Tag: UK

2005 – industry’s; hopes and fears.(motor operators)

The Working Time Directive looms large for UK operators; driver ability, messy regulations and greedy parking authorities also cause concern in our straw poll.

Andrew Spencer, MD of pallet network UPN, says: “When the Working Time Directive is in place in March, I think we will see a last-minute scramble of companies wanting to join networks. “I think the market has reached its optimum and we won’t see any huge growth. Prices need to harden – the rate-cutting in the sector is ridiculous. “Our main priority next year is to improve our portfolio of services for members by introducing barcode scanning, PoD scanning and central billing. “In 2005, London will be the area to watch, with the big boys beginning to flex their muscles down there,” Spencer says.

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UK Post Office names branches to be closed

The Post Office yesterday caved in to demands that it release details of its sub-post office closure programme and the whereabouts of local offices scheduled to close. The state enterprise finally acceded to a request from the Guardian for the list of offices due for closure by the end of March, rather than face being forced to disclose its plans under new freedom of information rules. Almost 2,500 offices have been singled out as part of a widespread cost-cutting plan. More than 2,000 have already been closed, and the remainder are due to go over the next two months. The Post Office said for the first time yesterday that 396 were threatened with closure and admitted that, notwithstanding last minute appeals, almost all would shut their doors in the coming weeks.

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Postwatch welcomes select committee report on UK Crown Post Offices

Postwatch today welcomed the Trade and Industry Committee’s report ‘Crown Post Offices’. The report examines Post Office Ltd’s review of their Crown – or Directly Managed – post office network. The Committee’s report raised key concerns, including Ddisparities in customer service levels between Crown post offices and franchise post offices, as revealed in research commissioned by
Postwatch and the postal services regulator Postcomm, the need for Post Office Ltd to better communicate the reasons for converting Directly Managed branches to franchise post offices, and the need for the Government to pay a fair price for services that Post Office Ltd undertakes on its behalf.

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Concern at increase in UK Postwatch spending

Royal Mail is understood to be concerned at the rising expenditure at Postwatch, the consumer group. Accounts for Postwatch in the last financial year showed that Pounds 4 million was spent on staff costs; Pounds 1.7 million on council and secretarial expenses; Pounds 430,000 on networking, travel and subsistence; and Pounds 564,000 on office costs. Staff costs have risen from Pounds 2.7 million and the cost of “other administration” has jumped from Pounds 5.5 million to Pounds 6.2 million. Postwatch has also taken out leases of Pounds 1.65 million to cover the cost of IT and property, and has a deficit of Pounds 261,000. Royal Mail provides more than Pounds 10 million funding a year to Postwatch, but relations between the two have become acrimonious.

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