Tag: Royal Mail

Postal Services: Now size matters

Posted by | Sep 18, 2006 | |

Last month, Royal Mail introduced its postal cost plan, Pricing in Proportion.

How many companies were ready for the change? How many had put in months of preparatory testing and re-testing? How many others are now in a tail-spin, awaiting their first Royal Mail invoice under PiP and wishing they’d taken more notice earlier?

Few will admit to being in the latter camp, inevitably. Abacus, the mail order data pool supplier, says 80 per cent of its Alliance members claimed last summer that they would be ready by now. Mail order firms are among those set to benefit most, since they can now send heavier catalogues at no extra cost. Some 70 per cent of Abacus Alliance members believe it will mean good news for them, and 31 per cent are planning to increase their circulations as a result.

Nevertheless, admits Roger Williams, Abacus’ marketing director, the reality is that smaller companies “have not thought about the implications and it’s suddenly upon us”.

More worryingly, an online survey conducted by mailing equipment company Neopost found that 75 per cent of 1,000 businesses sampled had done nothing about PiP by June this year.

Many businesses are under the impression that they spend a minimal amount on postage and need not pay heed to the change, says Walsh. “Actually, if they added up their postal costs, they would be shocked.” Neopost estimates postage accounts, on average, for 30% of the cost of a typical direct mail campaign.

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Six VCs put their stamp on history

Posted by | Sep 17, 2006 | |

Six holders of the Victoria Cross are to be immortalised on a set of stamps to mark the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the medal.

And as a reminder of modern heroism in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presentation pack will include a tribute by Gen Sir Peter de la Billiere, the commander of British Forces in the first Gulf war.

The Royal Mail heroes include Midshipman Charles Lucas, the first person to win the VC. Michael Adams, 61, a broker from Oxfordshire and the great-grandson of Midshipman Lucas, supports the launch of the stamps on Thursday, as does Col Rewati Rai, a soldier in the Indian Army and the son of Cpl Agansing Rai, a Gurkha who won the VC in 1944 for attacking a Japanese machine gun nest in Burma.

Midshipman Lucas was serving on HMS Hecla during the Crimean War when his ship came under fire. When a live shell landed on deck, the 20-year-old grabbed it and hurled it overboard. The shell exploded as it hit the sea, but the sailor’s swift and heroic action saved many lives.

Boy 1st Class John Cornwell was only 16 when, serving in the Royal Navy in the First World War, he died heroically at the Battle of Jutland. Also honoured are Noel Chavasse, a First World War Army doctor; Charles Upham, a New Zealander, who was sent to Colditz; and Albert Ball, a fighter ace who was lost in action in 1917.

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Chief urges swift action over local post offices

Posted by | Sep 16, 2006 | |

The head of the body regulating postal services warned last night rural sub-post offices face near “freefall” unless a Government decision about the future of the network is taken soon.

PostComm chairman Nigel Stapleton issued the dire prediction as he ended a tour of Scotland in the far north with a visit to a pilot mobile post office at Reiss, near Wick, a traditional sub-post office at John O’Groats and talks with local businessmen and councillors in Thurso.

Earlier he visited an alternative pilot with a full sub-post office operating satellite sub-offices for a few hours a week in neighbouring villages around Leven in Fife and had meetings in Dundee.

As well as continuing Government cash support in recognition of the social role of local post offices in the community, he urged the lifting of the Royal Mail monopoly so the Post Office can benefit from handling growing business from private sector operators like TNT and DX a year after the end of Royal Mail’s monopoly delivering letters and parcels.

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For Scotland? Use air mail

Posted by | Sep 16, 2006 | |

A Tyneside businessman has been told he must send a letter to Scotland by air mail.

David Scott Cowper couldn’t believe his eyes when the envelope he sent to a client in Kilcreggan, near Glasgow, was returned to him.

On it was a large red sticker ordering the 65-year-old to pay more postage so it could sent the 180-mile trip by air.

David, a surveyor, said: “I just felt it was incredulous that I got the letter back and it gets delayed a few more days because some chap doesn’t know where Scotland is.

“So it seems Scotland is becoming a little further away from England than it already is because the Royal Mail is asking for air mail to get up there.

“Many people in Scotland like to regard themselves as being separate from the rest of the UK so it seems they got their wish thanks to the Royal Mail.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We apologise for any inconvenience but we cannot speculate on exactly what has happened to this item of mail without seeing it first.

“We recommend that the customer contact Royal Mail customer services on 08457 740740 so his complaint can be fully investigated.”

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Watchdog ups stakes over post office closures

Posted by | Sep 15, 2006 | |

The postal regulator has stepped up pressure on the government over rural post office closures by rebuking it for delay and short-termism.

Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, which has an advisory role to the government on the post office network, said yesterday on a visit to Scotland it would be publishing a major report next month. “It will be hard-hitting,” he said.

MPs and MSPs were already putting pressure on the government to ensure it was “an issue they can’t dodge”, he said, adding: “The problem is that by having left it as long as it has been left to produce a solution, the solution will be more difficult and probably more costly than if there had been a little more thinking at an earlier stage.” He said a government consultation had been promised before the summer, then put off until the autumn. “It is a continually slipping clock,” he said.

Royal Mail has said a strictly commercial network would mean axing over 10,000 post offices out of the current 14,500 when the GBP150m annual subsidy runs out in 18 months’ time.

Mr Stapleton said: “Hopefully that is a scare number to get the government to face things.”

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