Tag: Royal Mail

Post offices are in desperate need of Government support and direction if they are to survive, the network’s watchdog warned last night.

Postcomm believes the post office is becoming increasingly irrelevant as the number of services it provides are reduced – destroying its role as the social hub of a community.

The claims back up our Don’t Sound the Last Post campaign – which has now collected more than 12,000 signatures – and calls on the Government to do more to help keep post offices open.

Postcomm’s report, Post Offices at the Crossroads, paints a grim picture of the current state of the network.

The postal services regulator looked at 14,000 post offices around the country and found that the network lost GBP111 million last year despite a GBP150m subsidy to rural offices – which is being withdrawn in 2008.

It said the Department for Work and Pensions and the DVLA were withdrawing services from all post offices, which has already led to a GBP168m revenue loss over the last year.

The report also found that the rural post office network was in particular financial trouble, with only 1,500 of the 8,000 rural offices making money.

A nationwide survey undertaken on 19th September by Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services, has revealed that one in every four post boxes fails to display the correct collection tab – despite Royal Mail’s commitment to fully reintroduce the tabs by June.

The survey found that of 1,647 post boxes visited:

” 301 did not display a collection tab
” 95 displayed an incorrect tab
” Leaving 1,251 post boxes displaying the correct tab – 76 percent of the total surveyed

Collection tabs are important to customers as they indicate the daily final collection from a post box has been made. Royal Mail removed them in 2002. Following customer complaints and a Postwatch campaign, the company then agreed to reintroduce collection tabs.