Private rivals urged to save post offices in the UK
The UK’s postal regulator, PostComm, will this week call on private businesses competing with the Royal Mail to help sustain the country’s flagging post offices.
In its annual report, PostComm will urge private postal operators such as UPS and DHL to strike a deal with the Post Office to use its branches as holding areas for undelivered mail.
Currently, if members of the public are not at home to sign for their privately delivered parcels or registered letters they are returned to company depots which are often situated far from the delivery address.
Private delivery staff sometimes have to visit a property up to three times before the mail is delivered or customers are required to collect it themselves, often at premises far from their homes.
PostComm will suggest that private companies could make an arrangement with the Post Office for undelivered mail to be held at branches close to the customer’s home. This, it will argue, would save both time and money for the private companies and generate extra business for the struggling Post Office network.
A spokesman for PostComm declined to expand on the plans. However, he did confirm that the regulator will be recommending a number of ways in which the Post Office can make money from the numerous private rivals that have come onto the market since the postal service was opened up to full competition last year.
He said: “The network needs a flexible but planned approach to addressing the issues affecting it, and post offices must not miss out on any business opportunities arising from other postal operators coming into the market.”
According to the latest figures, the Post Office network lost GBP 111m between 2005 and 2006 despite an annual subsidy from the Government of GBP 150m. Post offices situated in rural areas are facing particular problems, with 6,500 of the 8,000 rural post offices in Britain costing more to run than they generate in income.
In last year’s report, PostComm recommended that the Government take a serious look at the efficiency of the network. The Government subsequently announced a controversial closure programme which will see up to 2,500 post offices close across the country. Sub-postmasters who face having their branches forcibly shut down are set to receive between GBP 40,000 and GBP 70,000 in compensation.
This year PostComm is expected to come up with a number of suggestions as to how the Government and the Post Office can prevent further closures.
The PostComm spokesman added: “Post offices must be given the right range of services and products to give them a long term future and to try to ensure that further closure programmes do not follow.”
PostComm’s report will be published as the country recovers from the Royal Mail strikes that have brought the postal service to a virtual standstill.
Royal Mail postal workers have been striking since last Thursday over a change to their pensions, pay and a new modernisation programme. The strikes are expected to continue well into this week and could resume again from October 15 if the dispute is not resolved.
However, the Royal Mail succeeded in reducing the number of workers on strike late on Friday when it struck a deal with managerial staff over pay and pensions. It agreed to a pay increase of 2.5% backdated to April.
