WILL PRIVATISATION STAMP OUT THE UNIVERSAL POSTIE?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/311 ... al-postie-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FREE at last of the State’s shackles, Royal Mail flexes its muscles and prepares itself for the journey towards the brave new world of independence. The Government believes privatisation will be the making of it. Others are not so sure.

Royal Mail still has obligations to its customers and most problematic of these is what once made it a shining example of how a postal service should operate: the universal service obligation (USO), the requirement to deliver to every address in the UK once a day, six days a week for the same price. It increasingly seems an albatross around its neck.

Royal Mail has lost hundreds of millions of pounds meeting the ­universal guarantee over the past three years. These losses have been borne by the taxpayer, not an option when it is privatised. There are growing concerns that, far from ­enabling Royal Mail as the Government hopes, putting it in private hands will end the USO.

Ministers and Royal Mail’s regulator Ofcom have issued assurances that the universal service is safe in their hands but how much faith can we have in their promises? Recent events give a clue as to how a privatised Royal Mail might pan out.

The number of mail items Royal Mail handles per day is falling rapidly. It was at its peak in 2005 when it delivered 84 million items every day.

Then it was deregulated and ­private mail companies could ­compete and cherry-pick the most profitable routes. At the time, the Government was making much the same predictions for deregulation as it is now for privatisation.

Nigel Stapleton, chairman of the then-regulator Postcomm, said: “We can now look forward to a more innovative and efficient postal industry focused on providing customers with the services they want, rather than being told by a monopolist what services they can and cannot have. The decision gives customers a real choice and increases the pressure on Royal Mail to raise its game and take on the competition.”


The reality turned out rather ­differently. Far from being set free, Royal Mail became more and more encumbered. The volume of mail it handled declined dramatically as private operators took bites out of its most profitable routes and the public turned their back on mail in favour of emails, texts and other forms of electronic communication.

Chief executive Moya Greene admits it is now “balance sheet insolvent” with the letters and parcels business losing £120million a year.

The price of a first class stamp rose to 46p, a 40 per cent increase in 10 years, as mail volumes shrank ­dramatically. In the past four years it has made a loss on its core mail of almost £1billion. Volumes have fallen 25 per cent in the six years since deregulation and are expected to decline about five per cent a year for the foreseeable future. Since 2002 42,000 jobs have disappeared and up to 20,000 more staff face the axe.

Royal Mail has decided to impose a 30 per cent increase in the price of first class stamps from 46p to 60p and a rise of 14p to 50p for second class mail. It says the hefty rises are inevitable while critics warn a two-tier mail system will be created, effectively undermining the USO.

The Forum of ­Private Business warned last week’s price rise would lead “almost ­inevitably” to a two-tier mail system with first class charges becoming unaffordable for many small firms. “We think these changes are bad for business and will ultimately cost small firms, the bread and butter users of the postal service, far more to send items via First and to a lesser extent Second Class in the years ahead,” said the forum’s chief executive, Phil Orford. “It will also result in a postal system where the bulk of all post will eventually be sent Second Class.

“There are also implications for rural areas where delivery times are ­usually that bit longer.

“There will always be those customers desperate to get a parcel from A to B in a hurry and for them there will be few options but to pay out what will no doubt rapidly become exorbitant prices.

“By adopting a ‘sky’s the limit’ mentality for first class mail, there is a danger it will become a cash cow. The quickest way for the Royal Mail to decline further is by pricing businesses out of their service.”

The obligation to deliver everywhere every working day is likely to be a hindrance to the sale of Royal Mail. Potential buyers are likely to want the rules relaxed and if RM’s alarming decline continues, can the Government resist?

Analysis of clauses in the Postal Services Bill showed the USO could be scaled back if the cost of meeting it became too great. The regulator will have to decide if the guarantee places an “unfair” burden on Royal Mail. The Bill also said Ofcom could “from time to time review” the extent to which the terms of the ­universal service provision “reflect the ­reasonable needs of the users of postal services”.

