Irish regulator sues An Post over poor service quality
Regulators in the Republic of Ireland are taking legal action against universal service provider An Post for failing to meet its service quality targets. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) issued a statement today confirming that it has initiated legal proceedings against An Post “in relation to its compliance with a direction in respect of the quality of the universal postal service”.
An Post has been steadily improving its service quality in recent years, for example in next-day delivery letters have seen on-time rates rise from 73% to 84% since 2003, while next-day packets have seen on-time rates grow from 65% to 87% in the same time.
But in the most recent results, for the nine months up to September 2011, An Post’s 84% on-time rate for next-day delivery was still well behind its 94% target as set by ComReg.
It was also a point down on service quality seen in the same period in 2010.
The data released in December showed that for three-day mail, the postal service achieved a 98.5% on-time performance against a 99.5% target in the first three quarters of 2011. Service quality at An Post from both post box collections and collections from businesses during the third quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.
“Puzzled”
An Post said today it was “puzzled” by the regulator’s decision to take legal action at a time when it was already facing the challenges of a weak economy and falling mail volumes.
The postal service said it was also puzzled that the legal action had come after five years of “steady and sustained” improvement in mail quality.
“We believe this course of legal action flies in the face of the company’s commitment to quality of service and could seriously damage the financial stability of An Post,” the company said in a statement to the media.
“As it stands, unprecedented falling mail volumes and the economic situation have given rise to a serious shortfall in funding for the Universal Service Obligation,” the company went on. “This is a most serious business issue which requires the regulator and the company to work co-operatively for the benefit of all Irish customers.”
Contest
An Post, which delivers mail five days a week to 2m addresses, said it would contest the ComReg legal action “vigorously”, although it did insist it was fully committed to achieving the ComReg targets including the 94% next-day standard.
An Post cast doubt on the ComReg figures, that the data stems from only a 30% portion of the mail flow, and said the regulator does not provide the data in a timely enough fashion to help An Post improve its performance.
It said the company, which has a turnover of around EUR 800m, is in the process of investing EUR 200m in new technology and equipment, and has achieved EUR 100m in annualised operational cost-savings since 2009, including its reduction in workforce numbers of 1,100 to date.
An Post plans to cut a further 1,200 to 1,500 staff, from a work force currently numbering above 9,000 in size, by 2016.
