'We all rely on the Royal Mail': Minister acknowledges widespread 'concern' over plans to axe Saturday post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/royal-mail-s ... post-axed/

(2 videos at link can't embed here)



Culture secretary Lucy Frazer has admitted "we all rely on the Royal Mail" as Saturday post faces the chop.

Ofcom is set to outline how the service could be reformed, which could include ending end-of-week deliveries.

Formal proposals are due to be set out later this year, after a consultation.

Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, refused to condemn or support the plans with LBC's Nick Ferrari on Monday.

But she admitted customers will be nervous about weekend deliveries being culled.

"Many of my constituents will have concerns on that. I think Ofcom need to look at the results of that consultation very carefully," she said.

"This obviously isn't in my brief."

Pushed further on her views, she said: "I think many people will have concerns about that but I'm sure Ofcom will be looking at that very carefully.

"We all rely on the Royal Mail and that communication is really important.

"Everyone gets post and that post is incredibly important and everyone is always very concerned when services are taken away.

Read more: Saturday post could be scrapped as Ofcom paves way for Royal Mail to abolish six-days-a-week service

"I'm sure many people across the country will be having concerns about this."

A series of ideas will be set out by Ofcom and a 90-day consultation is set to be launched.

That will inform a concrete proposal later this year.

Small businesses rely on Royal Mail, FSB says

The potential axing of Saturday post is not the only option - an idea to replicate some European countries like Germany and Italy and delivering every other day could also feature.

Higher stamp prices, a government subsidy and changes to first class and second class delivery targets could follow, industry sources have said.

Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister who is responsible for post, said in June that there were no plans to change six day deliveries under the "Universal Service Obligation".

But as recently as last week, Martin Seidenberg, the boss of Royal Mail's owner International Distributions Services, warned MPs in a letter: "Delivering the current Universal Service requirements - in a financially sustainable way - is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to achieve as the mix and number of parcels and letters changes.

"The bar set by the regulations is unrealistic given the market realities."

There are also concerns about the quality of its service, with Ofcom saying late last year that the business - which was privatised in 2013 - was significantly failing to meet targets.

It is expected to deliver 93% of first class post within one working day of it being collected, while 98.5% of second class post is meant to within three working days.

Craig Beaumont, from the Federation of Small Businesses, told LBC: "It's not very thought through. It follows on from 19 days of Royal Mail strikes and that cyber hack that stopped them exporting.

"So it just feels like it's a deterioration.

"Don't forget about small businesses being customers to people and don't just think about this as households and 'oh well, everyone's moved to email'.

"That's not the case for small products and small businesses. The BPs and the large companies will use these big private providers, who are much more expensive, they work on mass runs - so this is a small business issue rather than a big business one."

[Whinealot]

Ahh! So, the government are concerned about loosing Saturday postal services. Maybe they should have thought about that when they (regardless of being a labour or Tory Govt) allowed DSA to put a clamp on the fortunes of RM. No other postal provider in Europe surrendered their network to be utilized by rivals to compete, i’m sure. The way things have been allowed to carry on by Ofcom and the govt is nothing short of a disgrace. Yes RM have tried and tried to reduce the USO to 5 days for a few years now and it seems only a threat of needing some kind of bail out to sustain it has miraculously seen Ofcom buckle. Instead of cutting the service to the public why not make DSA spongers pay for the shortfall needed?

[enskied]

OFCOM are utterly toothless and gullible with regards to RM.
Royal Mail has gone unchecked by the regulator from the day it was sold off. Fobbed off with "part failed duties." When they were in fact total failures, the boss just posted 30 houses on the delivery that's not going anywhere.

No scrutiny, no checks no bloody effort at all to regulate and hold management to account.

Now they have more to do regarding the BBC even less diligence will be paid to the mail. It's collusion really as there is no way that they are unaware.

This Cosy set up suits both parties.

[qwerty2]

Government done something good for once - saving some people’s jobs

[FilthyBloke]

Something needs to give.
The losses are not going away.

Id like to see how RM have worked out that going 5 days a week for mail will save then 300 odd million.

Personally I think once it becomes 5, it’ll only be a matter of time before its 4 or less. So it’s a slippery slope.

But equally, if the losses aren’t rectified, its not a healthy future either.

Personally I think the 6 day USO is outdated and not that relevant. But unless the top end management changes or at least changes its attitude any profits will just be filling the pockets of the few and not investing in the company.

[qwerty2]

The new CEO gives his reaction

[TopperGas]

Something needs to give.
The losses are not going away.

Id like to see how RM have worked out that going 5 days a week for mail will save then 300 odd million.

Personally I think once it becomes 5, it’ll only be a matter of time before its 4 or less. So it’s a slippery slope.

But equally, if the losses aren’t rectified, its not a healthy future either.

