Postal company TNT Post has announced plans to significantly expand its national coverage and create 20,000 new jobs over the next five years.

The plans will move forward depending on the success of a pilot delivery programme in West London. Since mid-April, the company has employed 400 people on this scheme, with 50% aged 18-24.

TNT has operated in the UK since the beginning of 2004 and handles over 300m items a month. Since the liberalisation of the UK postal market on 1 January 2006, it has been able to further its reach, although a spokesperson for the firm notes that with the Royal Mail not obliged to charge customers VAT and due to other factors, there “isn’t really a level playing field”.

The company nonetheless believes there is an opportunity to make a significant extra push into the market, and the spokesperson says it could employ 20,000 across the UK should its expansion go according to plan. Impressive though this number is, it would remain significantly smaller than Royal Mail, which has around 165,000 employees.