Amtrak's thousand OnLine collection sign-ups
21 October 2004

Express parcel company Amtrak has celebrated its one thousandth online collections customer. The landmark signing was with Carillion, one of the UK’s leading support services and construction services companies, who use the Amtrak service to move documents and equipment between their sites and offices around the UK.

Amtrak, which has long been a specialist in collections, launched an enhanced OnLine booking service for collections earlier this year. Over half a million collections have already been booked using the web facility. Developed in association with web services company NetDespatch, the service now allows the exact status of any collection to be viewed on the web and provides facilities for depots to print bar code consignment labels and receipts in advance of a collection being made.

The traditional Amtrak collections business was first developed for computer, computer peripheral and office equipment suppliers and was typically for goods being returned. Carillion is an interesting example of the increasing appeal of the service in other sectors and gives the company an ideal way to move important items such as engineering drawings, pays slips and equipment from one site to another.

Amtrak’s 100 regional depots can enter and view collections on the web, print bar-code labels, and produce a customer receipt. The system gives total visibility so that collections made by any depot can be tracked allowing customers like Carillion to be kept fully informed. Summaries can be displayed on-screen showing every collection request made for any given period and, the next morning, a full report of consignment status is available.

Carillion was signed-on as the thousandth online customer by Amtrak’s Wolverhampton office. “Collections can be made and delivered anywhere in the country and Carillion shows how useful the service is for arranging collections. Within the Amtrak network, everyone is collecting and delivering for everyone else. The NetDespatch web service is a great way to connect everyone together and make sure we always have the latest information to hand” comments Mike Hogan who runs the Wolverhampton area franchise for Amtrak.