Tag: Postwatch

Royal Mail has said it missed its key target for delivering first-class post on time in the 2007-8 financial year because of industrial action.

About 85 pct of letters arrived the next day, missing the 93 pct target.

The watchdog Postwatch said the strikes had “blown Royal Mail off course”, but it complained the service had not recovered quickly enough.

It argued that poor service should affect executives’ bonuses. Last year, the chief executive was paid GBP 3m.

The delivery of second-class letters was more reliable, according to the figures released by Royal Mail, but also fell short of the required level.

More than 95 pct of the second-class post arrived on time, compared with a target of 99 pct.

Only standard parcels beat their target for the year, with 90.4 pct arriving on time.

The company said it was working hard to improve its service and “restore the record levels seen before last year’s dispute”.
In a postcode-based list published by Postwatch, nine out of 10 letters were delivered on time last year in Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames, Luton, St Albans, north-west London and Canterbury.
While in Stoke-on-Trent, Colchester, south-west London, Oxford, Chelmsford and Dundee, only around four out of five first class letters were delivered on time.

Official figures published last night reveal that the organisation missed nine of the 12 minimum service levels.
The reliability of the first-class delivery service fell to 85.2per cent. This was below the organisation’s target which requires that at least 93per cent of first class mail is delivered by the following day.
Royal Mail also missed delivery targets for second class post, special delivery and standard parcels, the cornerstones of the service.
However, it is clear that the business missed the crucial targets, a failure condemned by the official consumer body PostWatch.
A series of strikes over pay, pensions and working hours caused huge disruption to services during last summer.
PostWatch said Royal Mail, under Mr Crozier, had been slow to put in place a recovery plan once the dispute was settled.
Many had to find other ways to communicate. This will have reduced postal volumes, which will in turn damage Royal Mail’s financial stability for years to come.
Average daily volumes are down from 84 million items to about 80 million.
Thousands of post offices have already been closed with more to go.
The second delivery has been scrapped, while the first delivery of the day has been moved back to the afternoon for millions of homes and businesses.
At the same time collections from post boxes have been cut and Sunday collections have been scrapped.

Royal Mail is understood to providing financial backing so that the Postwatch group which handles business customer complaints will not be axed when the watchdog folds later this year.

The move follows concerns that business customers would be left high and dry in the new beefed up National Consumer Council, headed by Lord Whitty.

The new-look NCC, which will see Postwatch, energywatch, and CCWater subsumed into the consumer super-body, is due to launch on October 1. It was first mooted nearly two years ago.

At the time, the DTI tried to assure the House of Commons that the merger was not a cost-cutting exercise.

But there has been no provision for the big mailing companies which used to sit on Postwatch’s Trade Association Forum (TAF), chaired by direct marketing industry stalwart Judith Donovan, who is also chair of Postwatch North.

Ironically, the TAF has been credited with winning many battles against Royal Mail.
During the consultation on pricing in proportion, Donovan claimed Postcomm had created “a dog’s dinner” by revealing it supported the scheme even before the consultation period was complete. The group eventually won a number of concessions.

Postwatch also took Royal Mail to court – and won – over GBP 40m worth of unpaid compensation owed to big brand owners. Royal Mail won an appeal but it only covered payments to customers who were in arrears.