New Counter Information Technology label trial comes to Croydon.

The Post Office in Croydon High Street is now producing the New Counter IT (post-Horizon) postage labels.  

I have no more details (ie whether it is one counter position or all, or how easy it is to get these) but my correspondent  WU sent a 2nd class large letter along with the receipt on 7 August 2024, which may have been the first day.   

New Counter Information Technology postage label from Croydon PO 7 August 2024.

Cash Receipt for the above label,

There's no information about these from official Royal Mail sources - save that the designs etc have been worked out between Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd. 

Please let me know if you see any from sources other than Aldwych (FAD - or branch code 0090107), Leeds St Johns (039323), or Croydon (0240133).  Many thanks.

Update 15 August.  

1. A report from Croydon. PA reports that, on 5 July, Croydon PO initially denied that it was there and wouldn't be for two years!   He eventually obtained just one label. "A large letter copy was refused as it would be overcharging me and she would get into trouble. (Large letters at under 100g cannot be handled by NBIT).   NBIT is very restricted and it can handle very little at present. It cannot handle Tracked, standard Certificates of Posting, banking transactions etc."  (I suspect NBIT stands for New Branch IT, rather than New Counter IT - IB).

2.  Five branches in trial. Thanks to AY who has pointed out a not-entirely unrelated article on the BBC website, which I had only partly read.  Referring to the departure of Post Office Ltd's IT chief it cites delays and cost escalation on the replacement for the Horizon system.

The key point for the purposes of this post, though, states: "pilots for the new system were currently working in five branches, and it has requested cash from the Department for Business and Trade to fund the project to replace it.  Post Office and the Department for Business and Trade are working on this request and as and when an agreement is reached, we will inform our Postmasters,"

If this is, indeed, the same thing it has a long way to go.  Although postage labels are important, they are only part of the requirement.  An accurate accounting system which properly interfaces with third parties (banks, utilities, Lotto, etc) and actually produces a balancing double-entry system with no system-generated errors or omissions, is really important.

Update 20 August

My thanks to AB who has visited Aldwych at a quiet time, and was able to discuss the trial.

"They did confirm there are five locations for the trial - Aldwych, Croydon and St John’s, Leeds as we know, but also ‘Springburn, Scotland’ which I’ve taken to be Springburn Shopping Centre, Glasgow and Melville Rd, Hove  BN3 1UB. 

"The system is indeed slow, as others have said! Services limited to 1st/2nd Large Letter and Signed For as well as Special Delivery (forgot to ask if ‘by 9’ and ‘Sat Guaranteed’). Definitely no international services, and not the new Tracked 24 and 48. 

"I also asked how the trial was going: no info on that! No news on if this will be the final design of labels.

"They referred to the new system as ‘n-bit’ rather than ‘en bee eye tee’."

So if anybody in Hove or Glasgow has a lot of patience and wants to try out the new system, we'll be pleased to report the results.  Thanks!

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More on New Counter Information Technology postage labels - and receipts etc

My thanks to W.U. for sending a couple of letters from the Aldwych New Counter Information Technology (NCIT) trial, and then sending on the receipt and certificate of posting.

The labels on the envelopes are as before, and the receipt is similar to those which are dispensed from Horizon, although Horizon receipts have a longer entry for each barcoded item - basically each one might produce an individual receipt which doubles as the certificate of posting.

Horizon Certificate of Posting for ordinary item of mail (left), and for Special Delivery mail (right)

From NCIT the receipt is much as usual, but the Certificate of Posting is quite different, using a different typeface but also with details of expected delivery timescale.

NCIT Financial receipt for three labels (left), and new-style Certificate of Posting (right).

Covers and label

1st class Signed For letter with NCIT generated barcode and (L) at lower left (as on Horizon)

2nd class Large Letter with QR-type code for confirmation of delivery, as on Horizon labels.

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Post Horizon System Postage Labels

Three years ago Gareth Clark, Post Office Ltd's Strategic Platform Modernisation Director wrote about the way forward for the Horizon system, both in the wake of the Post Office Scandal and the fact that it was beyond aging and still creaking and bug-prone (although this was not mentioned at the time).  (Unfortunately the link to the original article is no longer accessible but it is in the Wayback Archive.)

From that earlier article, the "planned timelines for rolling out the new system are:

• Late 2021: A pilot and very small version of the new system will be tested in selected new branches
• 2022 and 2023: We will run pilots in branches to test the new system with different product groups and to understand how it works, ensuring we design and build with postmasters, for postmasters
• 2023 to 2025: The new system will start to become available to branches, ultimately replacing the current system in its entirety."
  

I've not heard anything about development of a new system since then: the media and Computer Weekly have rightly been concentrating on the effects of the old system and delving into its predecessor, Capture.

So it is with some surprise that I found some examples of output from a new system in my inbox last week, including payment labels from a live trial which was taking place on one counter position at Aldwych Post Office six weeks ago.

Aldwych trial Post Horizon postage label Special Delivery by 9am 12/02/24

Aldwych trial Post Horizon postage label Special Delivery by 1pm 12/02/24

Aldwych trial Post Horizon postage label 2nd class Large Letter 12/02/24

Aldwych trial Post Horizon postage label 2nd class Signed For Large Letter 12/02/24

As you can see this last one has evidence of processing through Mount Pleasant Mail Centre and the Track & Trace webpage shows evidence of deliveries, the first being the 9am, and the second showing the other three items.

Collaboration with Royal Mail

Although the computer system is a Post Office Ltd project the postage system must at least be approved by Royal Mail and I shall be making enquiries about this.  The original discredited Horizon system was developed when POL and Royal Mail were still part of the same organisation and so when the, first white and then pictorial, labels were introduced they were a Royal Mail product.  

As can be seen, these are back to a plain white label, with the King's head and service indicator at the lower right being printed at the same time as all the other detail.  

I don't know whether this is a temporary arrangement for the trial, or if Royal Mail have decided that printing the very many double ended labels is an unnecessary expense and that these will suffice - after all a lot of postage - even generated by Royal Mail systems - does not show the monarch's head (Click and Drop, Tracked24/48 etc.)

Although it is acknowledged that the Horizon system needs to be changed, it is obvious that even an in-house system designed to serve "11,500 branches, outreaches and mobile vans" and the call centre will take many years and cost a great deal of money.  

If anybody visits Aldwych I would be delighted to receive a sample letter, and if anybody hears anything about extension of the trial or changes please let me know.
 

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