Last ditch at Royal Mail: Government must step in to stop a trusted service fading into obscurity, ALEX BRUMMER

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/com ... -Mail.html

Royal Mail may now have a fancy new structure at the top, with the creation of International Distributions Service (IDS), but its difficulties remain the same.

It has a large, radicalised union workforce deeply resistant to changing working practices.

In contrast to the railways, which do have a future irrespective of union battles, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) is walking a tightrope.

The CWU wage demands and objections to modernisation come against a background of declining use for ‘snail mail’.

Each successive strike causes another bit of the market to be eroded. Software such as Docusign and Dropbox mean that professional services such as lawyers and accountants are no longer dependent on the post.

HMRC now communicates with us online and allows us to settle our bills in the same way. Receiving a greetings or post card is still valued but that too is migrating to digital brands such as Jacquie Lawson.

It would be a brave board of directors that put a postal service, with a heritage dating back to 1516, into administration.

Questions would be raised about the future of Parcelforce, the part of the group with a promising future. A major political headache could be the future of the pension fund, which has a crown guarantee.

The dramatic step of insolvency for privatised companies is not unknown.

The then Labour Transport Secretary Stephen Byers forced Railtrack into administration in 2001, leading to a long-running dispute with City institutions. It is hard to think of a Tory government allowing the same to happen.

The impact on the King’s head on our postage stamps doesn’t bear thinking about. And who is going to deliver formal invitations to the Coronation?

Administration would create a new series of problems. The future of IDS and the Royal Mail, in an age of internet shopping, has always been its European logistics offshoot GLS and Parcelforce.

Rishi Sunak and the Government need to step in and bang heads if one of Britain’s most trusted and valuable services is not to fade into obscurity.