Postcomm suggests services for Royal Mail

NATIONAL NEWS: Mail ‘should try new approach’ NEWS DIGEST
Financial Times; Sep 27, 2001

Mail ‘should try new approach’

The Royal Mail should consider delivering pension money and child benefit to homes as part of a new approach to postal services, Postcomm, the industry regulator has suggested.

Graham Corbett, Postcomm’s chairman, said more emphasis should be put on availability of services and less on the number of post offices, claiming that sub-postmasters with only a handful of customers could not be expected to stay open indefinitely.

Consignia, formerly the Post Office, is holding trials of delivery box systems that allow shopping to be left if customers are not at home.

The trials will involve retailers including Tesco, J. Sainsbury, Oddbins, John Lewis and Penny Plain. They will be run in parts of London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Oxford and Milton Keynes. Different delivery box technology will be provided by specialist box providers including BearBox, ByBox, Home Delivery Access, Homeport and Secure Storage Solutions. If successful, a national roll-out would be unlikely before mid-2002.

A home delivery service, whereby shoppers can have goods delivered at Post Office counters is used for 1,500 packets a day. Carlos Grande

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited