Postcomm, which had been due to publish the price controls for 2006-10 this month, rejected suggestions the delay until next week was due to rows with Royal Mail and the government. It said its work had been put back by the amount of material submitted during its consultation on the price control proposals.
Read MorePost and energy watchdogs were blasted by MPs today for performing “feebly” in protecting consumers despite spiralling costs to the taxpayer. The Public Accounts Committee said despite being set up five years ago, Energywatch and Postwatch had failed to stem the tide of complaints about services. It said the bodies should quit expensive London headquarters as part of a cost-cutting drive and make far more efforts to ensure the public were aware of the help available. Designed as consumer champions, they have handled more than 300,000 complaints about issues such as lost mail, post office closures, wrong energy bills and aggressive sales tactics and won compensation for some users. But today’s report said the watchdogs’ overall record had been “unimpressive” with complaints about post services rising every year and those about energy not being reduced. Less than three quarters of consumers were satisfied with the service they got from Postwatch.
Read MorePallet network Palletforce has added Italy to its European services, bringing the total number of countries covered in mainland Europe to eight. The service, run by Leeds-based member Viamaster Transport, started last Monday.
Read MoreA long-awaited review by Postcomm, the postal services regulator, that could see Royal Mail authorised to raise the price of a first class stamp from 30p to as high as 39p is expected to be published this week. The review will set out the terms on which Royal Mail is forced to face open competition when its 300-year-old monopoly ends in January. Alan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail, wants to raise the price of a stamp to 39p. This would allow him to plug the pension deficit and to maintain the universal service obligation. Postcomm favours restricting the rise to 34p.
Read MoreNightfreight (GB), which announced a secondary buy-out in July 2005, has reported a 9.8% increase in turnover to £112.4m for 2004—but operating profit was down by more than 47%.
Its IDW Overnight business accounted for £86.5m of turnover in 2004, down 0.6%
The logistics business accounted for £19.6m of turnover, a 26.6% increase on 2003’s £15.5m. The Deliver2Home business made £6.3m turnover in its first year of operation.
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