Author: Anthony Marriage

Mailers in the night

Posted on by Anthony Marriage

The Royal Mail has teamed up with several retailers to trial an evening delivery service. The trial will initially last for six months and will be provided for those living within the M25 area of London and the South East. Evening deliveries will operate between 6pm and 10pm, allowing customers to collect their packages after work. Currently, only House of Fraser and L’Occitane are participating, but the Royal Mail has stated that it is in talks with other potential retail partners.



The trial is a response to a recent eBay survey that revealed that over 84% of online companies that rely on the Royal Mail for their deliveries criticised the service. Online businesses commonly described how the Royal Mail failed to meet their demands and that of their customers. The five most repeated areas for improvement were: notifications for the time or day of delivery; evening deliveries; evening collection times at postal depots; weekend deliveries and evening opening times at post offices.

Royal Mail director Mike Brown said: “Consumers increasingly want more control over when and where they receive their orders, and Royal Mail is looking to fit the online delivery experience around the shopper, enabling them to select, rather than being told, when their goods will be delivered.”

The findings come at a time when the future of the Royal Mail is in question. Vince Cable has already stated his desire for modernisation, even if it means selling part of the public institution to a private company.

A lump of coal this Christmas from the Royal Mail?

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
It might not matter whether you’re naughty or nice this Christmas, as Royal Mail managers vote in a ballot to strike in December. This marks the first ballot over strike action in thirty years since the 1979 Winter of Discontent. Because of the heavy and sustained decline in mail volume, senior management is planning to make over 1,500 job cuts in middle-management.



A strike during what is easily the busiest month for the Royal Mail would likely cause the service to descend into chaos. key components of organisation and logistical decision making will be lost, forcing the Royal Mail to a halt in time for the Christmas period.

Paul Reuter, national officer for Unite, said: “Managers are so concerned about their futures, that for the first time in over 30 years they will vote on industrial action.
“Unite will not allow managers to be forced out because of the poor decisions made at the very top of Royal Mail Group.

“If Royal Mail are allowed to push ahead with forced redundancies it will keep coming back for more, so Unite intends to stop Royal Mail in its tracks.

“There have already been 5,000 job cuts over the last five years without any compulsory redundancies. Such a drastic step is not necessary now and Unite will oppose it.”

What are your thoughts on the strike?

Hail to the bus driver

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
Shiply delivery services has reported on a whole host of new and innovative green vehicles. Transport companies and the industry as a whole have realised that cutting emissions could mean cutting unnecessary costs. Stagecoach is one such company that it is putting is best foot forward when it comes to reducing its co2 emissions.


Based in Falkirk, Stagecoach has already committed £9m for hybrid buses that combine the power of electricity and diesel. Government aid will boost this amount by a further £4m. The UK and Scottish governments have set aside support money to subsidise the cost of more environmentally friendly fleets to other bus operators.

The new buses will operate in Newcastle and Sheffield, with the hope that they will cut co2 emissions by 30%. Dubbed “Enviro-buses,” the new vehicles utilise BAE systems technology to charge the buses batteries through the energy created when braking.

Les Warneford, managing director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said: “Buses and coaches already deliver a major carbon saving over using the car, but new technology is only part of the answer to the challenge of climate change.”

He went on to state that the infrastructure of bus companies and bus routes needs to be examined and where necessary, reformed.

Sacrebleu! – French truck drivers join strike

Posted on by Anthony Marriage

Across the channel, French truck drivers have joined both private and public sector workers currently on strike. The nationwide strike has been a reaction to the French government’s plan to reform the pension system. The new system would raise the national retirement age to sixty-two and the full state pension age from sixty-five to sixty-seven.


Last Saturday, on the fifth day of protests, 825,000 people took to the streets, police reported. However, unions put the figure at 2.5 million to three million. Go-slow protests and blockades from the trucking industry has put the squeeze on fuel supplies across France. An industry representative stated,”at least 1,500 stations have run out of at least one fuel product or are totally dry.” The spectre of fuel shortages has created a wave of panic buying from the public.

The lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly, has already approved the reform. Further strike action have been planned for today as the country awaits the Senate’s final decision tomorrow.

