New Postal Strikes – Small Businesses Paying the Price

Small and medium sized businesses spend millions of pounds on their post every day, and are the ones paying the price as the postal strikes continue.

Each day on average, over GBP 2 million of post is sent by small and medium sized businesses; and the strikes could cause cash flow problems, customer relationship problems, or even the failure of a business if payments or invoices are delayed by even just a few days.

Natalie Evans, Head of Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Most smaller sized businesses have no option but to use Royal Mail and collectively spend millions of pounds each day on their post. This series of strikes is doing nothing but cause delay and frustration for those who rely on the postal service and the sooner it is resolved the better.”

With strikes continuing until at least the 8th August (with different sites at different times), the problem is not likely to get better anytime soon. You should make sure that customers and suppliers are aware of potential delays, and try to plan ways around the problems (E.g.: Paying directly into a bank account instead of sending a cheque) to ensure your cashflow is affected as little as possible.