Tag: Post Office

Paying for post by shape and size 'will cause chaos'

Posted by | Jul 31, 2006 | |

The introduction of new postage rates for letters and parcels will cause increased queues at post offices and confusion for consumers, a consumer watchdog claims.

Postwatch said that Pricing in Proportion (Pip) which is being fully introduced next month, will lead to increased pressure on post office counters, where queues are already growing.

The new plan means that customers will be charged for the size and thickness of the letter they are posting, rather than simply its weight.

A campaign to inform customers begins today, with a paper template being posted to every address in Britain.

A Postwatch spokesman said that, in the short-term at least, queues at post offices were likely to become longer as people struggled with the new rules and worked out the price they would need to pay.

“Royal Mail needs to work hard to inform people what is going on,” he said. “We are keeping an eye on how queuing goes in the longer term.”

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Could a first-class disaster soon wipe the smile off this postmaster's face? Post offices have provided key services for years, but with the industry in crisis we may just have to learn to live without them.

Posted by | Jul 25, 2006 | |

How much is a community worth? That is the decision confronting MPs and MSPs in a few weeks, as the nation wakes up to the fact that more than 10,000 post offices, including more than 1100 in Scotland, are now under real threat of closure.

Post Office chiefs told MPs last week that only 4000 offices out of 14,400 were viable, while losses had doubled from GBP2m to GBP4m a week directly due to loss of government business. In September, an obligation to stop avoidable closures runs out, and the government is due to give notice on what in 18 months will replace a GBP3m-a-week subsidy for “rural” offices – serving communities of up to 10,000 people each. A petition calling on the government to save the network last week reached two million signatures.

Postwatch, the independent watchdog, says it has been expecting government consultation to begin since last December, but it has been “repeatedly delayed and will not now take place in time to inform the decision on future funding”. In May the government said John Prescott would chair a cabinet committee on the Post Office. It is at last to meet for the first time this week, just as MPs head off for their 11-week summer break.

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UK Royal Mail seeks help for overhaul

Posted by | Jul 20, 2006 | |

Royal Mail Group last week issued a tender notice for consultancy services to overhaul its 1.8 billion GBP annual procurement spend.

The Procurement Transformation Project will run for three years from the award of the deal.

The notice said the aim is to “help develop procurement at the Royal Mail Group into a world-class organisation”.

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UK Post Office union ready for ballot

Posted by | Jun 30, 2006 | |

Post Office counter staff have overwhelmingly rejected a 2.4pc pay offer, opening up a second front in the Royal Mail’s ongoing dispute with the Communication Workers Union.

National officer Andy Furey warned that a refusal to sweeten the offer could lead to a ballot over industrial action by more than 7,000 counter services and cash-in-transit staff.

In a consultative ballot, 91pc of votes were cast against accepting the Post Office’s offer.

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