Tag: Royal Mail

UK Post Office moves into broadband market

Posted by | Oct 24, 2007 | |

The Post Office, part of the Royal Mail Group, is launching a new, national broadband service on Monday 29 October, specifically designed to attract late adopters of broadband services and those looking for a better, fairer and easier broadband option.

OFCOM has predicted that broadband uptake is set to rise by up to 80 per cent by 2012 . According to their research, the over-50s and cash economy represents an untapped high value market, valued by the Post Office at GBP 478 million.

Post Office Broadband provides national coverage at a universal price, avoiding now common ‘rural surcharges’ imposed by most other ISPs. Users will also have the option to pay for the service in cash at any of the 14,000 Post Offices nationwide, a payment alternative not offered by any other nationwide ISP.

The new services are primarily targeted at the ‘NETSKI’ generation of 50-65 year olds with a high disposable income who are going online for the first time – and customers wanting to pre-pay in cash.

Two high quality, fast broadband packages are available from the Post Office, offering users headline speeds of up to 8MB. Broadband Standard and Broadband Extra can also be bundled with the existing Post Office HomePhone service. Subscribers will be able to simply plug in and go while technical support from UK call centres will be on hand 24/7.

A five year deal with BT Wholesale’s network guarantees Post Office Broadband a national reach – from John O’Groats to Lands End – of over 99.6 per cent of the country, while network support, kit maintenance and back office support is also provided by BT. This infrastructure supports the Post Office’s commitment to provide its users with a reliable and fair broadband service.

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Post Office launches life insurance

Posted by | Oct 24, 2007 | |

The Post Office today announces the launch of a new product into the life market, and is offering a GBP 100 cash back bonus to anyone taking out a policy.*

Post Office Life Insurance has the flexibility for customers to choose Level Term cover which pays out a fixed lump sum to the deceased’s dependents in the event of their death or Decreasing Term which is suitable for those with a repayment mortgage as the sum assured decreases in line with the outstanding mortgage.

Both products offer up to GBP 500,000 worth of life cover and people can get cover from as little as GBP 5 a month and choose the amount and length of cover they require.

The new life insurance will join the Post Office®’s recently launched Over 50s Life Cover to create a suite of life products, offering affordable and comprehensive peace of mind to customers wanting to protect their loved ones and their home.

In line with the Post Office®’s other financial policies, the new life insurance product is easy to understand and simple to apply for.

The Post Office® will be able to accept more life insurance applicants on standard terms by using an interactive application process, which will see fewer applications referred to its underwriters for a decision on health issues.

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Royal Mail staff awaits pension details

Posted by | Oct 23, 2007 | |

Royal Mail says the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has agreed to the closure of its final salary scheme.

But the union says it has only agreed to a consultation on changes, which will then be put to a ballot of all its Royal Mail and Post Office members.

“The final details have not been decided on,” said a CWU spokeswoman.

Since the start of the year, Royal Mail has wanted to cut the cost of its huge final-salary pension scheme, which covers 160,000 staff but has a deficit of GBP 6.5 bn.

Along with changes to working practices, the closure of the existing final-salary scheme and its replacement with cheaper alternatives was at the heart of the postal service’s recent industrial dispute.

Settlement

Settled on last Monday 22nd after days of negotiations, the dispute saw tens of thousands of postal staff on strike at sorting offices and depots around the country.

There will be a ballot right across all CWU members in the Royal Mail group

CWU spokeswoman

Among the issues agreed, said the Royal Mail, were: “The union’s support for the company’s overall proposed pension reform.”

“Royal Mail’s proposals include closing the final salary scheme to new members from 31 January 2008 and replacing it with a Defined Contribution scheme [and] introducing a Career Average Defined Benefit scheme for our existing employees from 1 April 2008,” it added.

However, a spokeswoman for the CWU said the union was annoyed its stance had been misrepresented.

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Postcomm publishes revised proposals on Royal Mail's redirections service

Posted by | Oct 23, 2007 | |

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has published its proposals on Royal Mail’s redirections service.

In the fully competitive market, where rivals of Royal Mail are also able to offer their own collection and delivery services, redirection arrangements need to be broadened to allow those rivals to redirect mail. Postcomm has consulted on how this could be achieved within the constraints of data protection rules.

Some of the recommendations Postcomm is making are:

– Royal Mail be required to share the redirections data with other licensed operators who wish to provide a redirections service;
– Once an operator chooses to access redirections data, it must provide a redirections service for its area of operations;
– Royal Mail share the data with other licensed operators from its business diversion service (which Postcomm considers is essentially a subset of the redirections service);
– Other operators wishing to provide a redirections service should be allowed to update their senders with the new address of their customers where the appropriate consent has been given; and
– All licensed operators will be able to not redirect mail if they have explicit instructions to that effect from the sender.

Every year, around 1.3 million households and businesses use Royal Mail’s redirections service, and there are approximately 800,000 redirections “live” on the company’s books at any one time.

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Consultations start in Scotland on changes to Post Office network

Posted by | Oct 23, 2007 | |

Post Office Ltd today opened the first local public consultations in Scotland on changes to the Post Office network needed to meet UK Government requirements. Proposals for the future provision of Post Office services in Greater Glasgow, Central Scotland and Argyll & Bute have been published today and will remain open for consultation for six weeks until 3 December 2007.

Under the Area Plan Proposals published today, 99.9 pct of the population will either see no change to their nearest branch, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

Post Office Ltd is seeking views on the proposed future service provision in Greater Glasgow, Central Scotland and Argyll & Bute, including, in particular, views on access to Post Office services, the accessibility of alternative branches to those proposed for closure and the appropriate form of rural outreach service to be provided.

In addition to the 264 Post Office branches which are proposed to remain open in Greater Glasgow, Central Scotland and Argyll & Bute, three branches in rural Stirlingshire will be replaced with a form of outreach services. The plan also proposes a reduction of 44 branches from the present number of 308.

The plan includes proposed outreach services in three communities in rural Stirlingshire – Buchlyvie, Thornhill and Gargunnock.

Possible types of outreach service could include a mobile service visiting small communities at set times, a hosted service operated within third party premises for restricted hours each week, or a partner service within the premises of a local partner (such as a shop).

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