The battle for Britain’s mailboxes is heating up, as the nation’s milkmen strive to extend their remit of post, pints and other alleged services.

Express Dairies, the nation’s largest direct-to-home distributor of milk and dairy products, was last year awarded a limited licence to deliver items such as contact lenses, CDs, catalogues and books via its network of 3,500 distribution territories (or milk rounds) [WAMN: 25-Jul-02].

This scheme has been so successful – Express says it delivers 5,000 to 6,000 items a week – that postal regulator Postcom is considering awarding the firm a full mail licence. That could see its weekly mail deliveries rise to 25,000 items.

“The company's infrastructure and milkmen provide an efficient and effective means of delivering mail and parcels,” declared the dairy. “If granted the full licence, Express will offer its service to companies requiring high frequency, high density delivery direct to households.”

Data sourced from: Telegraph.co.uk; additional content by WARC staff