AS A concerned postman/driver of nearly 18 years service, I feel the need to inform the public of the real impact the postal regulator’s proposals will have on your publiclyowned postal service.
Postcomm has ignored the warnings given by the National Audit Office report Opening the Post.
Read MoreAS a customer who does not live in close range of a branch, I feel very strongly about the postal regulator’s plans to sell off the Post Office.
There will be many private firms only too willing to deliver bulk mail to towns and cities, but where will that leave people living in areas where there are only a few houses?
Does the regulator really think that the Post Office can ever survive once it has granted licences for private firms to cherry-pick, leaving just the unprofitable deliveries?
I think that every MP will know that it is impossible for the Post Office to compete on these terms.
Read MoreInternational Post Corporation (IPC) members maintained their high-quality delivery performance for international letters last year, despite disruptions to air transport and security alerts following the events of September 11.
During 2001, an average of 92 per cent of European air mail letters reached their final destination within three days of posting. According to quality of service monitoring results just released by IPC’s UNEX system, more Postal operators are now meeting EU targets on mail streams where few, or no direct transport links are available. During 2001, over three-quarters of the 306 country-to-country streams monitored by UNEX were achieving at least 85 per cent
of deliveries within three days, compared with just one-third in 1994 when monitoring began, and one half in 1997.
Investing in expensive heavy trucks can only be justified where they are guaranteed to run every day — ideally 24 hours a day — and hauliers must try to limit their exposure to risk.
That’s the opinion of Paul Frampton, director of Shepton Mallet-based Framptons, who points out that in his business, heavy trucks cost the most, but make the lowest margin.
Ministers have deliberately delayed the implementation of thousands of redundancies at the Post Office, fearing a backlash over the Government’s handling of the organisation’s restructuring.
It is also thought that the Government has been trying to reduce some of the impact of the massive restructuring after Allan Leighton, the acting chairman, outlined the need for far tougher cuts than the 30,000 job cuts that have already been tipped.
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