Think again about the postal strike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 887978.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How tempting it is to lay into the postmen. There is nothing like the sight of bolshie men standing around the braziers à la Winter of Discontent to get one’s free-market juices running. I can almost feel myself rumbling inside with the urge to say: sack the lot and get some Poles to do the job for half the price.

But for some reason I can’t quite get the words out. I look at the postmen and I think, yes, of course they are a lazy bunch of good-for- nowts who knock off early and get upset when managers try to get them to do the job for which they are paid. Yes, of course they think the world owes them a living when most of us would rather communicate by e-mail.

But isn’t it just a bit ridiculous that we are expecting them to provide a profitable service when they are competing against private companies not bound by law to convey a letter to the Outer Hebrides for the same price as they deliver one around the corner in London?

When postal services were deregulated in 2006 I was full of hope. Finally, I thought, the Royal Mail would have competition and we would no longer have to put up with Auntie Mavis’s Christmas present turning up torn and broken in the second week of January. Then came the realisation that all these sleek courier firms competing for business would be under no obligation to offer the universal service that the Royal Mail is forced to provide.


Result: private firms cherry-pick the most profitable parts of the postal market — such as delivering business letters in Central London — and leave the Royal Mail to deliver post to farmsteads on the Isle of Lewis, where delivery costs hugely outweigh the price of the stamp.

How different the Royal Mail’s fortunes would be if its strategists could decide tomorrow to wind up operations north of Glasgow and west of Plymouth. Not profitable, they would say; let’s concentrate on our core market in the cities. In a flash, stamp prices could be slashed and the Royal Mail could win back some of the business it has lost.

The only problem is that several million Britons would have no postal service, other than by courier at £20 or so a letter. The concept of a universal post service that has existed since the 1840s would be broken. Unless we want to condemn sparsely populated areas to economic death, one of two things must happen. Either the Royal Mail should be recognised as a social service and cross-subsidised from a tax on other postal providers. Or anyone offering postal services must be obliged to accept, for the same price, a letter posted to anywhere in the United Kingdom. I’m for having a go at solution number two, unless anyone has a brighter idea.

[westlondonpostie]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 887978.ece

How tempting it is to lay into the postmen. There is nothing like the sight of bolshie men standing around the braziers à la Winter of Discontent to get one’s free-market juices running. I can almost feel myself rumbling inside with the urge to say: sack the lot and get some Poles to do the job for half the price.

But for some reason I can’t quite get the words out. I look at the postmen and I think, yes, of course they are a lazy bunch of good-for- nowts who knock off early and get upset when managers try to get them to do the job for which they are paid. Yes, of course they think the world owes them a living when most of us would rather communicate by e-mail.

Bit strong for someone who works from a laptop!!!

[banner18]

Come and give the job a go for a day, pen pushing sod.
At least he does make some relevant points....

[robmacca]

Some good points raised, hopefully more of the public will begin to understand why RM is in this mess.
The rules governing competition HAVE got to change or the Universal Service WILL end.

[kingtubby]

I thought that was a pretty fair article, tbh