Guernsey and Jersey Posts to go head-to-head on quality

Regulators in the Channel Islands are set to monitor Jersey Post and Guernsey Post against the same service quality targets from September. The Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities (CICRA) want to regulate postal services on Jersey and Guernsey under the same conditions, using a single measuring system.

They are proposing a single set of performance targets for the two Posts, similar to levels set for Jersey Post in 2008 and Guernsey Post in 2007.

The regulators believe the joint approach will allow customers to compare performance of the two Channel Island Posts, providing a “useful stimulus” to the operators to improve their performance “as if they were in competition with each other”.

Targets are set to include 95% of local mail being delivered within one working day, 99% within three days.

Other targets have been set for mail going between islands and to the rest of the UK and Ireland.

CICRA launched its first ever pan-Channel Islands consultation on the proposals today, having already discussed the move with the two postal operators. A final decision is expected in August, with the new regime to begin in September.

“Jersey Post and Guernsey Post Ltd need comparable information to encourage them to sharpen their operational and customer-facing activities,” said CICRA chief executive Andrew Riseley.

“This approach enables management, regulators and customers to compare the performance of each postal operator against the other by providing a fair benchmark and it provides a useful stimulus to each operator to improve its performance as if they were in competition with one another.”

Targets

Along with the local mail targets, which also require 100% of Special Delivery mail to be delivered within a day, the proposed 2013 targets will require 82% of standard mail and 95% of recorded/signed-for mail going between Jersey and Guernsey to arrive next working day, with respectively 97% and 100% arriving within three days.

For mail leaving the Channel Islands, 98% of deliveries to the Isle of Man should arrive the working day after posting, with 93% to Northern Ireland, 94% to the Republic of Ireland, and 93% to the British mainland.

None of the joint targets will apply to bulk mail, CICRA said, since bulk mailers can agree their own service standards as part of their contracts with the postal operators.