Royal Mail is finalising contracts with a range of suppliers for the provision of handheld devices to track letter and parcel information.

By the end of this summer, more than 25,000 staff handling items tracked by special and recorded delivery will use the devices, which are intended to speed up and modernise postal processes.

The devices will enable Royal Mail van drivers to capture signatures at the point of delivery. The data will then be transmitted over a wireless network, allowing customers to check via the web whether or not items have arrived at their destination.

“Our focus is getting this project right and working properly, but rolling it out to almost 30,000 people is a huge thing,” Royal Mail chief information officer Robin Dargue told Computing.

“You have to ensure that the devices work with the software, that the system is scalable for the amount of people who are going to be using it, that the support network works, and that the logistics behind the project ensure that the devices are in people’s hands on the right day, as well as how we handle breakdowns,” he said.

Royal Mail is in the final stages of making contractual adjustments with the pool of partners chosen to carry out the project.

While contracts await final sign-off, suppliers are understood to include hardware specialist Intermec and systems integrator CSC.

“It is a very complex project with lots of suppliers involved, so we want to ensure that the contracts are all lined up back-to-back,” said Dargue.

Training will be done in-house and will begin in the weeks prior to the implementation.

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.

The project is the first stage of Royal Mail’s £1.2bn IT-based infrastructure upgrade and will underpin a series of customer-focused initiatives.