UK rivals grab 30% of post
One in three letters is handled by a rival to the Royal Mail, the state owned firm has admitted, reports The Daily Mail. The article continues:
Every day, around 72m letters and parcels are sent – and around 26m are not picked up or sorted by the Royal Mail.
Within two or three years, it is likely that private firms will handle most British mail.
Only customers sending ‘personal’ post, such as birthday and Christmas cards and thank-you letters, and small companies will still use the firm.
The figures highlight the crisis which has hit the company since it was opened up to competition in 2004.
In just five years, a rapidly growing list of companies has deserted the Royal Mail for one of its competitors.
Barclays, Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Powergen and Aviva are just some of the companies which have abandoned it.
Many customers do not realise that post such as bank statements and utility bills are not handled by the Royal Mail.
But letters dealt with by its rivals are easy to spot. They do not have a stamp and the envelope is marked clearly by the rival’s name, such as TNT Post or UK Mail.
At present, Royal Mail’s rivals still rely on it to actually post the letter through letterboxes. These companies pick up letters and sort them but give them to Royal Mail’s postmen for the ‘final mile.’
Private firms could choose to deliver the mail themselves but it is currently too expensive and impractical to do so.
However, TNT would like to have its own postmen delivering its letters in the future.
The figures from the Royal Mail show the extraordinary impact on the company since it lost its monopoly.
In 2005, TNT handled 300m letters, rising to 1.7bn by 2007 and 2.6bn a year today. Royal Mail said most bulk mail is now handled by its rivals.
To make matters worse, in only three years the number of letters sent every day has dropped by 12m.
Overall, yesterday’s figures show Royal Mail made an operating profit of £184m during the six months to the end of September, up 4% on last year.
Post Office profits rose from £28m to £41m, helped by new financial services such as a wider range of mortgages.
