Tag: Postwatch

Howard Webber: New Chief Executive of Postwatch

Posted by | Oct 2, 2006 | |

Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services, is pleased to announce that Howard Webber will take up the post of Chief Executive on Wednesday 25 October. Howard was until recently the Chief Executive of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Millie Banerjee, Chair of Postwatch, welcoming Howard Webber’s appointment said: “I am delighted we have been able to attract a candidate of Howard’s calibre and look forward to working with him on the challenges ahead.”

Howard will be the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of Postwatch.

Howard has worked in many parts of the public sector. For the past seven years he has been Chief Executive of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. Previously he spent a number of years at the Arts Council, running a grant programme and as Head of Policy and Planning, and at the Home Office was responsible for relations with the voluntary and community sector.

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Financial winners and losers in post shake-up

Posted by | Aug 22, 2006 | |

Today is the Royal Mail’s red letter day. The price of post will now depend on the size of what you are sending.

The new system has three categories.

The letter classification, with maximum 5mm thickness, is equivalent to a standard birthday card and the large letter, 25mm, around the depth of a monthly magazine.

The packet category covers anything larger.

The Royal Mail has predicted more than 85% of stamped mail will be the same price or cheaper than the old system.

The new pricing structure is called “Pricing In Proportion”.

Ian McKay, Royal Mail’s director of Scottish affairs, said one of the easiest ways to save money under the new rules was to fold all A4 items in half and put them in a C5 envelope.

Watchdog body Postwatch said there would be financial “winners and losers”.

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UK Royal Mail delivers new prices but are post offices ready?

Posted by | Aug 21, 2006 | |

Royal Mail introduces its new pricing system – Pricing in Proportion (PiP) – today. From today the price of postage will depend on the shape and thickness of the item as well as its weight.

Commenting on the introduction of PIP, Judith Donovan CBE, Chair of Postwatch’s Trade Association Forum, said: “Postwatch understands and accepts the rationale for today’s change. It is necessary for prices in a competitive market to reflect their associated costs. We are, however, inevitably concerned about the implementation of this fundamental change.

“As the customers’ representative Postwatch is concerned that today’s big change may not be fully understood by all customers. Confusion amongst residential customers and small businesses could lead to unnecessarily long queues at post offices.

“We are concerned that post offices are not ready to help customers. In the first week of August, we surveyed post offices throughout the UK to examine the efforts branches are making to alert customers to this major change. Of the 307 post offices Postwatch visited:

” 34 per cent did not have a measuring template displayed.
” 37 per cent were not displaying the PIP poster; and
” 32 per cent did not have PIP leaflets available.

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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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