Tag: Postwatch

Death of the morning post for 60 pct of Britain

Posted by | Aug 11, 2007 | |

Almost two-thirds of homes and businesses will be condemned to afternoon deliveries under fiercely contentious Royal Mail plans.

The proposal, hidden away in a consultation paper, signals yet another downgrading of a once first-class postal service.

The Post Office has been accused of ‘attempting to charge first class prices while delivering a second class service’

Currently, 94.4 per cent of homes and businesses receive their mail before noon, with deliveries as early as 7am for many.

Under the new plan, no one would receive anything before 10.30am, while 60 per cent would have to wait until after midday.

The industry regulator Postcomm has indicated it supports the move, but there is still time for the public to make its voice heard before the consultation ends on August 28.

However, while the company is planning to phase in the changes before the Christmas rush, the directive does not come into force until January.

Royal Mail is under no legal obligation to ensure deliveries are made before noon even though research shows the overwhelming majority of consumers values such a target.

The consultation document says the plan would be to “shift the peak in residential deliveries between 10.30 am and 2 pm”.

An accompanying graph shows there will be no deliveries before 10.30am. Ten per cent would be delivered by 11am, a further 10 per cent by 11.30 am and a further 20 per cent by noon. The graph suggests the rest would arrive by 2.15 pm.

Royal Mail claims that maintaining the current scale of deliveries will cost GBP 280 million by 2009/10 and require an increase in the cost of stamps to pay for it.

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Consumers and Members of Parliament demand to see Royal Mail financial report

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Royal Mail came under attack yesterday for refusing to publish its delayed financial results as it emerged that it has given them to the postal regulator.

Royal Mail would not give a reason, but speculation is growing that it wants to avoid controversy over executive bonuses or hide the fact that its financial performance is better than expected. Both issues would prove tricky as it battles with the Communication Workers Union.

Royal Mail said that it had not set a date to make the results public. The figures are for its year to the end of March and usually are published in May. It has avoided a fine by sending the numbers to Postcomm within a deadline set by its license, but the regulator has no obligation to make them public.

The delay comes as postal workers are staging a month of strikes in the worst dispute to hit the business for 11 years and as thousands of post offices are being closed.

Royal Mail had to supply figures to Postcomm no later than four months after the end of the financial reporting period, (therefore, July 31) to fulfill its license. It is obliged to file the accounts with Companies House at the end of next month, six months after the close of its reporting period.

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Move to ease UK postal price controls

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Royal Mail should be allowed to increase the price of a second-class stamp from 24p to 29p by 2010 to help its ‘deteriorating financial position, the postal operator’s regulator proposed on Thursday.

But the latest financial data from Royal Mail highlighted the urgent need for the operator to cut costs and improve its productivity.

Nigel Stapleton, Postcomm’s chairman, warned that “significant concerns” about Royal Mail’s financial position had emerged from an interim review of the 2006-10 price control imposed by the regulator.

Postcomm intended to allow some Royal Mail prices to increase “because its financial position is now weaker than it, and we, had envisaged when the control was finalized in May 2006”, Mr Stapleton said.

Under the proposals, the price of a second-class stamp could increase to 29p by 2010, as opposed to the 26p cap under the original control.

The increase would allow Royal Mail to cut the price of bulk business mail, and other items where it faces direct competition from rivals, to try to staunch its loss of market share.

Postcomm warned that Royal Mail had “not capitalised on opportunities” in growing areas of the market, such as online orders for packets – a criticism the company flatly rejected. The regulator said Royal Mail was failing to meet its annual 3 per cent target for improving efficiency, achieving only 1.9 per cent for 2006-07 and a forecast 0.6 per cent over the next three years. Royal Mail’s own analysis suggests it achieved gains of 4.6 per cent in 2006-07.

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Postwatch: Postal strike hurting customers – resolution needed urgently

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced further strikes, to take place in the period to 17th August. Postal customers – and the postal industry – have suffered from industrial action since 29th June.

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services, urges Royal Mail and the CWU to resolve the dispute and avert further disruption.

Post boxes and, for the most part, post offices are still open, but post is nonetheless being delayed. The longer industrial action continues, the worse problems will become. Customers who cannot use alternatives to mail are being inconvenienced.

Some businesses are moving to using other forms of communication, and more will do likewise if strikes persist. Mail volumes are already decreasing year-on-year: strikes will only worsen problems for the UK postal service.

Postwatch advises customers to be aware of the strikes, consider what postal disruption will mean to them, and then act to minimize inconvenience. That might mean using other communication methods.

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Sunday & Bank Holiday Collections

Posted by | Aug 1, 2007 | |

Postwatch has recently given its agreement to an application by Royal Mail to stop collecting mail on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Royal Mail state that collections take place from only 18,000 of the 115,000 postboxes and that only a very small amount of the usual mail flows are posted on a Sunday. Royal Mail have stated that the cost of providing the service, which includes opening mail centers to sort the post on a Sunday, is significant and not proportionate to the number of people requiring the service. A link to Royal Mail’s application can be found here:

Postwatch undertake a survey of customers views on this issue, which it did in May this year. Over two thirds of respondents said they ‘seldomly or neve’ put something in the post for collection on a Sunday which required delivery on a Monday.

Royal Mail now needs to apply to Postcomm, the regulator, for formal approval. If approved, Royal Mail has asked that collections stop on 30 September. Postboxes will of course still be able to receive mail on a Sunday, but it will not be collected until Monday (or the next working day in the case of Bank Holidays).

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