Tag: UK

Post-Switch urges charities to beat Royal Mail price rise

Posted by | Feb 6, 2008 | |

Price comparison agency Post-Switch is encouraging companies and charities to compare offerings to help them keep mailing costs down and beat the Royal Mail price hike.

On 7 April 2008 Royal Mail is putting up the cost of first class mail from 34p to 36p and second class by 3p from 24p to 27p. For commercial business users, including charities, Royal Mail will be raising its Mailsort tariff rates: for example, Mailsort 2 is typically going up by a unit cost of 1.5p and Mailsort 3 mailings by 0.8p.

At Christian relief and development agency Tearfund, Clive Mear, Production Director, has resized all the charity’s mailings including the Living gifts voucher scheme and the Fair Trade goods catalogue to keep the price of postage down. A member of the Charity Print Consortium, Mear uses Post-Switch to compare prices for all mailings over 10,000.

Dartford-based printing firm Howard Hunt sends out over 600 million direct mail packs a year for such household brands as British Gas and Vodaphone as well as charities including Oxfam. Lucy Edwards at Howard Hunt says that comparing postal prices on every project is essential: she said: “Our clients trust us to keep the cost of their jobs down and often look to us for help in stretching the budget, so switching postal providers when we can to save money makes sense.”

Post-Switch recommends that direct mail managers should have a postal health check every quarter to ensure they are receiving the most competitive rates.

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Post Office compensation claim could cost millions

Posted by | Feb 6, 2008 | |

Royal Mail could be forced to pay several million pounds in compensation amid accusations that it flouted employment law in its restructuring of the Post Office network.

The organisation’s Post Office division is being taken to an employment tribunal by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), on behalf of 1,300 employees who worked for Crown Post Offices that were franchised to WHSmith and other organisations.

The CWU says that the workers were told that they could take redundancy or be redeployed to other Post Offices, but not that they were entitled under law to transfer to the new owners of the offices under the same terms and conditions as they enjoyed at the Post Office. Crown offices are the larger high street branches that are directly managed by Royal Mail, as opposed to the small branches that are run as individual businesses. The union’s claim will be heard at a tribunal in London in May. The CWU is asking for 13 weeks’ payment for the workers, averaging GBP 5,000 each.

The claim for compensation on behalf of the workers, which could total GBP 6.5 million, emerged as MPs on the Commons Business and Enterprise Committee held an inquiry into the closure of up to 2,500 Post Offices. Peter Luff, chair of the committee, asked Alan Cook, the Post Office’s managing director, to provide evidence of the communication to the employees. He said: “We would like further details on this, because I can’t see how this complies with the law.”

The issue flared as the Court of Appeal upheld a GBP 9.62 million fine on Royal Mail imposed by Postcomm for failing to protect mail that went astray. The problem was highlighted in a Channel 4 television investigation.

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Postcomm publishes decision document on Royal Mail zonal pricing application (UK)

Posted by | Feb 5, 2008 | |

Postcomm has today published a decision document giving its reasons for the rejection of Royal Mail’s application to charge large mailers – using products which are not part of the universal service – different prices depending on where in the UK their mail is delivered (Royal Mail calls this zonal pricing).

The reasons for this decision are broadly that Postcomm is not satisfied that the change would be introduced in a manner which avoids unreasonable changes to users, and because it involves discrimination.

In order to provide clarity to users of postal services, Postcomm announced in December 2007 that it would reject this application from Royal Mail.

This decision does not mean that Postcomm is ruling out any future moves towards retail zonal pricing for products outside the universal service should Royal Mail propose an alternative approach that avoids the problems presented by the current application. Postcomm is generally supportive of pricing that is more reflective of costs.

Royal Mail’s ‘zonal pricing’ application did not include services paid for by stamps or those bulk mail products that are included within the definition of the universal service and which must, under the Postal Services Act, remain priced at a uniform rate regardless of delivery zone across the country. It is open to Royal Mail to submit a new application if it can be framed to meet the relevant regulatory tests.

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Court of Appeal upholds GBP 9.62 million financial penalties imposed on Royal Mail

Posted by | Feb 5, 2008 | |

The Court of Appeal has upheld the GBP 9.62 million financial penalty Postcomm imposed on Royal Mail for failing to protect adequately the mail in its care, following an appeal of the penalty by Royal Mail. The judgment reinforces Postcomm’s position that the penalty is proportionate and reflects the loss suffered by customers.

In a unanimous judgment, the three judges confirmed that Postcomm had a broad discretion to determine the amount of the penalty and that, in reaching its determination, it had made the best assessment it could, given the evidence available to it.

Royal Mail did not dispute Postcomm’s finding that it breached its licence requirements to keep mail safe and secure, nor that this breach was serious; it appealed only against the level of the financial penalty.

On 24 August 2006, Postcomm imposed a financial penalty of GBP9.62 million on Royal Mail for breaching its licence by failing to properly protect the mail in its care. The penalty followed a review of Royal Mail’s mail integrity procedures, during which Postcomm found that some important features of Royal Mail’s procedures were not being applied across the business. Royal Mail previously challenged the penalty in the High Court but, following a hearing, the court ruled in favour of Postcomm. The Court of Appeal has now upheld the earlier decision of the High Court.

The most significant weakness found was the poor management of the recruitment and training process for non-contract (agency) staff. In addition, the framework and information systems that Royal Mail had put in place to prevent the loss, theft and damage to mail were not operated effectively. These weaknesses significantly reduced Royal Mail’s ability to protect its customers’ mail.

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What does the future of on-line retailing hold?

Posted by | Feb 5, 2008 | |

A free seminar from the IMRG looks at how companies can increase sales through multi-channel activity

The latest IMRG figures reveal GBP 15.2 billion spent online in Q4 and full year 2007 came in at GBP 46 billion.

This seminar will look at whether this spend is set to continue, what is driving the growth and how companies can increase sales through multi-channel activity and managing customer contact centres more effectively with a case history on Sainsbury’s Online Groceries. Latest industry trends and figures will also be revealed.

These are some of the issues that will be debated by IMRG, eDigitalResearch – one of the leading providers of digital market research, in conjunction with Teleperformance – the world’s largest customer contact centre outsourcer and works with some of the UK’s largest brands, including Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, moneysupermarket.com and JD Williams.

The afternoon will be chaired by Liz Barclay, BBC radio presenter, who will lead a lively debate on the issues facing the online retailing industry.

The seminar is free of charge and places are limited. The seminar takes place on Thursday 6th March, 2008, 1 pm – 5pm at a central London venue. Please book now to avoid disappointment by calling Kellie Cooper on 0121 410 5000 or email [email protected]

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