Newcomer enters express parcel race

Toll New Zealand is entering the inter-city parcel express delivery market dominated by Freightways and the NZ Post/DHL joint venture CourierPost.

Toll IPEC has been developed to deliver parcels door-to-door between all New Zealand towns and cities, the day after pick-up within the North and South Islands, and within two to three days for inter-island consignments, the company said.

Toll NZ is owned by Toll Holdings of Australia and is the business left over when Toll Holdings sold rail back to the Government.

Toll Holdings owns the Toll IPEC parcel express business in Australia and it is this brand - with yellow and black colours - it is bringing to New Zealand.

Toll New Zealand group general manager Greg Miller said the business has invested in 55 small trucks, painted black and yellow, for delivery runs and will use existing big trucks for linehaul. He would like to double the number of delivery trucks.

"The neat thing is every truck has got a name. Each truck in each province is named after the waka, or local iwi, or local mountain or river.

"I've dressed everyone in black and yellow Wellington rugby jerseys with Toll IPEC on them," said Miller. "I'm a Wellingtonian. They look like Super 12 players."

The company has trained 900 of its workers to handle small parcels and parcel handling facilities have been put in existing branches.

A national network is needed to run a successful express parcel business and is typically seen as a significant barrier to new entrants.

Freightways managing director Dean Bracewell said nothing Toll NZ talked about in a flyer to customers was new.

"They talk about track and trace but it is kind of what we all do."

He said 55 trucks was a small fleet.

"We will back ourselves to compete against them as we have competed against everybody else who has come and gone in the past," he said.

"We have a history of fronting up to competition and going the distance and not cutting and running when things get tough."

Toll NZ's Miller said the parcel express market was essentially parcels between 5kg and 25kg in size.

"It was a logical step for us," said Miller.

He said Toll now had technology offering nationwide freight and nationwide parcel delivery.

- NZPA