British and European law differ on the issue. EU legislation defines ­universal obligation as one delivery and one collection nationwide per working day, which is interpreted as five days a week not six, with no requirement for cost to be uniform. Some analysts wonder if ministers might fall back on the EU version of universal service.

Other privatisations have not gone well. Holland, the first country in the world to privatise its post in 1989, has seen the closure of about 90 per cent of post offices. Its post boxes are emptied only once a day (in Britain there are sometimes three collections a day) and deliveries may be cut from six days a week to three.

The United States Postal Service, a private corporation with no ­government subsidy, faces losses of more than £5billion for the second year in a row. So our cherished notion of universal postal service could soon be only as universal as the economics of the 21st century allow.

[NWpostie]

The solution is easy, scrap the whole thing and go back to our pre 2005 position, customers want stability and simplicity along with a reliable post service with first letter posted before going to work, price by weight not by proportion, a company lives and dies by customers service.

[Cut Off King]

Stamping out ( no pun intended ) RM has been the stated aim of the CON / LIB / LAB goverments for a while now, we're just at the end game now.

Only thing I find frustrating is that the CWU was happy to give funding to LAB , dispite its intended aim of destroying us

It will all be over soon.

[NWpostie]

Sadly you are right, it is politically motivated.

When I started I was told I had a job for life, secure pension, free afternoons, easy enough work, it was actually quite fun and I was proud to work for Royal Mail, the job was a doddle,
you were your own boss and left to get on with the job without interference from the Management who were Posties themselves, the was genuine customer service ethos, now job security has gone,
our pension was under threat until it has been taken over by the Government giving it a secure foundation, the work is worse than purgatory, bullying and intimation went through the roof,
every Jack and Harry backstabbing each other in the back, its not the job I joined up for and I would not advise a young person to think about joining up, get a job elsewhere with more of a
future, this job is gone.

The Government tried to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place, we have Crozier to thank for that, everything he touches turns to sh1t.

[Yan Panik]

Mr C seems to be doing rather well though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 01161.html

[NWpostie]

He is doing well for himself the cvnt

[Bernardson]

Sadly you are right, it is politically motivated.

When I started I was told I had a job for life, secure pension, free afternoons, easy enough work, it was actually quite fun and I was proud to work for Royal Mail, the job was a doddle,
you were your own boss and left to get on with the job without interference from the Management who were Posties themselves, the was genuine customer service ethos, now job security has gone,
our pension was under threat until it has been taken over by the Government giving it a secure foundation, the work is worse than purgatory, bullying and intimation went through the roof,
every Jack and Harry backstabbing each other in the back, its not the job I joined up for and I would not advise a young person to think about joining up, get a job elsewhere with more of a
future, this job is gone.

The Government tried to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place, we have Crozier to thank for that, everything he touches turns to sh1t.

That's exactly how I feel.
You must have started in the job at about the same time as me then.
Was it the late 80's ?

[DirtyHarry]

Mr C seems to be doing rather well though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 01161.html

Makes me very angry, whenever I see thieves like Crozier continuously trousering £millions for their nefarious actions.
If there was any justice at all, rubbish like Adam Crozier would just drop dead instantly.

[NWpostie]

Sadly you are right, it is politically motivated.

When I started I was told I had a job for life, secure pension, free afternoons, easy enough work, it was actually quite fun and I was proud to work for Royal Mail, the job was a doddle,
you were your own boss and left to get on with the job without interference from the Management who were Posties themselves, the was genuine customer service ethos, now job security has gone,
our pension was under threat until it has been taken over by the Government giving it a secure foundation, the work is worse than purgatory, bullying and intimation went through the roof,
every Jack and Harry backstabbing each other in the back, its not the job I joined up for and I would not advise a young person to think about joining up, get a job elsewhere with more of a
future, this job is gone.

The Government tried to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place, we have Crozier to thank for that, everything he touches turns to sh1t.

That's exactly how I feel.
You must have started in the job at about the same time as me then.
Was it the late 80's ?

Yes late 80s when it was brillliant, I look back on 1980s to 1997 as the Golden age of Royal Mail.