I hate to say it, but only privatisation can save our postme

[POSTMAN]

Ok,read the below,and don't tell me this bloke aint a pratt!

A saga involving an eBay parcel revealed what's wrong with Royal Mail, says Andrew Gilligan.

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We columnists are far too fond of flaming up experiences from our own little lives into grand, sweeping lessons for the state, the nation, indeed all humanity. But bear with me, while I explain how the saga of my eBay parcel made me a reluctant convert to Royal Mail privatisation.

The only people who write to me these days are the government, those "Dear Householder" guys offering unparalleled deals on new broadband, and, occasionally my mother. I'm not alone; in the broadband age, unparalleled deals or not, mail volumes have fallen 15 per cent in the last five years.

One glimmer of hope, however, is parcel traffic. With online shopping, it's steadily growing; and each item is, or should be, worth far more to the Royal Mail than delivering a letter. But the organisation, as presently constituted, isn't up to the job.

Because he no longer delivers at breakfast time, you'll probably be at work when the postman rings the bell. So having schlepped your parcel expensively to your door, they then have to spend time filling out the little card telling you to collect it from the sorting office, then schlep it expensively right back there.

When you get home, you find the card. Unfortunately, however, at least in my part of London, it also tells you that the only times to pick up your parcel are between 8am and lunch – when you'll probably be at work again. It might be all right if you could pop in on the way – but a few years ago, my local sorting office was moved to a distant industrial estate, a half-hour expedition from my house.

In an age when the money's in parcels, Royal Mail is still operating a system designed for letters: a system that wastes our time and, perhaps more importantly for the bottom line, theirs. Rival parcels carriers are offering guaranteed delivery times, and scooping up the business.

Online shopping has been big for five or six years now. A more entrepreneurial and liberated Royal Mail would have addressed this problem. It could deliver parcels in the evenings. It could set up collection points in local shops. It could sell us lockable drop boxes to put in our porches. They could even open the sorting offices at times when people with jobs can visit (to be fair, it has just extended the hours at my local office to 8pm, one day a week.)

A more entrepreneurial and liberated Royal Mail might also use its unparalleled network to muscle into other growth areas – the home-grocery deliveries market, perhaps; or to revive declining areas, such as deliveries of milk and newspapers (an alliance that might even help pay for the restoration of breakfast time post.) Or it could get the Ocado man to deliver your parcel. The world is full of possibilities.

I feel bad about supporting this privatisation. In a world where the brash, ugly and shoddy names of sold-off services – First Capital Connect, Powergen, Arriva London North – reflect the brash, ugly and shoddy service they provide, the plain old Royal Mail remains defiantly public, defiantly unflashy, defiantly solid and useful. Even in decline it reminds us of the days when we were proud of our public realm and believed it marked us out from other nations, of the days when British public services had crowns and crests rather than crappy logos, manipulated performance targets and lying slogans in lower-case letters.

But the current Royal Mail has a shrinking core business, huge capital investment needs, scary pension liabilities and a workforce that still doesn't quite understand the hole they're in.

Those, me included, who once opposed its privatisation have only done it a disservice. Even in the year since the last attempt was abandoned, its market share has fallen – and though progress has been made with both modernisation and industrial relations, the letter service's losses have grown.

The current Royal Mail has, in some ways, the worst of both worlds: it is obliged, by the regulator, to allow commercial rivals access to its network, while not itself being commercially free enough to invest or compete against them.

The plan should be for greater deregulation in competitive growth areas, such as parcels and bulk mail. That should, with a more entrepreneurial and better-capitalised Royal Mail, earn it more money to support its loss-making "universal" one-price-any-distance service. At the same time, regulation should still prevent competitors cherry-picking the profitable parts of that universal service.

Protecting the universal service is the key; and I, and many others, will be watching. But privatisation could be the only way to save that service, and some at least of the Royal Mail we now know.

[DGP1]

Do I have to say it...............................it rhymes with walker and he is one

[BELIAL]

Torygraph ,what do you expect Read the first line then knew i had to skip to the las t line ,guess what,I knew it was coming

[Big Daz]

We just cant win can we, mail at breakfast time and we get hammered about are costs. Cant have both!!!

56 mph european directive
double decker trailers
night shifts gone
Automation (Walksorted mail often arrives at 6.45 at my D.O) (Sequenced mail will arrive later)

[Lounge Lizard]

"it also tells you that the only times to pick up your parcel are between 8am and lunch"- I thought most were till about 5am, but now extended to 8pm one night a week, and later on Saturdays too but that would spoil his story

[Roy Mayall]

What I don't get is why people from RMC don't leave comments on these stories. We should let them know what we think.

[britwrit]

Come on, he already feels bad. Didn't you read that? Any negative comments would really hurt his feelings.

[G O Root]

What kind of word is Schlep?. Think this blokes a 'schlep' to be honest. He mentions lockable parcel boxes, they are out there if he could be bothered to look. He says privatisation would save the USO. Mmmm... . As someone said , what can we expect from the Torygraph

[barbario]

But its managements idea to deliver everything later because its now just one delivery a day.

[Stormproof]

Read the first four paragraphs (thats 15 seconds of my life wasted) and could'nt be bothered to read the rest.

[DirtyHarry]

There needs to be a purge in this country of people like Gilligan, too many of 'em in positions of influence, and make no mistake, an idiot like Gilligan will influence people through mediums like his crappy blog/column.

[Straight4ward]

He ain't very bright, is he?

He clearly knows that the item is likely to be delivered during the hours that he is at work and all the inconvenience that will subsequently cause him .

So, stating the bleedin' obvious, why doesn't he have it delivered to his place of work?

What a pillock!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

He ain't very bright, is he?

He clearly knows that the item is likely to be delivered during the hours that he is at work and all the inconvenience that will subsequently cause him .

So, stating the bleedin' obvious, why doesn't he have it delivered to his place of work?

What a pillock!

Who suggested that

[Tman]

[

So, stating the bleedin' obvious, why doesn't he have it delivered to his place of work?

Also stating the bleedin' obvious, he's a journo and probably works from home from when he's not out and about, so hasn't got a steady deliverable-to place of work.
He's right about one thing though; callers offices' opening times are crap, and that was one area where RM/Parcelforce could have proved to be far better than the other courier firms, if they'd used their collective brains.

[Dorset Plodder]

It's a fact of life that you only ever hear about the complaints I expect we all know examples of Posties that have put them selves out to make sure someone gets their parcel?

Recently I'd finished doing a Parcels Run (dropping of the Packets too big for the bikes) and went straight onto a Collections Schedule. I noticed I'd forgotten to deliver a parcel so dropped it off as I went past the house later on. It was nearly 1800 but the guy was chuffed to get his parcel.

Unfortunately I don't think he's got a Blog or writes for a National Paper