HOW NATIONS LOSE MONEY ON MAIL
AMERICA, France and Italy all have state-run postal services. America’s is a non-profit federal corporation, making one delivery a day. The US Postal Service lost $199 million (Pounds 140 million) last year.
In France, basic mail delivery remains in the hands of “la Poste”. Outside the big cities, there is one daily delivery; in main cities, there are two. It is deemed to be part of the civil service and there are no figures on profitability.
Italy’s state-run postal system had been one of the most inefficient in Europe. Under the current Minister for Communications, Maurizio Gasparri, a dynamic “post-fascist” politician from the conservative National Alliance party, it has undergone modernisation. A “priority post” letter costing 1,200 lire (40p) ensures delivery within two to three days. Domestic deliveries are once daily.
The German postal service, Deutsche Post AG, is Europe’s biggest deliverer of letters and holds a monopoly until the end of 2002. DP’s profits are more than 1.1 billion euros (Pounds 686 million). There is one delivery a day. Local delivery of a normal letter costs DM1 (33p). A letter posted before noon should arrive next day in the same city, or two to three days elsewhere in Germany.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2001
