Royal Mail may not deliver to every home

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 24 Oct 2008, 15:45

http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/money/20 ... -20834839/

Royal Mail's vow to deliver to every home in Britain is under threat - despite the firm more than doubling its profits to £177million in the six months to September.

Bosses reckon it can't afford the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service and warned the pledge will be scrapped unless regulators give it more freedom to compete with rivals. One reason for the firm's bumper results was the Post Office going from a £7m loss to a £28m profit.

Bosses say this is due to its phone, web and other products, but it also comes as 2,500 branches are closed to cut costs - and despite it handling five million fewer items a day than two years ago.

not me · Post by **not me** » 24 Oct 2008, 16:20

its almost funny.after the "royal mail needs to modernise,we shouldnt be paying for it" yada yada we now get an "oh my god their making a profit" backlash

steviemac · Post by **steviemac** » 24 Oct 2008, 17:16

Well said custard, cannot win can we? At least making a loss makes us unattractive to potential suitors combined with pension deficit gave an odd sense of security. Locally all offices are expected to save 10%-15% next year AGAIN so that makes somewhere between 30%-45% savings over last 3 years.
If we keep making a profit how enthusiastically will regulator view our plea for a level playing field?

Big Daz · Post by **Big Daz** » 24 Oct 2008, 19:48

We have aggrement as part of our area phase 3 that once a pegasus revision or a revision meeting buissness has been introduced then the scope for savings is limited.

Rm HQ can go

if they want 5% from my delivery office!

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 24 Oct 2008, 20:15

The U.S.O is under threat by :mfo a politian of the lowest kind and the previous policy's of the minister for B.E.R.R (john hutton) but it is he :mfo who is now in charge!. The current state of affairs is unsustainable with the bleeding dry of royalmail by it's competitors death by a billion lashes (letter/item's)!. It is only now after the wrath of unbridled competition and it's greed for the few that the true damage can be seen for one and all!. A service lost in the mist's of profit and gloom and doom, it is only when something become's lost that it is so dearly missed by one and all and if fear is justified and it is how will we all communicate and send item's that cannot be emailed the competition that will deliver at a price!. What price anything they can get away with the free market economy at work service and profit do not go hand in hand it is one or the other that suffer's!. IT IS NOW THE TIME THE PUBLIC OF THE UNITED KINGDOM HAD IT SPELT OUT TO THEM ONE AND ALL!.

norbert · Post by **norbert** » 28 Oct 2008, 18:15

k979aaa wrote:The U.S.O is under threat by :mfo a politian of the lowest kind and the previous policy's of the minister for B.E.R.R (john hutton) but it is he :mfo who is now in charge!. The current state of affairs is unsustainable with the bleeding dry of royalmail by it's competitors death by a billion lashes (letter/item's)!. It is only now after the wrath of unbridled competition and it's greed for the few that the true damage can be seen for one and all!. A service lost in the mist's of profit and gloom and doom, it is only when something become's lost that it is so dearly missed by one and all and if fear is justified and it is how will we all communicate and send item's that cannot be emailed the competition that will deliver at a price!. What price anything they can get away with the free market economy at work service and profit do not go hand in hand it is one or the other that suffer's!. IT IS NOW THE TIME THE PUBLIC OF THE UNITED KINGDOM HAD IT SPELT OUT TO THEM ONE AND ALL!.

It's funny that originally :lfo said Postcon was a death from a thousand cuts - he always did talk a good job though

F0zziebear · Post by **F0zziebear** » 29 Oct 2008, 10:02

This was always coming. Why?

In the UK we are used to a high quality service (inspite of what some say). This includes delivering to every point. In many parts of the continent this is not the case. Most flats have letterboxes on the ground floor, some have delivery points in town centres etc. and many in rural areas do not have post boxes at their front door, but instead at the end of road. Now if this kind of USO was implemented the savings could be massive. I for one in previous roles would have agreed with this. However, it is those who can least afford to travel longer distances (e.g. down longer paths in rural areas, into town centres on public transport, down to the basement of large flats) who would be worst affected by such a change.

As noted before the quality of service stats for RM have improved under Adam and Al, but the goalpsots have shifted at the same time, so you are not comparing like for like. However, whilst we have an RPI -1% imposed on RM then savings will need to come from somewhere especially if volumes are declining.

I suspect it will only be a matter of time before we see communal letterboxes at the bottom of most flats, and the beginning of only delivering to a collection of letterboxes at the end of a road in rural areas. I suggest you start buying shares in companies who make these letterboxes.

norbert · Post by **norbert** » 29 Oct 2008, 10:45

F0zziebear wrote:This was always coming. Why?

In the UK we are used to a high quality service (inspite of what some say). This includes delivering to every point. In many parts of the continent this is not the case. Most flats have letterboxes on the ground floor, some have delivery points in town centres etc. and many in rural areas do not have post boxes at their front door, but instead at the end of road. Now if this kind of USO was implemented the savings could be massive. I for one in previous roles would have agreed with this. However, it is those who can least afford to travel longer distances (e.g. down longer paths in rural areas, into town centres on public transport, down to the basement of large flats) who would be worst affected by such a change.

As noted before the quality of service stats for RM have improved under Adam and Al, but the goalpsots have shifted at the same time, so you are not comparing like for like. However, whilst we have an RPI -1% imposed on RM then savings will need to come from somewhere especially if volumes are declining.

I suspect it will only be a matter of time before we see communal letterboxes at the bottom of most flats, and the beginning of only delivering to a collection of letterboxes at the end of a road in rural areas. I suggest you start buying shares in companies who make these letterboxes.

saw this coming - the Dutch TNT system is communal letter boxes in multi occupancy buildings - even :lfo said it's a Rolls Royce Service - unfortunately you can't run a Rolls Royce on Paraffin .

That's not to say I agree with it all before anyone jumps down my throat .

pickaname · Post by **pickaname** » 29 Oct 2008, 15:23

Scrap liberalisation and all is well. Why scrap the DSO just because X amount of companies cant sustain it due to having a small slice of the market. The postal service HAS to be controlled by one government controlled and subsidised unit, else there wont be enough cash to keep it alive.

Public service ahead of Market Forces thanks very much. Competition DOES NOT reduce prices for the customer.

Why is life so irritatingly complicated sometimes?