Postcomm is investigating a complaint it has received from Express Limited, TPG Post UK Limited and UK Mail Ltd, about Royal Mail’s offer of zonal pricing on direct access to its downstream facilities. The complaint received is that the offer of zonal pricing on access contravenes one or more of Royal Mail’s licence conditions.
Read MoreRoyal Mail launched a home telephone service in a bid to steal customers from BT Group, the country’s former telecoms monopoly. Royal Mail said it hoped to sign up 1m customers, or about 5 per cent of BT’s residential business, to its own HomePhone service by 2008. The company is only the latest entrant into the UK’s domestic fixed-line market where BT’s dominance has been under attack in recent years from a string of new competitors such as Carphone Warehouse and Tele2.
Read MoreBritain’s postal watchdog is pressing for the carve-up of Royal Mail to encourage fresh competition into the market. Under Postwatch’s proposals, Royal Mail would be divided into two companies, with separate chief executives. The consumer watchdog has taken its cue from the gas industry, which has seen the creation of separate businesses owning pipes and billing customers. Under its plans for Royal Mail, Postwatch would like to see the state- owned company’s marketing operations split from the pipeline business, which includes sorting and delivery. It argues that splitting Royal Mail in two would ensure that the fee rivals pay Royal Mail to access its sorting and delivery services would exclude marketing costs. “This is not an anti-Royal Mail move, it is pro-competition,” a Postwatch spokesman said. “We have got to get transparency at Royal Mail, to know that there is no cross-subsidy between the businesses.” The watchdog’s proposals are set to increase tensions between the Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton, and the Postwatch chairman, Peter Carr.
Read MorePostal regulators are calling on the government to levy Vat on stamps that could add 5p to the cost of sending a first-class letter. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Postcomm is in “negotiations” with the Treasury and the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI). The regulator believes the special exemption from Vat for Royal Mail stamps will have to be scrapped when the postal market is opened up to full competition next year. A reduced rate of 5% has been proposed but the European Commission may insist the full rate of 17.5% is levied, according to the papers. The exemption is not available to other mail companies hoping to enter the market so would prevent a level playing field. The EC is understood to be pressuring the government on behalf of European companies that are planning to start collecting and delivering British mail from 2006.
Read MoreThe Post Office yesterday caved in to demands that it release details of its sub-post office closure programme and the whereabouts of local offices scheduled to close. The state enterprise finally acceded to a request from the Guardian for the list of offices due for closure by the end of March, rather than face being forced to disclose its plans under new freedom of information rules. Almost 2,500 offices have been singled out as part of a widespread cost-cutting plan. More than 2,000 have already been closed, and the remainder are due to go over the next two months. The Post Office said for the first time yesterday that 396 were threatened with closure and admitted that, notwithstanding last minute appeals, almost all would shut their doors in the coming weeks.
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