TNT Express plans to issue up to 24,000 handheld mobile devices to its employees by 2006, following a successful trial of the technology last month.

The delivery firm will hand out 1,000 new devices to drivers in 13 countries during 2004, as part of a major project to standardise its mobile technology.

Between 2004 and 2006, the rollout will be extended to drivers, warehouse operatives and salespeople, migrating all of the company's mobile devices to Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform.

'Over the last two years, we've been looking at ways of consolidating our mobile solutions into a single solution to reduce our operating costs and increase the level of service we can give to our customers,' said Jim Flood, architecture and technology services manager for TNT Express.

The company's drivers use mobile devices to communicate with local offices, but a lack of standardisation means that the firm currently supports seven different mobile systems.

'The initial focus of the project is to replace what we have today with a common standard, but it will also put us in a position to put more functionality out to our drivers, such as digital signatures for proof of delivery,' said Flood.

'Right now, when we develop new applications, we have to work with numerous different hardware makers to make sure our software works on their devices. The beauty of this platform for TNT is that it gives us independence from any single hardware vendor,' he said.

The delivery firm will be able to choose from up to 38 different hardware manufacturers, while still providing its 200-strong software team with a single development platform: Microsoft's .Net Compact Framework.

'We usually change these applications every three year as physical devices change, which means a lot of redevelopment work we have to do. Now, when we want to introduce new functionality, we can do a single deployment across the group at one time.'

TNT Express delivers 3.6m parcels, documents and pieces of freight every week to 222 countries, using its network of nearly 1,000 depots, hubs and sorting centres, as well as 21,000 road vehicles and 43 aircraft.