Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail launches dedicated production helpline (UK)

Posted by | Jun 27, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is continuing to demonstrate its commitment to the direct marketing industry by launching a dedicated production helpline for production managers.

The initiative, manned by experienced production specialists, will offer over the phone support to agencies requiring immediate answers to production issues, including:

• Quick problem solving – effective solutions for postage weight issues, difficult formats and how to save money on P&P

• Instant technical advice – over the phone answers on pricing of items, Freepost artwork approval, PPI etc

• Extra mailing services – help with campaign management, Sameday service and approval for mail campaigns

Tim Hamill of Royal Mail said: “We are launching this new helpline in response to the feedback we have received from direct marketing agencies over the last few months. Print production is a tough job requiring answers to niggling questions on an ongoing basis. Through the helpline we want to relieve some of this pressure and really add value to our client relationships.”

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Postcomm: Royal Mail must reduce costs further (UK)

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Nigel Stapleton, Chairman of Postcomm the UK postal industry regulator, said that Royal Mail must make greater efforts to become more competitive and not look to Postcomm for a relaxation of price regulation.

In the 2007/2008 annual report, Mr Stapleton said that most people firmly believe that mail can hold its own, despite the rise in email and internet use, but that all mail operators need to raise their game in terms of price competitiveness, service quality and product innovation.

He said that the GBP 100 million loss on the universal service was of great concern as well as the break-even position overall from its addressed letters business. He said Postcomm had relaxed a key feature of the current price control, thereby allowing bigger increases to the prices of certain products where currently prices are below their fully allocated costs. Postcomm was also minded to suspend during 2007/08, the compensation that would otherwise be due from Royal Mail to its customers when quality of service drops below the licence standards. However, he said that Royal Mail needed to be more innovative and reduce costs further to retain customers:

He drew attention to sporadic industrial action in 2007, saying that two thirds of the total working days lost in the UK through strikes were attributable to the series of stoppages at Royal Mail while the company sought to gain support from its workforce for the initiatives required to become more cost competitive.

On an optimistic note, he pointed out that more mail users are now being offered a choice of using either Royal Mail or one of the new entrants to the market.

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Jersey Post faces formal competition

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Jersey Post is facing formal competition for the first time after the postal regulator issued a licence to an express delivery service.

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority has granted a licence to Regency Holdings Ltd, which delivers business mail and catalogues from the UK to Jersey.

The company has been delivering to Jersey since last year, and the 10-year licence formalises its operations in the Island.

Chuck Webb, executive director of the JCRA, said: ‘Regency Holdings is a fairly small operation that delivers business mail as well as catalogues and associated letters to Jersey from the UK.

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TNT deal rescues MPS cash shortfall (UK)

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

TNT Post has eased the pressure on the funding shortfall faced by the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) by agreeing to support the organisation which funds the scheme.

Nick Wells, Chief Executive of TNT Post, confirmed that the private postal operator has written to its customers to ask their permission to add an extra charge to their invoices to contribute towards the fund.

The Advertising Board of Finance (Asbof) collects the levy which pays for self-regulatory schemes, such as the MPS, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Royal Mail currently collects 0.2 per cent of brand owners’ direct mail spend, which it passes on to Asbof to fund these schemes, but until now new entrants to the postal market have not collected any money, fuelling fears that the schemes could be doomed. This is despite the fact that nearly half of all downstream access mail volumes are now handled by private operators.

Asbof chairman Winston Fletcher says: “We’re absolutely delighted that TNT Post is supporting the self-regulation of direct marketing in this way. Self-regulation cannot work without funding and the fact that the largest independent mail operator, TNT Post, has come aboard is clear evidence of how important self-regulation is to the direct marketing industry.”

Fletcher hopes that many of the other independent postal operators will follow TNT Post’s lead.

The move comes at a time when the Government is piling pressure on the industry to expand the MPS. The DMA has been encouraging the industry to back self-regulation to avoid the implementation of opt-in legislation as threatened by the Government.

Earlier this year, Asbof board member Charles Ping warned the MPS would be “buggered” unless more client companies started paying the levy.

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Postcomm Annual Report 2007/08

Posted by | Jun 25, 2008 | |

Postcomm Annual Report 2007/08Postcomm’s latest annual report sets out details of our strategy:

– Universal service. Ensure the continued provision of an affordable universal postal service.
– Protecting customer interests. Where they have little effective choice, Postcomm will ensure customers benefit from an affordable universal service and adequate protection in terms of prices and service quality.
– Promoting sustainable competition. We aim to provide customers with choice through efficient and sustainable competition between postal operators.
– Advising on the post office network. We aim to ensure that government decisions on the future of the post office network are informed by Postcomm’s research, information and advice.
– Building effective stakeholder relations. Our stakeholders range from major mail customers and operators to Government departments, trade unions, Postwatch, Parliament and the devolved administrations. We aim to maintain and support strong relationships with all stakeholder groups through proactive communication and the sharing of information.
– Using and developing resources effectively. We want to be an effective, efficient organisation, with a highly committed and motivated staff that is continually improving and regarded as “best in class” in comparison with our peer group of other regulators.

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