Tag: Royal Mail

Britain’s postal services regulator, Nigel Stapleton, yesterday pledged to support the interests of small businesses and communities throughout rural Scotland by upholding the principle of an all-UK standard or “universal” postal prices, for non-domestic users.

Talking to The Scotsman yesterday during a three-day “stakeholder consultation” north of the Border, Stapleton also expressed strong support for the plight of Scotland’s rural post offices, which face the prospect of the withdrawal of the GBP150 million annual subsidy the government gives to Royal Mail to support this socially vital network.

“It’s a big issue for rural Scotland, but also for many deprived areas of the cities,” Stapleton said. “The fact that functions like pension, social security and driving licenses have been taken away from them has resulted in a 40 per cent drop in the revenue of businesses that already have annual incomes as low as GBP10,000 a year.

“Taking that revenue stream away from them is a classic case of non-joined up thinking by the government, as it will require far more in terms of future subsidy to alleviate the damage to rural economies.”

The Royal Mail is saluting the Beatles in January by releasing six commemorative stamps illustrated with memorable album covers.

The set includes an image of “With the Beatles,” released in 1963, which was the group’s second album. In the United States, it was the first Beatles album to be released and was titled “Meet the Beatles.”

Others in the series include “Help!” (1965), “Revolver” (1966), “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967), “Abbey Road” (1969) and “Let It Be” (1970).

The Royal Mail has made significant strides in recent years, but faces many more testing times as it gears up for the challenge from private operators entering the postal market.

However the line has to be drawn somewhere in terms of levels of service, and the apparent idea that some rural customers will be deemed as too rural to receive deliveries is a step too far.

The Royal Mail is a lifeline service for those who live in the remotest parts of the country, and to abandon these customers because of where they live is unacceptable. One has to wonder who dreamed up a proposal which would see anyone living a 15-minute round trip off the beaten track jettisoned from the delivery round.

It is akin to the local police pulling the plug on rural crime or the power companies pulling down the electricity cables. Those who choose to live in remote areas understand it will restrict their access to services, but they should still get the basic package, and mail through the letterbox should be part of that.

The Government must ensure that the Royal Mail’s desire to make itself a lean organisation is not achieved at the expense of customers in the far-flung corners of Scotland.

Royal Mail has appointed six consultancies from more than 200 applications to create its E2m (GBP 1.3m) ‘tactical’ design roster, which is due to run for up to four years.

The successful consultancies – Home, Meteorite, Open Agency, Rufus Leonard, Start Creative and True North – were selected from a final shortlist of about ten groups and will be responsible for all of Royal Mail’s internal and external ‘tactical design projects’, says Andrew Hammond, head of campaigns for Royal Mail. The projects will have a budget between E1.5m and E2m (GBP 1.0m-GBP 1.3m).

Open Agency, Start Creative and Home are retained from the previous five-strong roster, while The Design Group and Carter Wong Tomlin are dropped from the new roster, despite re-applying. The contracts run for an initial three years, with a possible one-year extension, but no groups will be added or removed during that time, says a spokeswoman for the company.

The roster does not extend to stamp design and related materials, such as year books, which are commissioned separately and overseen by Royal Mail’s Stamp Advisory Committee. Consultancies will work on projects across Royal Mail, but not for Royal Mail Group divisions Parcel Force and the Post Office.

‘We are facing a massive challenge in terms of the market opening up and we need the skills of design consultancies to meet these challenges, internally and externally. This is a good mix of groups, all with very different skills,’ says Hammond.