Consignia review in detail

More mail will be transported by train

Consignia has announced a package of measures as part of its three-year plan to cut costs and revive profits.

The review, which will cost 15,000 jobs, includes:

• Parcelforce Worldwide will concentrate on one and two-day express deliveries, handing its non-express service over to the Royal Mail.

• The company's parcel distribution centres in Liverpool, Leeds, East London, Glasgow and Reading will close.

• Parcelforce will reduce the number of depots it operates from 101 to 51.

• The depots to close are: Ayrshire, Barnstaple, Basingstoke, Belfast North, Birmingham North, Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Bradford North, Bridgwater, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Dartford, Derby, Dundee, Glasgow West, Grimsby, Hastings, Hereford, Hull, Kings Lynn, Lancaster, Leicester Central, Leicester North, Liverpool North, Londonderry, London East, London South West, Luton, Northampton, Norwich North, Oldham, Peterborough, Perivale, Pontypridd, Portadown, Portsmouth, Rotherham West, St Albans, Scarborough, Scunthorpe, Shoreham, Southend, South Tyneside, Spalding, Swindon, Wirral, Woking, Wolverhampton, Wrexham.

• Consignia said it expects just under 6,000 employees to be offered opportunities elsewhere within Consignia, a job in the new Parcelforce Worldwide, or a voluntary redundancy package.

• In addition, Parcelforce Worldwide expects to shed 1,200 posts by non-replacement of employees who retire or leave, and will cut 1,500 current temporary contracts.

• More mail will be transported by rail, but on a simpler timetable using fewer trains.

• The number of vehicles in Consignia's fleet will be cut by 2,500 from the current 40,000.

• Four existing key distribution hubs will be used for processing bulk mail. The Princess Royal Distribution Centre in North London will be converted to a bulk mail handling centre. A new road hub will be developed in the Midlands to complete the network.

• The transport review will directly affect about 2,500 people across Consignia.

• Other measures already in place will affect another 4,500 jobs, including reducing management costs, cutting jobs in support services such as IT and vehicle maintenance, and reducing management numbers in Consignia's corporate centre, sales and customer management units.