Business Letters May Get Priority
Householders might have to wait until the afternoon to get letters under plans being considered by Consignia to save money and to give priority to business deliveries.
The proposal comes as the renamed Royal Mail group searches for ways to cut costs ahead of a competition review expected this week.
Postcomm, the government regulator, is due to announce the next stage of plans to introduce greater competition and reduce Consignia’s protected monopoly.
However, the suggestion that some residential deliveries could suffer as a result of emphasis on the lucrative business market will in-crease fears among critics that too much competition will damage services.
Last week, the National Audit Office joined those who warned that Consignia’s ability to provide a universal service would be threatened if new rivals were allowed to cream off its most profitable customers.
Consignia is struggling to find Pounds 1.2bn of cost savings on its Pounds 8bn-a-year service which aims to deliver all post by 10am.
The company said yesterday that the only firm decision so far was to phase out the second daily delivery, which accounted for 30 per cent of total cost but only 4 per cent of mail. Consignia was, however, weighing the idea of giving priority to businesses over residential customers, most of whom had left their homes by 8am and therefore did not care whether letters arrived at 9am or 3pm.
Another improvement being considered is the introduction of personalised postal codes, designed to help people in a more mobile population stay in touch. But the personalised codes, akin to a post office box number, would be used to forward letters to addresses with regular codes, said the company. There was no intention to replace regular address codes. Editorial Comment, Page 18
Page 2; Edition London Ed3; Section NATIONAL NEWS
Copyright 2002: Financial Times Group
