AN Post rejects 'snail mail' tag after delivery rate survey

AN Post last night moved to defend its letter delivery rate in the wake of a survey which showed the company only managed to deliver 73pc of ordinary letters by the next day.

The Communications Regulator (ComReg), which monitors An Post’s quality of service inline with European standards, found only three out of four items of ordinarycorrespondence were delivered the next day.

ComReg looked at single piece mail – ordinary correspondence posted by individuals and businesses – and found the delivery rate fell far short of the 94pc target set by the regulator.

According to ComReg, this will be addressed in the context of consultation on An Post’spricing proposals, to be launched shortly.

Etain Doyle of ComReg said An Post monitoring measured performance of all domestic mail, including bulk mail. “An Post’s own systems show that around nine out of 10 items are delivered the next day.

“The clear inference is that bulk mail, some of which is posted at a discounted price, and which is sometimes pre-sorted and in standardised formats, is delivered more rapidly than the ordinary correspondence,” Ms Doyle said.

However, An Post disputed the ComReg figures and said they were at variance with othersurveys.

A spokesman said since 1998, consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers had independentlymeasured the performance of mail delivery in Ireland. “This monitor, commissioned by An Post, shows our domestic quality of service performance for the first three months of 2003 at 87pc,” said the spokesman.

He said the figure was 4pc down on the same period last year and that this reflected major changes, including investment in new infrastructure.

“Against this backdrop, some short-term impact on quality of service is to be expected,” he added.

According to An Post, in response to a directive from the EU, the International Postal Corporation (IPC), has since 1996 independently monitored performance of internationalmail, also delivered through the Irish domestic mail.

The IPC monitor shows a performance of just over 90pc for the same period.

“The two monitors comply with the most stringent European standards and guidelines,” the An Post spokesman said. “As ComReg have not yet shared the detail of the resultswith An Post, it is difficult to comment on the variance.”

He claimed it was known the performance reported by the ComReg monitor was based on a limited range of mail types. “The fact that it excludes some 30pc of the mail typeshandled by An Post overall – particularly business mail – coupled with the relatively immature nature of the monitoring system makes proper comparison difficult.”

Kathy Donaghy

Copyright 2003 Irish Independent. Source: Financial Times Information Limited – Europe Intelligence Wire.