Tag: UK

UK postal union extends strike suspension until Sunday for further talks

Posted by | Sep 4, 2007 | |

A UK postal union has agreed to extend a suspension of planned strikes for a further five days to resolve a pay row with Royal Mail.

The Communication Workers Union, which suspended planned industrial action on Aug 10 until today after agreeing to enter a new round of talks with Royal Mail, said the two sides would extend their negotiations until Sun Sept 9 ‘to resolve all issues in dispute’.

Union members have already held two 24-hour strikes and a week of rolling walkouts in the row about Royal Mail’s 2.5 pct pay offer and planned job cuts.

The mail operator says increased automation is necessary to deal with ‘the harsh commercial reality’ of the market.

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Scots deliver worst class post in Britain

Posted by | Sep 4, 2007 | |

Scotland has the worst postal service in the UK, according to the Royal Mail’s own figures.

The six poorest performing postcode areas in Britain for delivering first-class mail the next day are north of the Border.

Lerwick, Kirkcaldy, Borders, Dundee, Falkirk and the Hebrides had the lowest percentage of post delivered on time in the first quarter of 2007.

In Scotland, only Glasgow managed to scrape into the top 20 best performing areas, in 18th place.

Lerwick in the Shetlands had just 45.3 per cent of first-class mail arriving on time, compared with Watford where 96.7 per cent was delivered next day.

Across Britain, Royal Mail achieved 93 per cent of first-class post delivered the next working day, meeting their UK minimum target.

The company met their local minimum target of 91.5 per cent of first-class post delivered the next working day in 98 of the 118 UK postcode areas.

But this target was only achieved in eight of the 16 Scots postcode areas.

Royal Mail manager John Manson said: “Unfortunately, for the first quarter of 2007-8 our quality of service to customers in the east of Scotland postcode areas was below our usual high standard.

“This was because of a short period of unofficial industrial action, which had a knock-on effect.

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Viapost service to challenge postal operators

Posted by | Sep 3, 2007 | |

Royal Mail and other postal operators will face a new competitive challenge next month, with the launch of a service that promises to cut the cost of business mail and reduce the carbon emissions of sending letters through the post.

Viapost will allow customers to e-mail letters to distribution centres around the country, where they will be printed out, folded and sorted before being handed over to local Royal Mail distribution centres for final delivery to the recipients.

Although Royal Mail will deliver for Viapost over “the final mile”, the new service is likely to take business from its collection and sorting business where t has already lost a large share of the market to competitors such as TNT Post and UK Mail.

The state-owned operator is currently locked in negotiations with the postal union over its modernisation plans, with a deadline of Tuesday for reaching agreement to avoid further strikes.

However, the new service will also pose a threat to Royal Mail’s competitors, since it could prove attractive to the large business mailers that have already switched to private-sector providers but want to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Viapost regional centres will be much closer to the 70 Royal Mail access points that take in post for final delivery and using them will reduce carbon emissions associated with mailings by up to 60 per cent.

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