Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail may axe final salary pension scheme

Posted by | Sep 25, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is braced for strike action as it proposes to axe its final salary pension scheme for existing as well as new employees, according to a trade union.
Union Unite, which represents 12,000 Royal Mail managers, said that it expects the postal company to unveil plans to close the scheme to new and existing staff, and to take away GBP 1.5 billion of benefits. Unite said that in a meeting today Royal Mail confirmed the plans to the union.
A spokesman for Royal Mail refused to comment on the details of the proposals, saying: “It’s something we want to talk to our staff about first before giving a steer outside the company.”
Royal Mail is expected to inform employees of the proposed changes this week. Unite, which referred to the plans as the “great mail robbery” is involved in ongoing talks with the postal company.
Unite said that plans included raising the retirement age from 60 to 65, and from April 1 2008 replacing the final salary pension scheme for existing staff with a career average scheme.
Paul Reuter, national officer at the Union, said: “We call upon Royal Mail to honor their commitment to preserve the past services benefits that have been built up and paid for by our members.
Royal Mail is already facing two 48-hour walk-outs next month by members of the Communication Workers Union, over pension changes and pay.

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GBP 720m in unused foreign currency brought back to UK

Posted by | Sep 25, 2007 | |

The Post Office is offering returning holidaymakers the chance to donate their leftover foreign coins to national charity Help the Hospices.

Collection boxes are now on the counters of 600 Post Office branches across the UK – allowing holidaymakers to get rid of unused foreign coins and raise funds for charity at the same time.

New figures out today from Post Office®Travel Services reveal that over GBP 720 million was brought back to the UK last year in leftover foreign currency.* When asked what they did with the cash, less than three in ten holidaymakers (29 per cent) actually changed it back into pounds sterling and just under a quarter (23 per cent) said they put it to good use on their next holiday.

Of the rest, nearly a third of people (30 per cent) simply stashed leftover foreign currency at home unused. One in 50 said they planned to use the money on a next holiday but could not find it when the time came. Just three per cent said they had donated the leftover cash to charity.

The foreign coin collection is the latest initiative in the three-year partnership between Royal Mail Group and Help the Hospices, which has raised over GBP 1.1 million since it began in March 2005.

The Post Office is the largest bureau de change provider in the UK with a 25 per cent market share. Customers can buy euros over the counter at over 7,000 “on demand” branches and a selection of other currencies at 1,400 branches. All 14,000 Post Offices offer a next-day currency collection service.

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Post Office UK Ltd to sell mortgages

Posted by | Sep 24, 2007 | |

The Post Office today announced that it is to start selling mortgages.

A range of home loans backed by Bristol & West, the Bank of Ireland’s UK lending arm, will initially go on offer at post office branches in the North East from this week, before being rolled out across the UK.

The move comes as dozens of mainstream mortgage lenders are scaling back their mortgage business to reduce risk in the wake of the global credit crunch.

The Post Office, which claims to be the fastest growing financial services provider in the UK with more than one million savings, loan, insurance and credit card customers, hopes to capitalise on the complexity of existing deals offered on the high street by offering simpler loans without hidden charges, but said that it would apply strict lending criteria to the three loans in its new range that will exclude some borrowers.

It will offer one standard three-year fixed rate loan of 6.09 per cent up to 95 per cent of the property’s value, a 6.35 per cent buy-to-let mortgage up to 85 per cent and a self-certification loan for self-employed borrowers of 6.44 per cent on up to 90 per cent. All of the loans come with an arrangement fee of GBP 399.

Brokers welcomed increased competition from the Post Office’s new venture, but said that the loans were not the most competitive on the market.

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Scottish cities first for deliveries by Royal Mail rival

Posted by | Sep 23, 2007 | |

Sources at Postcomm, the postal services regulator, say TNT Post is building up its capacity in the two cities so that it can trial a full “end to end” service for Scottish business.

A number of private companies have moved into delivering postal services in the UK since the introduction of full competition to the market on January 1 last year. While some companies offer competitive rates to pick up mail or deliver it to its final destination, all still rely on the Royal Mail network for at least one part of the delivery process. In most cases, Royal Mail is used for what has been termed the ‘final mile’.

But TNT Post UK, the British branch of the Dutch postal group, aims to start offering a full service where post is picked up from businesses by TNT postmen, sorted at its own offices and then distributed by TNT’s delivery staff.

TNT Post has emerged as the main competitor to the Royal Mail since the market was opened up. It handles over 1.2 billion items of mail a year and has recently won several high profile deals, including a three-year contract to deliver the Phone Book to 3.2 million homes.

In Scotland, the company has targeted the small business market in particular. Its ‘PremierSort Flex’ service is aimed at local businesses that send a maximum of 250 letters and parcels a day. At the moment, the service uses the Royal Mail network for the ‘final mile’.

However, industry observers say that Britain is a long way from a fully privatised postal service. Statistics from Postcomm show that the Royal Mail delivers more than 99 pct of the UK’s mail to people’s doorsteps.

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Royal Mail: U-turn over mail centre closure

Posted by | Sep 21, 2007 | |

It was announced 12 months ago that operations at Reading and Gloucester would be moved to Swindon.

The new plan means Oxford and Reading mail centers will now close in 2009, but Gloucester will remain open.

Royal Mail said the changes addressed “an urgent need to improve mail consistency and efficiency”.

Area general manager Michael Devanny said: “We believe that moving work from Oxford to our extended facility in Swindon, which will be equipped with the latest technologies, will enable us to address an urgent need to improve the reliability of the mail services for our customers in the OX postcode area.

“Our first priority as we take forward this plan will be to fully support staff at all sites, particularly recognising the impact on our Oxford colleagues as a result of the revisions to our original proposals.”

He added that the company had a good “record of managing people through change” and that they would be consulting with the unions and staff.

Development work is due to start at Swindon on 8 October.

As part of the plans, a new delivery office is being developed for central Reading.

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