Personally I think the 6 day USO is outdated and not that relevant. But unless the top end management changes or at least changes its attitude any profits will just be filling the pockets of the few and not investing in the company.

Assuming the losses are genuine and not just clever accounting? How can the likes of DPD make decent profits doing more or less something very similar?

[matthew68]

Something needs to give.
The losses are not going away.

Id like to see how RM have worked out that going 5 days a week for mail will save then 300 odd million.

Personally I think once it becomes 5, it’ll only be a matter of time before its 4 or less. So it’s a slippery slope.

But equally, if the losses aren’t rectified, its not a healthy future either.

Personally I think the 6 day USO is outdated and not that relevant. But unless the top end management changes or at least changes its attitude any profits will just be filling the pockets of the few and not investing in the company.

Assuming the losses are genuine and not just clever accounting? How can the likes of DPD make decent profits doing more or less something very similar?

It’s not the same though as they don’t deliver mail to every address! Where they have one van covering half a post code we will have about 5

[Mr Rush]

Assuming the losses are genuine and not just clever accounting? How can the likes of DPD make decent profits doing more or less something very similar?

DPD slap on some heavy postage fees for the Isle of White and anything North of Stirling. Very much not a Universal Service.

It should be noted DPD is owned by La Poste, our French equivalents. I'd be interested to know if DPD profits are used to subsidise La Poste operations.

[Felipo]

I remember when Saturday was axed, pushed by the Union, briefly during COVID. I remember thinking that we would live to regret that.
There's a lot of good debate on this website. I think we all go in to the details too much at times. Which is understandable as it's our job and we have a lot of insight.
The broader situation we are all grappling with is that we can see a company infrastructure being slowly dismantled before our very own eyes by the week.
The CWU know it, we as posties know it, the public experience it, and politicians know that there are going to be a lot of Posties going to be out of work soon and they are doing their best to avoid their fingerprints being traceable to the storm about to happen.
Sorry to be negative but I'm sick of the awful atmosphere in my office. It is unbearable every day. Used work hard and have a good laugh until a few years ago. Now, everyone is miserable most of the time and it's tough to suck it up daily.
Just hope they offer VR with all the job losses that are coming.
All the best everyone!

[postslippete]

Something needs to give.
The losses are not going away.

Id like to see how RM have worked out that going 5 days a week for mail will save then 300 odd million.

Personally I think once it becomes 5, it’ll only be a matter of time before its 4 or less. So it’s a slippery slope.

But equally, if the losses aren’t rectified, its not a healthy future either.

Personally I think the 6 day USO is outdated and not that relevant. But unless the top end management changes or at least changes its attitude any profits will just be filling the pockets of the few and not investing in the company.

RM said that they didn't make any losses during the final quarter and it had its best Xmas for four years as IDS reported group revenues rose nearly 10% to £3.6 billion and that was expected to broadly offset the £169 million in the first half of the financial year.

Secondly, it's not Royal Mail that have worked out the savings by reducing Saturday letter deliveries. It was OfCom in 2020 who estimated that Royal Mail could make net cost savings of up to £225 per year by 2022/3 if they did this.

But I agree, RM are now desperate to get rid of the USO whichever way they can but time is running out because they don't expect to make record losses in future??

[TopperGas]

Where do you think OFCOM got those figures from if it wasn't RM, as how would they know RM's operating costs?

[Nickvilla20]

Something needs to give.
The losses are not going away.

Id like to see how RM have worked out that going 5 days a week for mail will save then 300 odd million.

Personally I think once it becomes 5, it’ll only be a matter of time before its 4 or less. So it’s a slippery slope.

But equally, if the losses aren’t rectified, its not a healthy future either.

Personally I think the 6 day USO is outdated and not that relevant. But unless the top end management changes or at least changes its attitude any profits will just be filling the pockets of the few and not investing in the company.

Assuming the losses are genuine and not just clever accounting? How can the likes of DPD make decent profits doing more or less something very similar?

It’s not the same though as they don’t deliver mail to every address! Where they have one van covering half a post code we will have about 5

I see three different DPD vans just on my walk alone. One in a EV delivering small parcels and two delivering all the other stuff.

[guardianangel]

Royal Mail are doing a right job of media spin now ,its in overdrive ,they took on the USO now they have to fund it with their profits from IDS,investors knew when they brought shares in this company about the USO and now try to change it to fill their pockets,will the government surrender to another big corporation,if the Tories are still in charge after the next election the odds favour the elites.

[postslippete]

Where do you think OFCOM got those figures from if it wasn't RM, as how would they know RM's operating costs?

OfCom does its own surveys on Royal Mail and I question how effective they are but all UK companies are required to disclose certain financial information through their annual reports and accounts to companies house, so anyone can actually view them. I've provided a link here.


https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/de ... RGR564G2FS


OfCom as a regulator will obviously go through those accounts and then give their recommendations.