Wiping out the pension deficit

[Eric]

My simple solution to wiping out our pension deficit is to increase the price we charge to deliver downstream access mail by 10 pence per item. Based on the Royal Mail's figure of 75 million items delivered daily and assuming 50% of that figure is DSA (a conservative estimate if my mail is anything to go by) that would generate £3.75 million A DAY extra profit for Royal Mail which equates to well over a billion pounds a year.

Why not? The man in the street would not be directly affected because the price of ordinary stamps would stay the same. The likes of DHL and TNT would bleat but they could always set up there own "final mile" service. They wouldn't because the 10 pence surcharge would only apply for 5-7 years (ie as long as it takes to clear the pension deficit) and it would take that long for them to set up a nationwide service. If they start delivering in intensively populated areas we might have to introduce zonal pricing and start charging them 20 pence to deliver to remote areas!

With the extra billion plus a year the pension deficit could soon be cleared and there might even be enough left over to improve the working conditions of the average postman and woman. Perhaps with those sort of additional revenues the obsession with "modernisation" would disappear.

Sorry, this is turning into War and Peace... but what do you think? At least let us hear Dave Ward go on national television and say this is our proposal and let the government come back to say no we won't do it because it will upset our pals at TNT. Time the general public were made aware of the travesty which is DSA.

[fmrPOSTIE]

Wasn't there a plan to increase DSA prices? (was it in the Postal Services Bill?)

What gets on my tits is that Higson said basically that due to the CWU, as he put it, and the Govt deciding they didnt want to go ahead with the Bill Royal Mail has to suffer now as there is no resolution for the pension plan, he's basically holding posties and the CWU to ransom.

Why shouldn' there be a plan for the pension pot regardless of ownership, just goes to show what sort of a bloke he is.

[headscrewedon]

I still firmly believe that getting Mandelson's plan for part-privatisation knocked back will prove a very expensive 'victory' in the longer term. Why ? Because once all the 50,000 job cuts have gone through (saving RM upwards of £800m a year in wages), the business will be 100% privatised by a Tory government. Might have been better to let Mandelson have his way, because he won't find a buyer at the moment anyway, and we would at least have had the pension fund sorted & the regulator removed

[belle smith]

The pension fund will get sorted, the goverment will take on the deficit. I know they are saying otherwise but it's a bluff. Irrespective of whats in our best intrest this is in their best intrest.

[Big Daz]

A further amendment was added which required Ofcom to "report on the cost of fulfilling the universal service obligation (collecting and delivering mail six days per week at a uniform price)" and also giving Ofcom "powers to ensure that the price other postal operators are charged by Royal Mail to access its network, including delivery over the final mile, properly reflect those costs."

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