Guardian: Delivering changes How does Royal Mail compare with services around the world?

[iHateD2Ds]

Royal Mail is obliged to deliver post nationwide at a fixed price, six days a week, a rule its parent company’s chief executive last week said was ‘unsustainable’. He highlighted shifts in services across Europe

Royal Mail has been braced for the outcome of a five-month review by the communications industry regulator, Ofcom, today. The watchdog is poised to lay out a series of options for the future of deliveries, including the universal service obligation (USO), which mandates Royal Mail to deliver nationwide at a fixed price, six days a week.

Pre-empting the review, a row has already broken out over an expected option to cut Saturday letter deliveries. As recently as last year, Ofcom rejected the idea – which Royal Mail has pushed for. Industry sources claim a cut to a five-day service is the first step on a road to a three-day week, or alternate day service, or potentially relaxing delivery targets.

Last week, Martin Seidenberg, the chief executive of Royal Mail’s parent company, said the USO was “unsustainable” and highlighted shifts in postal services across Europe in a letter to MPs.

However, some industry experts say comparing different countries’ services is difficult – with widely different populations, geographies, rates of letter volume decline and approaches to how customers are charged for distances of delivery and weight of packages. Here is how some different counties are approaching their post.

France

A potential government subsidy to run the USO could be included in Ofcom’s review, and Seidenberg cited support in France in his letter. “The French government has granted a subsidy of €2.6bn between 2021-2025 for La Poste,” he wrote. In return, standard letters are delivered within three days against a target of 95% on time. Last year, the timbre rouge, a red stamp guaranteeing next day delivery, was replaced by a fiddly digital equivalent. A turquoise “services plus” now offers tracked delivery within two days, and compensation for late arrival.

Denmark

The Scandinavian nation has been arguably the most bullish in Europe in paring back its postal service, driven in part by a desire to reduce paper waste. Standard deliveries were first taken down to just one a week in 2016 and, as of this month, the requirement for a single firm to handle a universal service has been ditched. Instead, several operators now offer a set price for letters and parcels nationwide. Exceptions have been made for visually impaired people, those on small islands and international mail.

Italy

The Italian government has allowed its postal service to be reduced significantly, with the introduction of an alternate-day delivery service and a target of 80% of deliveries arriving within one, two or three days depending on the region. A four-year, €1.3bn state subsidy for Poste Italiane reaches its final year this year. Meanwhile, Post Italiane’s 15-year remit to deliver to residents throughout Italy ends in 2026.

The company, which began serving Italians in 1862, has argued that the “structural decline” in the letters market brought by digital communications continues, although the plunge seen during the Covid pandemic has subsided.

A nascent project to implement “smart letter boxes” - with a screen and a detector to sense if there is mail inside – is ongoing.

Germany

Deutsche Post has the universal service mandate in Germany, meaning it delivers nationwide while its competitors can pick and chose where to deliver, albeit while paying a sales tax.

A recent change to legislation, previously updated in the 1990s, last year recommitted to a six-day-a-week letter service, but reduced the standard letter service from delivery within a day to three days. It also allowed a new next-day “premium” service to be introduced.

Spain

The state owned Sociedad Estatal de Correos y Telégrafos, which started life in 1716, handles mail in Spain, and shares responsibilities for delivering to Andorra with France.

Rates differ by region – for example, those on the Canary Islands pay more. In January 2020 Correos was awarded €1.28bn for delivering the universal service over the previous decade. In 2017, a post office in rural Zamora went viral after it emerged it opened for only 15 minutes a day (11.15am to 11.30am) because there was so little postal traffic in the area.

Australia

In a nation of 25 million people spread across 3 million sq miles, debate over the future of Australia Post has been raging for some time, amid speculation over further privatisation of the postal service. Last month, the government announced that daily letter deliveries would be phased out across six locations.

Parcels will be delivered five days a week, whereas letter deliveries will now be spaced out, occurring every second or third day. Australians are expected to receive a average of less than one letter each week by 2032.

Guardian News Wednesday 24th January 2024

[mark.cup]

Everyone else is Sh#T so let's copy them brilliant logic

[enskied]

And the £Millions saved will be paid directly to shareholders.