Royal Mail has chosen Zebra Technologies Android 4G enabled TC75 devices for their new hand-held devices.
The provision of the 76,000 next-generation TC75 devices is at the centre of a £130 million technology investment programme which will be implemented over five years.
The new next-generation TC75 devices will:
- Improve customer service by providing sender and recipient with greater visibility on the journey of their parcels. The PDA will be used to scan all barcoded items from processing to delivery
- Deliver a better customer experience on the doorstep as a result of the larger HD screen with improved signature capture technology
- Increase operational productivity with faster scanning, extended 10-hour battery life and robust, lightweight units.
The TC75 ships with Mobility Extensions (Mx), a series of features that transform Android from a consumer operating system (OS) to a true enterprise-class OS. Signatures can be obtained via finger, gloved finger or stylus and the inbuilt scanner can capture 1-D and 2-D barcodes (Royal Mail are now rolling out 2D barcodes).
As you’d expect for a device to be used by delivery drivers, the TC75 is drop proof and with IP67 sealing is also water proof, so should easily survive the rigours Royal Mail posties will subject it to on a daily basis.
The new PDAs and technology is aligned with Royal Mail’s investment in automated parcel sortation, which also involves scanning technology and is being rolled out at around 20 of the UK’s busiest Mail Centres.