Postcomm reveals plan to smash competition barriers
Small businesses are being urged to scrutinise how much money they spend on direct mail postage – and hunt down better deals – as part of Postcomm’s plans to tear down the barriers to competition in the privatised postal market.
The call comes as the regulator publishes a decision document setting out its recommendations on tackling the obstacles that were identified in its Competitive Market Review, published in November 2005.
The 54-page paper includes a wide range of recommendations. Although, as the independent regulator, it cannot recommend one postal operator over another, it admits that low awareness remains a major barrier.
A Postcomm spokeswoman says: “Not many smaller companies realise that the threshold for mailings to be handled by private operators has come down from 3,000 items to 250. We urge these businesses to get in touch with all postal operators, including Royal Mail, to see what deals are out there.
“This is no longer just the domain of the big financial companies. The market has opened up to everyone.”
In a survey late last year, only 25 per cent of business customers identified January 1 2006 as the date for full market opening. Some 58 per cent could not name a single alternative provider (PM October 7).
Last week, the European Union moved a step closer to tearing down another recognised obstacle – Royal Mail’s VAT exemption – by launching legal proceedings against the Government (PM last week). Rival firms claim the exemption gives the postal operator a significant price advantage.
