An Post still fails to meet targets set by ComReg
The quality of An Post's service continued to decline for the third straight year, according to a report released yesterday by communications regulator ComReg. Meg Shreve reports.
The survey reported that between January and December 2005 only 73 per cent of single piece priority mail made it to its destination within one working day, missing the 94 per cent target set by ComReg. This was a 1 per cent increase from the previous year. Between October and December 2005, delivery within one business day dropped to 63 per cent, compared with 67 per cent during the same period in 2004.
"ComReg is concerned that quality of service performance is falling well off the target of 94 per cent," commissioner Mike Byrne said in a statement. "This is the second successive quarter in which An Post's quality performance for next-day delivery has fallen by 4 per cent by comparison with the corresponding quarters in 2004," he added.
Letters mailed with Dublin addresses originating outside of the county experienced the lowest quality of service. Sixty-eight per cent of mail from outside Dublin arrived within one working day compared to 70 per cent in 2004. The report concludes that mail-processing problems at the Dublin mail centre slowed delivery, as 76 per cent of local mail delivered in the same county nationwide reached its destination in one day. This was a 1 per cent increase over the previous year.
The commission also surveyed the delivery rate within three business days. It found that 97 per cent of all national mail arrived in three days. Although this was a 1 per cent increase over the past two years, it still fell short of ComReg's 99.5 per cent target.
An Post questioned the report's findings. It pointed to a 2005 survey completed by Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC) that reported performance rates 10 percentage points higher than ComReg's results.
The PwC survey is "far more comprehensive than the ComReg monitor", a statement from An Post said. It added that the PwC survey almost doubled the amount of mail tested and used electronic transponders in 40 per cent of the tests to track results.
An Post also questioned the reliability of ComReg's survey methods and pointed out that an independent body has not audited ComReg. "An Post fully acknowledges that quality performance needs to improve. But the measurement should be fair, rigorous and transparent."
An Post rejects regulator's findings on late mail delivery
European Intelligence Wire 04-07-2006
LESS than three out of four letters reached their destination address the next working day last year
And in the last three months of 2005, only 63pc were delivered within a day.
That is the result of the third annual report by ComReg (the Commission for Communications Regulation) on the quality of service performance by An Post.
An Post has strongly questioned the reliability of the ComReg monitor. It says a separate monitor of the same mail, conducted independently by PwC on behalf of An Post, indicates a performance which is over 10 percentage points higher than the ComReg result.
The ComReg report found that 73pc of single-piece priority mail, the standard letter, was delivered within one working day throughout the State – a 1pc decline on the 2004 level. The target next-day delivery was 94pc.
In the fourth quarter of 2005, the success rate fell to 63pc – a 4pc decline on the same period in 2004.
Mail posted outside Dublin for next-day delivery in Dublin had a 68pc success rate, while mail posted outside Dublin for local delivery recorded a success rate of 76pc.
The worst figure recorded for next-day delivery was 57pc for mail posted outside Dublin for delivery in Dublin during the fourth quarter of 2005.
Overall for 2005, 97pc of all mail was delivered within three working days which reflects a 1pc improvement on 2004. The survey was based on 22,000 observations.
However, An Post pointed out that its own survey, conducted by PwC, was compliant with the mandatory European standard. "There is a serious concern about the reliability of the ComReg monitor," a spokesperson for An Post claimed.
"The monitor conducted independently by PwC is verified to be standard-compliant and is far more comprehensive than the ComReg monitor. The PwC monitor has approximately double the number of test mail items," the spokesperson said.
The postal consumer is bearing the cost of this duplication, An Post said. While acknowledging that quality performance needs to improve, An Post said the measurement should be fair and transparent.
The spokesman added that a "single, comprehensive, independent monitor" should be established that would produce results acceptable to all parties.
An Post says that it has also made numerous attempts over the last two years to involve the Regulator in a process of examining the differences between the two sets of results.
So far, ComReg has avoided engaging in such a process.
