Mail Volume Continues To Lose To Internet

johnnyp · Post by **johnnyp** » 01 Sep 2008, 15:00

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 7&zoneid=3

01 September 2008 by Sarah Sharpe - © Hellmail.co.uk

The world is seeing a continual decline in mail volume through increased use of the internet, a global credit crisis, and rising fuel costs. Although postal operators have tried to stem the decline by delivering more advertising (direct marketing material), the decline is seemingly relentless and most postal operators are having to lay off workers or introduce more automation in order to combat losses.

The situation is a global one. Many operators are actually reporting losses in what were once profitable areas and mergers and buyouts are increasingly being seen as the only practical way to weather what appears to be continual decline. Whether you live in Bankok, London or Nevada, the issue is a problem for postal operators the world over. It takes seconds to send an email attachment from one side of the world to the other and it affects not just business mail but domestic mail too. The growth in the internet may be boosting revenue for parcel deliveries, but ordinary mail is dying on its feet.

In the UK, direct mail was at least helping to pay for the universal service but even junk mail has been in decline. Companies are seeing the internet as a more cost-effective way to reach consumers with more sophisticated online campaigns being developed. You only have to look at ventures by companies such as Phorm, which are now actively trying to get several UK ISPs to deliver targeted advertising based on logged user browsing habits. This would take advertising into a whole new area although it is also raising questions over what kind of information would be gathered from browsing habits. At this present moment in time, internet users appear to be against the idea, advertisers keen to buy into it. Whether the Phorm model is adopted or something similar, this is all having an impact on where advertisers decide to put their money.

Steve Lawson, editor for Hellmail, the European postal news site said:

"Royal Mail like every other operator, has been reporting a steady decline in volume every year and what it delivers today is nowhere near as profitable as it was some years ago. With competitors sorting mail themselves and using Royal Mail to deliver it via access agreements, Royal Mail would need to be seeing volume at least double in size just to maintain revenues as they once were. Mail volume is in annual decline and the world is becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet as it's communication tool of choice and whilst that continues, advertisers will continue to invest more in online advertising. For postal operators it will leave little left, other than parcels, that is really profitable. Mail volume is calculated not on weight but on mail that is actually making money. Sadly, much of it isn't making money at all."

© Hellmail.co.uk - Postal Industry News

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 01 Sep 2008, 23:05

Dougal ,the dog in the magic roundabout said
" What a load of bollocks. Florence might well text me when she fancies a quicky,but hell she was never going to send me a letter about it in the old days.Dylan and Zebedee are both techno heads sourcing their carrots and plus-gaz online,but hey ,when it comes to payment ,both are a bit concerned about ID fraud,and as for delivery, Dylan reckons virtual carrots leave him wanting.
Ermentrude is loaded but a complete technophobe and looking forward to the continent wide power outages"

Magic .Co Honest to Goodness Really true Factual and Accurate stuff. UK Pissed myself sorry

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 01 Sep 2008, 23:19

Meanwhile, Adam Brownshirt of the very big bank that stole your endowment ripped you off in charges and posted record profits and executive bonuses during the biggest downturn the world economy has ever seen Said "you thickos are lucky to have a job at this time,we pay you all that money even though everything is now done by e-mail. All you have left to deliver is stuff about broadband,ISP's, on line deals,connectivity,AOL,Amazon,WWW.sell everything direct in really awkward packaging.
I dont know why all these Ecompanies don't do their stuff online,shut up!"

Post by **baldrick** » 02 Sep 2008, 07:57

How come I'm not receiving all this targetted internet advertising then?
Perhaps I should switch off my spam filters - NOT!!

pinstripe · Post by **pinstripe** » 02 Sep 2008, 21:45

johnnyp wrote:http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 7&zoneid=3

01 September 2008 by Sarah Sharpe - © Hellmail.co.uk

Steve Lawson, editor for Hellmail, the European postal news site said:
.............

Mail volume is calculated not on weight but on mail that is actually making money. Sadly, much of it isn't making money at all.

© Hellmail.co.uk - Postal Industry News

So, does that explain the great "falling mail volumes" debate we have every few months? Reading that, it seems that it doesn't matter if the mail bags have double the number of letter in them, if they are DSA (which we are losing money on) then it doesn't count as mail. Or am I just thick?

Night Tonic · Post by **Night Tonic** » 02 Sep 2008, 21:59

We don't lose money on DSA. We don't make as much but we don't lose money

pinstripe · Post by **pinstripe** » 02 Sep 2008, 22:36

Night Tonic wrote:We don't lose money on DSA. We don't make as much but we don't lose money

I read a letter from my local MP, it was displayed on the union notice board, to the chairman of the Hooper Inquiry. In it he calls for a review of the prices for DSA. To paraphrase
"the more they deliver, the more they lose on it" The implication (as I can't reproduce an exact quote) is as he says, the price is too low, RM lose money on DSA and the bigger the contract ie. the more we deliver, then the more RM lose. To me that means that the more DSA we have to deliver, the more we lose.
I don't think that anyone can honestly think that RM charge our rivals an accurate price for delivering their mail, I'm pretty sure that the directors of TNT etc couldn't believe their luck when they got their 'discount' prices.
BTW I don't believe everything I read, nor everything I see on TV, I try to assess all the facts and arrange them in my mind and come to my own conclusions, and yes, if the 'facts' match up with my own ideas I tend to believe them, sometimes rightly, sometimes not. In this case I do believe that the DSA prices are to low and with further discounts for greater bulk postings, as is common in business (just go to Tesco, 2 for 1 etc) I can well believe that the income for some DSA is far below the actual cost incurred by RM to deliver it. Thereby it is loss making.

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 02 Sep 2008, 22:49

Night Tonic wrote:We don't lose money on DSA. We don't make as much but we don't lose money

Thats an odd thing to say,I thought RM's official accounts for the last year showed a £4o million loss on DSA business?
Still if as has been claimed DSA now accounts for 25% of mail but fails to appear in Traffic stats. it would explain the mysterious magical mountain of mail that spontaneously appears at DO's.

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 03 Sep 2008, 19:51

Night Tonic wrote:We don't lose money on DSA. We don't make as much but we don't lose money

Bulk postings of buisness mail used to subsidise the USO service!. The DSA companys will not undertake since it cost to much money to provide so if we do not make as much money as we used to do!. Are we now loseing money as we still have to provide a USO while not makeing as much money!. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNTING!. "Night Tonic" i suggest you go back to buisness school!.