their enterprising company is preparing to launch a new national postal service which they claim will allow you to send letters from your PC to clients without printing the material, folding the paper, stuffing envelopes) sticking on stamps or queuing at the Post Office. Bosses of the London-based company also say that the service will make a significant contribution to cutting the critical carbon footprint. Interested? Well, read on. Every file sent from your desktop is via a secure software solution which is encrypted for additional peace of mind. Customers both large and small will, it is claimed, enjoy the speed of first class delivery of their mail for the price of a second class stamp And there is not a minimum number for distribution Sounds too good to be true, but ViaPost is set for an Autumn launch and all clients have to do is access a free download. This allows British-based businessmen and women to send double-sided documents anywhere in the United Kingdom at the touch of a button. Customers set up a secure credit account and then follow simple instructions to send documents or invoices to print. The innovative idea which has been two years in development is being rolled out as figures indicate that the mail market is in decline More and more businessmen and women are looking for a value alternative. Step forward David Bland, ViaPost's chairman, who revealed that the Covent Garden company is in the final stages of detailed talks with Royal Mail. He explained that currently mail is trucked, usually in bulk, across the country. The material at the moment is either originated and printed in-house or by a print company and then distributed. It is then offered via competitive tender to a carrier who takes it to a Royal Mail centre for distribution The situation will change with ViaPost. Mr Bland says: "The idea is to receive the data as an electronic message then distribute that around the country to print centres adjacent to the Royal Mail distribution centres. That means the material does not have to be lugged around the county by lorry. Basically, the whole logistical chain is replaced by electronic communication."

So, in its simplest form, if you have downloaded the software and are working on material in London which you require to get to Edinburgh or Cardiff or Belfast, for example, all you do is push a button. Mr Bland. the ex-chairman of Postwatch South-East, said, "We know that the mail market is declining by between two per cent and 2.5 per cent a year, but a lot of people still want, and will continue to want, printed material. Therefore, things like carbon footprint and cost will continue to be important.

"Our business model is aimed at capturing quickly a very large percentage of that diminishing market," Simon Campbell, ViaPost's managing director, claimed. "It's really a nobrainer. At a touch of a button you can securely send post to your clients without leaving your office.

"We aim to distribute individual specific things and, from our perspective, we're aiming at two markets - the SME market and the LME market. "Flom the SME perspective, think about Skype. You download a driver, you work in Word to create a letter or invoice or whatever. press print, select a special printer, and it will give you a print prewew.

"If you have registered for an account with us our system will check if the destination is a valid address. It is then sent to our central IT hub where it is routed by the postal address to the nearest printer in the UK closest to the customer.

"It is then printed out securely, folded into an envelope, bagged up and taken a short distance down the road to the Royal Mail where the postman will deliver.

"The LME situation is slightly different. Think of someone like BT who is sending out 52 million bills a month. We would take a data stream to our system and then it would be printed at a regional centre by our network of printers. We are able to offer a lower cost and better customer service and, something which is hugely important, we are potentially cutting out between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of the carbon footprint."

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