To the Board of Management of TNT N.V.

Scope and responsibilities

We have been engaged by the Board of Management of TNT N.V. (“TNT”) to examine the content of TNT’s social responsibility report for the year 2007 (hereafter referred to as the SR report) as explained in the ‘scope of the report’ section in the SR report. Our examination consists of the following combination of audit procedures and review procedures:

  • audit all data and graphs related to the following key performance indicators:
    • the percentage of TNT people working at certified sites,
    • workplace fatalities and road traffic accident fatalities (excluding subcontractors);
    • customer satisfaction;
    • CO₂ footprint (excluding estimations of subcontractor CO₂ emissions);
    • sustainable electricity;
    • number of operational vehicles equipped with soot filters (for European entities only);
    • number of operational vehicles complying with the Euro 5 standard (for European entities only);
    • employee engagement (for the Express division).
  • review all the other elements of the SR report not excluded from our assurance scope.

Audit work focuses on obtaining reasonable assurance, substantiated by sufficient supporting evidence. The audited data are marked with a triangle (▲). Review work focuses on obtaining limited assurance which does not require exhaustive gathering of evidence, therefore providing less assurance than audit work. Consequently we have reported our conclusion with respect to the audit and review procedures separately. We believe these combined procedures fulfil a rational objective.

We do not provide any assurance on the assumptions and achievability of prospective information (such as targets, expectations and ambitions). Furthermore the following major acquisitions: Expresso Mercúrio S.A. (Brazil), ARC India Private Ltd (Speedage, India) and Huayu Hengye Logistics Company Ltd (Hoau, China) are excluded from our assurance scope. We have accepted this limitation in scope, because providing assurance on data from these major acquisitions would not provide a rational objective at this stage as TNT is still in the process of integrating these acquisitions into its business.

The SR report has been prepared under the responsibility of the company’s management. Our responsibility is to draw a conclusion on the SR report based on our examination.

Reporting criteria

TNT developed its reporting criteria on the basis of the G3 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the AA1000 Assurance Standard as explained in the ‘Scope of the report’ section of the SR report. These reporting criteria include certain inherent limitations that can influence the reliability of the information.

TNT only reports on parts of the organisation, as the SR report only includes data from business units which are fully or majority owned and from those joint ventures where significant influence in respect of social responsibility is exercised. For further details on the reporting scope, refer to the ‘Scope of the report’ section in the SR report. We consider these reporting criteria to be relevant and sufficient for our engagement.

For several indicators the SR report is not yet based on full coverage as intended by TNT per its reporting criteria. By including a data clarification table in the SR report (Annex 4), the coverage of the SR report is clarified by showing for each indicator the number of FTEs working in entities that report on that indicator as a percentage of total FTEs in the division. In this table TNT has also clarified the impact of the major acquisitions on the coverage for Express. In our opinion, this limitation with regard to the completeness of the SR report and the reasons for it, are acceptable.

Work performed

We planned and performed our work to obtain a basis for our conclusions in accordance with Dutch law, including the Assurance Standard 3410N “Assurance Engagements relating to Sustainability Reports”, drawn up by the professional body of Dutch accountants (“NIVRA”), and in line with the AA1000 Assurance Standard as issued by AccountAbility, as far as this standard goes beyond the requirements of Assurance Standard 3410N. These standards require amongst others that the assurance team:

  • possesses the requisite skills and experience within financial and non-financial assurance, social responsibility management, environmental and social issues as well as industry-specific knowledge to undertake this assignment;
  • complies with the independence requirements of international professional standards setting and national regulatory bodies.

Audit procedures

With regard to the audited data and graphs, we have gathered audit evidence as follows:

  • updating our understanding of the TNT organisation and the business;
  • investigating the acceptability and application of the reporting criteria, in relation to the information requirements of TNT’s stakeholders;
  • assessing the outcomes of TNT’s stakeholder dialogue;
  • conducting interviews with responsible officers, at corporate and divisional level and for selected business units and sites, aimed at understanding the progress made by TNT in the data gathering and reporting process and at evaluating the completeness, accuracy and adequacy of the qualitative and quantitative information in the SR report;
  • examining the existence and validity of certificates issued in respect of the management system standards which have been adopted by TNT;
  • assessing and testing the design and functioning of the systems and processes used for data capturing, collation, consolidation and validation, including the methods used for calculating and estimating results;
  • reconciling reported data to internal and external source documentation and performing tests of detail;
  • performing analytical procedures and substantive testing on the reported data.

Review procedures

We reviewed all the other elements of the SR report. Our most important review procedures were:

  • reviewing internal and external documents to evaluate the completeness, accuracy and adequacy of the reported information;
  • validating and testing the model used for estimating the CO₂ emissions of subcontractors;
  • performing analytical procedures on the reported data and graphs;
  • with regard to financial data in the SR report, reconciling relevant information with the company’s 2007 financial statements;
  • reviewing the stated application level according to the G3 Guidelines of the GRI;
  • reviewing the SR report against the key principles of materiality, completeness and responsiveness of the AA1000 Assurance Standard;
  • evaluating the overall format and presentation of the SR report, including evaluating the consistency of the information, in line with the above-mentioned reporting criteria.

We believe that the evidence obtained from our examination is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusion.

Conclusion

Based on our audit procedures

With regard to all data and graphs marked with a triangle (▲), we conclude that:

  • the reporting criteria have been applied consistently;
  • the reported information has, in all material respects, been presented completely, accurately and adequately, in accordance with TNT’s reporting criteria.

Based on our review procedures

With regard to all the other elements of the SR report not excluded from our assurance scope, nothing has come to our attention that would cause us not to believe that:

  • the reported information is material to TNT’s stakeholders and the reported targets and indicators in general are used in strategic and operational decision-making;
  • the SR report shows TNT’s responsiveness to major issues raised by stakeholders and TNT has policies, programmes and procedures in place to address material issues raised by stakeholders;
  • the reported events have occurred during the reporting period and have, in all material respects, been presented completely, accurately and timely;
  • the reported information has, in all material respects, been represented completely, accurately and adequately for all divisions.

Recommendations

TNT is continuously developing its social responsibility reporting system and policies as explained in the SR report. Our assurance engagement has led to recommendations for improvement. Without qualifying our conclusions, the following matters require attention:

  • in our last year’s assurance report we recommended to improve the effectiveness of the management review controls with respect to the social responsibility reporting process. In 2007 TNT has improved its management review process. Now we recommend TNT to build upon the progress made and continue the standardisation of the reporting and review process by designing a reporting manual and implementing ICT information systems to further strengthen monitoring and reporting controls;
  • for 2007 TNT decided to exclude Mail Netherlands from its annual employee engagement survey. We recommend TNT to perform an employee engagement survey for all business units in 2008, including Mail Netherlands, irrespective of business developments, and report on its outcome.

Amsterdam, 18 February 2008
PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V.

Originally signed by drs. M. de Ridder RA