Second post axe delayed
PLANS to scrap the second post have been shelved until next month at the earliest.
Trials at 14 Royal Mail offices across the country were due to start this spring in a effort to slash costs and boost efficiency. But ailing postal group Consignia has been hit by a series of long-running disputes over pay. Now the contentious move, affecting 100,000 customers, has been pushed back until June.
Consignia said last night that the trials had been held up by several months of talks with unions, infuriated at changes in working hours. The Communication Workers Union had threatened a nationwide strike over the new delivery times.
A Consignia source said: “It is fair to say the pay talks took longer than we anticipated. We could have started weeks earlier but it’s such a major change we wanted to get it right.
“The second delivery only accounts for four out of every 100 letters delivered but for over 20 per cent of costs.
“We are the only country in the modern world that sees postmen going to addresses twice a day.” The delay is not good news for Consignia which needs to implement the plans as quickly as it can in a bid to stem its losses. The company is losing around £1.5million a day and is in the process of shedding 30,000 jobs and closing 3,000 sub-post offices.
The source added: “We are pretty confident the trials will begin next month. We want to learn lessons and roll it out on a national basis from autumn onwards.”
The pilot schemes will last eight weeks. Areas affected are: Crawley (RH10-11), Bow (E3), Edinburgh Dell (EH13-14), Sheringham (NR11 and NR26), East Manchester (M40), Llanelli (SA14-16), Newbury (RG14 and RG20), Newhaven (BN9), Loughborough (LE11-12), Halifax (HX1-6), Plymouth West Park (PL5-6 and PL95), Ballymena (BT42-44), Thirsk (YO7) and St Helens (WA9-11).
The second post to all the UK’s 27million addresses should be abolished by October 2003.
The source said the move would help ensure 92 per cent of first-class mail was received the day after posting, up from the current figure of 90 per cent and taking the UK closer to the standards set in Germany and the Netherlands. But he warned that a decision due this week by regulator Postcomm on proposals to open up the market to competition could eventually result in the end of one-price deliveries across the UK.
Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt told the Daily Express last week that postmen could be allowed to sell stamps and collect mail from doorsteps in a bid to breathe life into the ailing service.
Other plans include opening post offices in village pubs and mobile offices travelling to small villages every week. Ms Hewitt claimed: “The Post Office has simply failed to adapt to modern life.”
