Author: Archive

Poor postal results hit Scotland

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

Postwatch Scotland said that this summer’s strikes and widespread flooding seriously affected the quality of postal services across the UK.

Dundee, Falkirk, Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh, Perth and Motherwell were in the worst 20 performing postcodes.

Royal Mail said the low quality of service results were due to the industrial action.

Speaking after Royal Mail’s release of their half-year performance results, Alan Alexander, chair of Postwatch Scotland, said: “Given the floods and the industrial dispute, customers will not be surprised that Royal Mail’s performance has been seriously below par during the summer.

Next year, customers in Scotland should expect Royal Mail to be announcing a much improved performance

“It is particularly disappointing that six out of the worst 20 performing postcode areas for the delivery of first class mail are in Scotland.

“Industrial peace between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union means the industry, after a step backwards, can take great strides forward.

“Next year, customers in Scotland should expect Royal Mail to be announcing a much improved performance. That should help all of us to post with confidence.”

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said the low quality of service results in Scotland were due to the official and unofficial industrial action which took place during this period.

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Airtel, Western Union offer mobile money transfer service

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

Indian workers in other countries will soon be able to send money, less than $100, to their family back home using a mobile phone.

Bharti Airtel and Western Union have decided to jointly develop and pilot a mobile money transfer service in the country. The move is part of a global initiative by the GSM Association wherein 35 mobile operators spread across 100 countries have taken a commitment to enable the world’s 200 million international migrant workers to easily and securely send remittances to their dependents.

Here’s how it works. If an Indian working in Dubai wants to send money that’s sub USD 100 to his family in Kerala, he has to punch in the exact amount to be sent on an application on his mobile handset. The application will be provided by the mobile operator when the sender registers himself for the service.

The message is delivered through the mobile operator’s network to his local bank from where the amount is transferred to Western Union. A 16-digit identification number is generated by Western Union and delivered (either through email or SMS) to the person who sent the money in Dubai.

The sender then has to give the 16-digit number to his family in India. His family has to punch in the identification number on their Airtel mobile through a special application which can be easily downloaded on their handset.

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Select Committee enquiry into post office closures

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

In a Westminster Hall debate by MPs this week on the programme of 2,500 post office closures, Peter Luff, Chairman of the relevant Select Committee, stated:

“It is a great pleasure that the swansong debate of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, now the Select Committee on Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, should be so popular. I am informed by the Speaker’s Office that this is the most popular ever Westminster Hall debate on a Select Committee report.”

“The new Select Committee will launch an inquiry early in the new year into the progress of the post office closure process. We will have hearings, probably in late January or early February, and will revisit the process then, because this matter is obviously of deep concern to many colleagues.”

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Strikes and floods cause poor service results by Royal Mail

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

With the release of their half-year performance results, Royal Mail has confirmed what customers already knew: this summer’s official and unofficial strikes and the widespread flooding seriously affected the quality of postal services throughout the UK.

Howard Webber, Chief Executive of Postwatch, commenting on Royal Mail’s announcement said, “Given the floods and the industrial dispute, customers will not be surprised that Royal Mail’s performance has been seriously below par during the summer. There will, however, be a collective sigh of relief that the bad news is over and that the future looks distinctly brighter.

“Industrial peace between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union means the industry, after a step backwards, can take great strides forward. Next year, customers should expect Royal Mail to be announcing a much improved performance. That should help all of us to post with confidence.”

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EU clears UK to provide GBP 634 Million subsidy to Royal Mail unit

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

The European Commission cleared the U.K. government to provide a GBP 634 million subsidy to a unit of state postal carrier Royal Mail.

The subsidy will be paid out over a three-year period to Post Office Ltd. which operates 14,000 post offices in the U.K. The funds will cover the costs of the postal carrier’s loss-making operations, ensuring universal service across the country.

The commission for the past 15 years has been trying to dismantle postal- service monopolies in the European Union. Some freight services have been opened to greater competition, but basic letter carriage remains a closed market in most countries.

Last month, E.U. countries voted to delay full postal-service liberalization to 2011. The commission, the bloc’s regulatory arm, had pushed for a 2009 deadline.

Under E.U. rules, state subsidies to businesses are legal only if they don’t distort competition. Since the Royal Mail is a legal monopoly, the commission reviewed its subsidy to ensure the money won’t unfairly subsidize services such as bill-payment and cash handling where Royal Mail competes with private-sector companies.

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Royal Mail confirm Industrial action harmed services this year

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

New figures released today by Royal Mail confirm that industrial action during the second quarter of 2007-08 damaged services for postal customers. 78.4 pct of First Class letters reached their destination the working day after posting, compared with an on-target performance of 93 pct in the first quarter of the year.

Royal Mail Marketing Director Alex Batchelor said, “We are very aware that our customers simply didn’t receive the service they deserve as a result of this year’s strike action by the Communication Workers Union – and we’re very sorry that they were let down.

“Customers are all too aware that strike action continued during the third quarter of the year which means that targets will also be missed for the autumn period. But this week’s vote in favour of our pay deal is good news for customers – it’s a green light for Royal Mail to invest in new technology and modernise our operations so that we can return to the record highs in quality of service reached in the last two years and build on that success for the future.”

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E-POST provides the opportunity of sending and receiving messages via INTERNET

Posted by | Nov 30, 2007 | |

E-POST provides 4 types of communication: ACCOUNT-ACCOUNT; ACCOUNT-POSTAL ADDREESS; PERSON-ACCOUNT; PERSON-POSTAL ADDRESS.

The ACCOUNT-ACCOUNT communication takes place between two account holders, meaning the electronic mailboxes. To send the message, the sender must go to the post office where his account is opened and fill in a form that the operator types in afterwards. The addressee must also go to the post office where his account is opened and request the printing of the messages received in his account against a fee. The tariff is charged according to number of words contained in the message.

Another type of communication is the one between a person, the sender, which has an account and the addressee that don’t. It’s the ACCOUNT-POSTAL ADDRESS communication. In this case, the sender does the same things as above with the only exception that the address is a postal one and the tariff charged. This communication supposes the printing of the message in the destination post office, insertion in the envelope and delivery at the postal address, and optionally, the registration and the electronic proof of delivery. In the destination post office (the closest one to the addressee’s location), prints the message, inserts it into an envelope and delivers it to the indicated address.

Another possible situation: the sender does not have an opened account, but the addressee has. In this case, the sender sends a message from an E-POST post office, by filling in a form indicating the account address of the addressee.

E-POST may be used even in the situation when neither the sender nor the addressee have an opened account. In this case, the sender must go to the E-POST office, fill in a form mentioning the addressee’s address and pay the charges for sending the message, printing, the envelope and delivery and optionally for registration and proof of delivery (AR)

E-POST is actually a hybrid mail service, aiming to meet the customers’ requirements. This service is a clear evidence of the Romanian Post’ endeavor to comply with present development conditions of the communication market

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