Tunnel vision

Posted on by Anthony Marriage

The world’s longest environmentally friendly tunnel was completed last Friday. The path is now clear after a 31 foot wide drill tore down the last section of rock separating the two ends of the tunnel. The thirty-five mile long Gotthard Base tunnel has been drilled over a mile and a half underground, below the Swiss Alps.



Swiss transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, said, “Here, in the heart of the Swiss Alps, one of the biggest environmental projects on the continent has become reality.” The tunnel indicates an environmental achievement just as much as it represents a feat of engineering. Switzerland has a busy haulage industry, with over a million heavy vehicles running through the Swiss Alps. Thus, the tunnel marks the work of Swiss politicians in their quest to share the work with the now energised rail freight industry.

The tunnel will open to traffic in 2017 and will ultimately cut journeys from Northern Italy to Zurich, Switzerland to just three hours.

Couriers get the hollywood treatment

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
The glitz and glamour of the man and van is to be transferred to the big screen in the upcoming movie, The Courier. The action-packed thriller will be directed by Hany Abu-Assad, best known for directing the highly praised drama Paradise Now, will take the reigns as production begins later this month. Mickey Rourke has been confirmed to appear, continuing his successful Hollywood comeback; Rourke will reportedly play a villain.


Jeffrey Dean Morgan will star as the protagonist – a very special deliveryman. The plot revolves around the courier after being hired to find and a deliver a mysterious briefcase to a crime boss. Til Schweiger of Inglorious Basterds fame has also been confirmed as an FBI agent.

Whether there will be a scene where the courier is seen eating a pasty on a lay-by remains to be seen.

UK’s youngest truck driver

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
Katie Gillard, of Leigh-on-Mendip, Somerset, is the UK’s youngest truck driver. Aged at just 19 years old, Katie ploughed through her Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) exams in order to join her dad’s haulage firm.


Whilst girls her age might be working on the shop floor, Katie has taken to the motorway, undaunted by the prospect of commanding a 32 tonne lorry.

Katie said, “It’s quite unusual for a woman to drive a truck but the size doesn’t bother me.” She admitted, “The first time I sat behind the wheel was terrifying but I quickly picked it up.”
The HGV exams have recently lowered the age limit from 21 to 18 as of last year, which Katie quickly capitalised on. Passing first time, she plans to complete her first long distance deliveries later this month.
Her dad, Andrew, commented: “I’m so proud. It just seemed natural for her to join the family firm.”
Shiply wishes Katie and her family the best of luck.

Who let the dogs out?

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
Across the pond in America we have a story that is stranger than most. In Massachusetts, policemen rushed to the scene when James. J. Johnson, 50 yrs old, crashed into the side of a house.

In a brazen attempt to cover up his crime, Johnson claimed that dogs had caused the crash. The dogs were supposedly let loose within his truck, causing him to lose control of the wheel. In what we can only imagine was a very short space of time, police officers concluded that there had in fact never been any dogs to begin with. Police then made the fairly straight forward diagnosis that Johnson was intoxicated.


Clearly Mr Johnson could not have thought of a more ironically incriminating t-shirt than one that reads, “I have a drinking problem”!

He was later charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, marked lanes violation, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and destruction of property.

An electric idea

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
Shiply has posted about hybrid vehicles before, but we are happy to introduce the production of an all new 100% electric delivery van. 


Unveiled by Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp., the MT-EV walk-in van is the first commercial vehicle in the world to use Tesla Motor’s batteries. This allows the vehicle to also be the first and only fully featured Walk in Van (WIV) chassis in the industry to be completely electrically powered – no supplementary power is needed whatsoever. 


“Built of lightweight, durable composites that are completely recyclable, the interior of the cab features an automotive-style interior intended to maximize driver comfort and productivity.”


As you can tell from the photo, the van was built to be as aerodynamic as possible, allowing it to push the limits of its journey range. 


On a full charge, the battery pack can supply enough juice for a 100-mile journey, making it more ideal for shorter deliveries within urban areas. The van has a gross vehicle weight rating of 6,350 to 8,845 kg, which is more than capable for most heavy deliveries. As demand for the green transport increases, the technology behind it makes new strides and Shiply hopes to see it long continue.