Royal Mail has announced the suppliers for its national mobile service project which will see 25,000 postal delivery workers equipped with handheld devices.

As reported by Computing in July, the introduction of the devices is part of a £1.2bn IT-driven business transformation at Royal Mail designed to improve customer service by verifying the status of tracked letters or parcels.

The handheld devices are being supplied by Intermec, while CSC will develop and maintain the systems supporting the service. The CSC team also includes Blackbay, a provider of mobile workforce systems.

Royal Mail van drivers will be able to capture signatures at the point of delivery, eliminating the current paper-based processes.

Some 70,000 staff who deliver items by foot or bicycle will continue using a paper-based system to record signatures and delivery times, but the devices will roll out to all postal delivery workers in the future.

Trials for the handheld computers began late last year.