Postcomm chief’s compensation challenge
A major clash between post users and Royal Mail over compensation would be the first big test of the man at the top of the industry regulator Postcomm.
Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, has so far avoided the high-profile public rows with Royal Mail that were a feature of the tenure of his predecessor Graham Corbett. But he has also said: “You need to be a good listener but also to take a robust approach. Graham was not a pushover and I am not a pushover.”
He will be aware of the damage to Royal Mail’s public standing if it is seen as attempting to dodge its responsibility to compensate customers for constantly failing its service standards.
Mr Stapleton is from a business background -he is chairman of Uniq, the food company, which has just raised pay after a strike by the T&G, and a former chairman of Reed Elsevier, the publishing group, and Cordiant, the advertising business.
Soon Postcomm’s chairman could deal Royal Mail a fresh blow if he decides to accelerate competition. He has said that he will decide soon whether plans for the full deregulation of the market -which had been set for 2007 -should be brought forward to next year. That would coincide with the end of Royal Mail’s three year renewal programme, which was designed to haul the organisation back into profitability.
Mr Stapleton has said that Royal Mail is now in a better financial position to cope with competition than it was in 2002 when the programme for deregulating the market was set out. A strong advocate of competition, he also believes that the first wave of rival businesses to enter the market has not damaged the incumbent postal group nearly as much as had been feared.
A faster deregulation of the postal market could inflame the Communication Workers’ Union, which fears that the drive to competition is leading to lower standards and will eventually trigger the end of the universal service obligation whereby mail goes anywhere in the country for the same flat rate. Relations between the CWU and Royal Mail have only just got on to a more even keel after a series of clashes last year over pay. That led to several one-day strikes in London. which then spread to other major mail centres.
Mr Stapleton, who took over as chairman of Postcomm in January, has said that Royal Mail needs to modernise to become profitable and meet regulatory standards.
