Tag: Royal Mail

Postcomm statement on High Court judgement

Posted by | May 25, 2007 | |

Commenting on the judgement handed down by the High Court, Postcomm is pleased that the Judge confirmed that Postcomm had decided reasonably and properly that a financial penalty should be ordered in this matter.

However, the regulator is disappointed that the GBP 1 million penalty was quashed because of a technical difficulty in its policy for calculating financial penalties in cases where the benefit to Royal Mail and the burden on others from the licence contravention cannot be assessed. The Judge held that Postcomm could not depart from its published penalty policy in the circumstances of this case.

Following its investigation, Postcomm originally imposed the penalty on Royal Mail in July 2006 for failing to take adequate steps to ensure it could not gain an unfair commercial advantage over its competitors in the ‘access’ market.

Postcomm found that Royal Mail had not put in place adequate measures within its wholesale and retail divisions to prevent it obtaining an unfair advantage over its competitors as stipulated in Condition 10 of its licence. Postcomm’s investigation also found a failure in Compliance. These findings were not challenged in the appeal brought by Royal Mail.

Postcomm will consider appealing the decision to the Court of Appeal.

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TNT cleared to challenge Royal Mail's VAT exemption

Posted by | May 25, 2007 | |

Royal Mail’s VAT exemption could be challenged by rival TNT Post after a development in the High Court this month.

The High Court has granted TNT Post permission to apply for a judicial review of the exemption and is expected to rule soon that the European Court of Justice carry out the review.

All postal services provided by Royal Mail are VAT exempt, but services provided by all other operators are not.

TNT claims this distorts the postal market. It is a particular disadvantage in the case of business with banks and charities, which cannot recover VAT charges because they themselves are VAT exempt.

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post, said: “The VAT distortion is subject to possible infringement proceedings by the European Commission. TNT Post is committed to providing its customers with an efficient and value-for-money service and will continue to fight for a level competitive playing field.”

If the European Court of Justice carries out a review it is not expected to finish until the summer of 2009.

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World Mail Award winners celebrated

Posted by | May 24, 2007 | |

The 2007 World Mail Awards, presented on Monday night at a top London hotel, brought out the very best from postal services around the globe. More than 350 senior executives from the industry gathered to hear yachtsman, hero & adventurer, Pete Goss, present the coveted trophies for best practice and excellence.

This was the 8th year the Awards have been run by Triangle and they continue to grow in both prestige and breadth of coverage, with two new awards and four new sponsors for 2007. The distinguished panel of judges met only hours before the presentation to select the eventual winners of the awards from the 38 finalists.

The twelve winners competed against a broad geographical diversity of applicants and a wide variety of products and services submitted by operators and suppliers to the mail industry.

This year’s World Mail Award winners are as follows:

• Corporate Social Responsibility (sponsored by DHL Global Mail)
– Brazil Post for its Postal Bank project

• Customer Service (sponsored by Western Union)
– Canada Post Corporation for its Customer Value Management program

• e-Commerce (sponsored by Saudi Post)
– Deutsche Post AG for its ADDRESSDIALOG project

• Growth (sponsored by Q-Post)
– DHL Global Mail for its global letter-writing club LetterNet

• Industry Leadership (sponsored by Pitney Bowes)
– Jean-Paul Bailly, Chairman and CEO, La Poste

• Innovation (sponsored by Emirates Post)
– ampm for its delivery tracking solution eyeTrack

• People Management (sponsored by Australia Post)
– Masterlink Express for its ”Talents Maker” management academy training program

• Quality (sponsored by Magyar Posta)
– Singapore Post for SingPost Quality Excellence

• Retail Project (sponsored by Triangle)
– Aramex International for its SHOP&SHIP mailbox system

• Security (sponsored by Royal Mail)
– Royal Mail for its Mail Integrity Programme

• Technology (sponsored by Intermec)
– Denmark Post for its GIS route planning system

• Transformation (sponsored by IBM)
– Saudi Post for the creation of NAQEL

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Royal Mail fails to address database issue

Posted by | May 24, 2007 | |

The soap opera plotline concerning the “ownership” of postal addresses has taken another twist. According to leaked letters seen by the Guardian, the latest set of negotiations between government-owned agencies over payment for address data has broken down.

The saga provides a graphic example of an issue at the heart of Technology Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign – the bureaucracy and waste that ensue when state bodies treat vital data as an asset that must be made directly profitable.

The lifecycle of 23 Acacia Avenue – and every other postal address – begins with the local council, which is responsible for assigning a street name and number to new properties. Other government-owned agencies then draw on this information for their own purposes, including the creation of proprietary databases of addresses. If councils later want to use such databases, they must pay for the right – even if they provided the original data.

Arguments over the rights of one arm of the state to use another arm’s address database have soaked up much government time and money over the past five years. The current row is over a database of postcodes, the Postcode Address File, run by Royal Mail.

This is profitable, making GBP 1.58m on revenues of GBP 18.36m in 2005-06 (Royal Mail’s postcode database reveals its profitable side, April 26). Councils in England and Wales spend about GBP 2.5m a year on postcodes (paid to Ordnance Survey and commercial businesses, as well as Royal Mail).

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Now UK Mail picks up the post at HSBC

Posted by | May 23, 2007 | |

HSBC has become the latest major bank to give Royal Mail the sack.

UK Mail, the postal arm of parcels courier Business Post, said today it now acts for three of the five High Street banks after HSBC joined Royal Bank of Scotland in ditching Royal Mail for the sorting for delivery of its bank statements.

Lloyds TSB had already switched to UK Mail’s arch-rival, the Dutch postal group TNT, but UK Mail today announced it had also picked up part of the Lloyds TSB contract.

Major customers such as the Department of Work and Pensions, the BBC, Vodafone, and Powergen helped UK Mail revenues soar from GBP 40m to GBP 90m in the year to the end of March, doubling profits to GBP 6.4m.

That compares with UK Mail forecasts at its launch in 2004 that within three years it would make GBP 10m on revenues of GBP 150m – about 3% of the GBP 5bn market.

Chief executive Guy Buswell said UK Mail missed the targets because VAT issues meant part of the market remained in favour of Royal Mail. Business Post’s group pre-tax profits doubled to GBP 9.8m but the dividend is pegged at 10.8p.

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