Tag: Royal Mail

UK Royal Mail complaints rise 300% as targets are missed

Posted by | Oct 15, 2004 | |

Complaints about lost, damaged and late post have rocketed by more than 300 per cent in two years and are likely to reach 40,000 by the end of the financial year, according to new figures from the independent postal service watchdog.
Postwatch, the organisation set up to monitor Royal Mail, handled 28,000 complaints last year, up from just 6,300 in 2002, and says complaints this year are already on course to reach 40,000 by April. Of the 28,000 complaints handled by the watchdog last year, only 88 were about companies other than Royal Mail. Officials said the failure of Royal Mail to hit any of its 15 performance targets was fuelling increases in complaints ranging from lost letters and parcels to problems with redirection. The number of complaints, contained in a National Audit Office report about the postal and energy watchdogs, will reignite anger about the standard of postal services after figures published this year suggested that 14.5 million letters are lost each year, with 60 per cent delivered to the wrong address.

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UK MPs to launch inquiry into future of crown post offices

Posted by | Oct 14, 2004 | |

Post Office executives are to be grilled by MPs overthe future of the 550 high street crown offices, some of which are facing closure, relocation or being taken over. Crown post offices are directly owned by the Post Office, unlike smaller sub-post offices, and lose almost Pounds 70m a year thanks to soaring rents, inefficient use of space and labour-intensive working practices. Options being considered to make the offices more commercially viable are closure, relocation to nearby but lower-cost premises, and franchising out to convenience store groups such as Londis. It would be possible to run a scaled-back post office counter from these stores, the Post Office has said. Ian Fisher, of consumer watchdog Postwatch, said crown office closures could be more controversial than the recent cuts in urban sub-post office numbers.

“Crown offices are the flagship stores within the network, they are prominently-located and heavily-used, so any change would attract a lot of interest.”

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Orkney and Shetland Islands’ MP demands action on parcel charges

Posted by | Oct 13, 2004 | |

Opening up parcel deliveries to competition has been a disaster for the people in remote communities who rely most heavily on them, a Liberal Democrat MP complained today. Alistair Carmichael, who represents Orkney and Shetland, called for Government action to protect the islanders from inflated charges for often almost non-existent services. And he warned that any moves to privatise the Post Office’s letter delivery service would create further problems and force more people to move to overcrowded urban areas. Party colleague Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) said it was unacceptable that state-owned Parcelforce charged islanders twice the usual rate for a service that was a day slower. He called for the firm to be made subject to the same universal service obligation as Royal Mail.

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Royal Mail announces board changes – Elmar Toime standing down

Posted by | Oct 7, 2004 | |

Royal Mail Group today announced changes to the company’s board, as it enters the final months of its three year renewal plan and prepares for intensified competition in the postal market. Executive Deputy Chairman, Elmar Toime, will be standing down to pursue opportunities as a consultant to the international postal sector. Mr Toime joined the Group in March 2003 and held responsibility for the Royal Mail letters business until May this year, when Chief Executive Adam Crozier took direct control of that part of the business. Royal Mail Chairman, Allan Leighton, thanked Elmar for his contribution to the renewal plan and wished him well in his new venture.

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UK Royal Mail pulps undelivered post

Posted by | Oct 5, 2004 | |

Royal Mail is to destroy all undelivered business post that does not have a return address on the envelope. The new policy comes into force from today and will affect millions of letters. It has sparked outrage among companies which claim they were not told of the change and fear it will cost them heavily in lost business. It is the latest in a series of costcutting measures by Royal Mail that have angered customers. In the past all undelivered post was sent to a Royal Mail office in Belfast where staff opened letters to try to discover the identity of the sender. Royal Mail said that axing the service for business post will save on the GBP10 million a year it spends dealing with 12 million undelivered items of post.

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