So Whistl couldn't pick up all those postbags in its vans

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... royal-mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As fans of Postman Pat know well, usurping a regular postie and delivering letters to people’s homes is trickier than it looks.

This was a lesson learned repeatedly during series two of the children’s animated television show – especially episodes 26 and 27, where first Pat’s wife Sara tried to do his round for him, and then the rabid capitalists of Greendale attempted to modernise the workplace and send out a robot instead. Spoiler alert: Pat returned to work in episode 28.

Anyway, it is also a lesson now learned by upstart operators who supposedly fancied cherry-picking Royal Mail’s more lucrative markets by delivering mail to our doors. Last week, Royal Mail’s only real rival in this market, the ridiculously named Whistl, effectively abandoned plans to deliver to doorsteps after it couldn’t find anybody to fund its service.

The announcement was terrible news for 2,000 or so Whistl employees now facing the axe but, conversely, rather welcome for Royal Mail workers worried about their jobs, and for the firm’s owners, with the shares shooting up by 3.9%.

It was also nicely timed for the postal service’s annual meeting this week, although it all comes too late for Pat: he was dropped from Royal Mail marketing campaigns in 2000, as he no longer fitted its “corporate image”.