Tag: Europe

The Royal Mail was hit by a huge GBP11.7 million fine today over the loss or late delivery of millions of letters. The financial penalty, on top of a previous fine of GBP7.5 million, was imposed by the industry’s regulator Postcomm, which accused the postal group of “serious breaches” of its licence obligations. Consumer group Postwatch said it supported the “tough stance” taken against the Royal Mail, but maintained that the fine should have been higher. The Royal Mail announced that it would appeal against the fine, which it described as “unfair”. Postcomm Chairman Nigel Stapleton said: “Customers are entitled to expect that when they post mail, it will reach its destination.
Royal Mail is a large and highly decentralised organisation and it is essential there are controls in place to ensure that procedures for protecting mail are being followed across the company.”

The watchdog for postal services was today urging the industry regulator to fine the Royal Mail more than the proposed GBP11.7 million over the amount of post which is lost, stolen or damaged, and poor performance in areas of London.
Postwatch has argued that Postcomm’s proposed financial penalty should be increased to GBP26.85 million – 5% of the Royal Mail’s operating profit in 2005 – to send a firm message to the postal service. The proposed fine represented 2% of the Royal Mail’s operating profit last year and included a penalty of GBP271,000 for poor delivery across three London postcode areas – SE, WC and E – where two million letters were delivered late during 2004/5.
Postcomm said it had uncovered some “serious” shortcomings in 2004/05, when 14.6 million letters, packets and parcels were lost, stolen, damaged or interfered with. Postcomm said the Royal Mail appeared to have improved its performance “substantially” as a result of its review but the regulator added that it could not ignore the “serious failures” to observe important parts of its licence obligations.