Fears for first-class post as 8am pickup is shelved by stealth
POSTAL chiefs are under fire over moves to scrap the 8am collection from thousands of mailboxes.
The policy has been introduced across Britain 'by stealth' over the past 12 months, it is claimed.
Royal Mail, renamed Consignia, admits it intends to scale back post box checks even though it is collecting more mail than ever before.
The company claims the cutback is an 'efficiency-enhancing measure' which will help improve services.
However, handling of the plan to axe early-morning collections was branded 'secretive' by Post-Watch.
The consumer watchdog warned that it would hit deliveries.
Chief executive Gregor McGregor said: 'We are concerned to learn that not only have early collections been unilaterally abandoned, but others later in the day have also been lost.
'When we challenged Consignia they grudgingly confirmed this is a nationwide process.' He added: 'We are extremely surprised this has been done without any consultation with ourselves as the official consumer body.
'This has been done in circumstances of considerable secrecy.
Consignia has not informed its customers.'
Mr McGregor went on: 'The time at which you collect mail must have a direct effect on flows through the system and the ability to meet next- day delivery targets.
'It is not apparent to us how this secret and unilateral change to delay the collection of mail can be achieved without affecting deliveries.
'It seems we are looking at a clear reduction of a service that people have come to expect.' Consignia defended the policy, saying it was using the 'local knowledge' of staff to 'miss out' boxes in urban areas which do not fill up early in the day.
A spokesman said: 'As a general rule you could say there has always been an early collection from post boxes in urban areas.
'Now we are saying, "Let us look at how much mail accumulates in that box".
'We say it is pointless to send out a van and staff to do an 8am collection when there is little mail inside the box.
'There will be no delay to the mail if we collect it at 12 or 1pm because it will still allow us to reach the train or plane collections that we use.
'The change allows us to concentrate our resources on improving deliveries to homes in the morning. It is a logical step'.
He added: 'We will continue to open boxes which are busy and will constantly monitor the situation to reflect levels of use.' A commitment for an 8am collection was made as recently as 1994. But the Royal Mail claims its new system is 'more efficient' It will mean leaving thousands of boxes in towns and cities to fill up while staff are redirected to try to deliver first-class mail to households on time.
Consignia is under growing pressure to deliver first- class mail on time following a series of rebukes from PostWatch.
The suggestion that it does not have enough staff both to deliver mail and collect from boxes will astonish the public.
The organisation recently announced a £1.2 billion costcutting package which could mean up to 20,000 job losses.
Consignia's performance has increasingly angered consumer groups as millions of letters fail to arrive on time every week.
Official figures published last month showed that 86.5 per cent of first-class mail arrived the next day, with 97.3 per cent of second-class letters reaching their destination within three days.
A separate Daily Mail survey involving 2,000 letters found that only 69 per cent of firstclass mail arrived the next day, with 86.4 per cent of second- class items arriving on time.
Ten years ago the Post Office was collecting and delivering around 50million items a day.
The total has risen to around 80million, which makes it even more surprising that collections from the nation's 113,000 boxes are being scaled down.
