Tag: Europe

Postal service provision is “chronically poor” throughout many areas of Britain, the chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) has said.

Sir Edward Leigh made the critical comments as he attacked postal regulator Postcomm for its limited progress in encouraging competition within the UK postal market.

Publishing its report into the progress of Postcomm since it enforced new regulatory guidelines on the Royal Mail in March, the PAC says that while progress has been made, more is needed.

“You would expect that a new regime for the quality of postal services would aim to improve collection and delivery times and reduce the number of pieces of mail lost by Royal Mail. If so, you would be mistaken,” Sir Edward said.

“Neither of these aspects of performance is targeted under the current regime introduced in April of this year. Given that people are now receiving their mail later in the day and that over 15 million letters and parcels are being lost, stolen or damaged in a year, it is pretty clear that the interests of ordinary users of the post are not an absolute priority.”

Today’s PAC report calls on Postcomm to monitor the activities of Royal Mail more closely and foster a sense of competition within the postal market to encourage the development of more efficient procedures.

Royal Mail vociferously rejected the PAC report’s claims. A spokesperson said: “It is absolute nonsense to suggest anything other than Royal Mail’s quality of service is at record levels. Its performance is among the very best in Europe and its prices are among the very lowest.”

The Christmas card still retains its position as the preferred festive greeting despite competition from text and e-mail, research from Royal Mail revealed today.

More than eight in ten people (84 per cent) prefer the personal touch of a Christmas card from friends and family, the study showed. It also revealed 60 per cent of people like to receive a hand written letter as a seasonal greeting while only three in ten people (32 per cent) like to be sent a festive text message.

The figures have been released as Royal Mail reminds customers sending Christmas greetings that its pricing system changed in August.

The research, which was based on the opinions of over 2,000 adults, also reveals the importance of Christmas cards in maintaining a social network, with nearly a third (28 per cent) claiming they will send a Christmas card to people they have not seen for up to a year. And a quarter said they will send a Christmas card to people they have not seen for as long as seven years.

Christmas cards can also reportedly play a role in re-establishing relationships with six out of ten people (63 per cent) saying they are more likely to get in touch with someone who had sent them a Christmas card.