Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail has until next month to prove it did not short-change business customers seeking compensation for poor service following a row between the company and some of its biggest clients. Nigel Stapleton, chairman of regulator Postcomm, is investigating Royal Mail’s compensation scheme, which has paid out only half the Pounds 70m that customers expected. Under Royal Mail’s new compensation scheme, the state-owned postal group is obliged to make payments to its domestic and business customers if it misses its quality of service targets. Royal Mail missed all 15 of its targets for the year ending March 31 2004, and said last month that it had so far paid out Pounds 16.5m to domestic customers and Pounds 35m to business customers. But, according to calculations by Postcomm and bodies representing mail users, it should be paying at least Pounds 70m.

Postcomm today launched a consultation on a package of measures designed to bring forward competition in postal services, promote greater efficiency and service quality from Royal Mail and make it easier for competitors to enter the market. The proposals would advance Postcomm’s current timetable for full market opening by 15 months to 1 January 2006, provide Royal Mail with an extra nine months to prepare for full liberalisation by cancelling the interim stage of market opening that had been planned for April 2005, safeguard the continuing provision of a universal service for 1st and 2nd class stamped post at a geographically uniform price and set a framework for Royal Mail’s price and service quality control from April 2006. The proposals will also provide more freedom for Royal Mail to offer new, innovative, services to help it compete in the fully liberalised market and give customers more choices, so they can select a postal supplier that meets their service quality requirements and offers innovative postal products.