Drop Royal Mail's universal service, says consultancy

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Royal Mail should be relieved of its universal service obligation, consultancy Transport Intelligence argues in a new report – European Mail 2010.

Instead, it argues that the government should contract mail delivery to a range of service providers who bid for regions on a “lowest-subsidy” basis.

The report says it is unrealistic to believe that Royal Mail has a sustainable future without some form of privatisation.

In exchange for the new investment which privatisation would bring, the workforce is likely to pay a high price in “efficiency savings”, it warns.

“Other postal services which have gone through this process, such as Deutsche Post, Sweden Post and New Zealand Post, have reduced headcount by between 40-50 per cent.”

Joel Ray, Ti’s head of consultancy, said: “Freeing the Royal Mail to access private capital is only part of the solution. It should also be unburdened of other political constraints such as the universal service obligation.”

It argues that the “lowest subsidy” model has been adopted successfully in Sweden.

“It also works well in the UK rail and bus markets to provide services to destinations which could not otherwise be covered. This would create a truly liberalised market which would benefit UK businesses and consumers.”

[stokes11eg]

Reduced head count by 40 -50%? Mind you ,if privatisation does come in, I can very well see it being sliced up into regional sections.

[dave-on-the-green]

as has been said before ,if the royal mail was allowed totally freedom to compete against the other courier companys it would not belong before all the others would give up and go away ,and the royal mailwould take more of the market share ,,,but this seems unreasonable it would seem ,,but for the companys or for the consumer???
never seems to matter whether the customer has a service or not ,long as these courier companys are protect from the royal mail ,
or maybe i do not understand the free market ,it works as long as it is subsidised by the tax payer!!

[POSTMAN]

You could always contact this twat and have your say...
jray@transportintelligence.com

[DGP1]

It also works well in the UK rail and bus markets to provide services to destinations which could not otherwise be covered. This would create a truly liberalised market which would benefit UK businesses and consumers.”

Does it?

Plus, do we get a subsity? I thought we used to pay money over to the government

[Phantom]

It also works well in the UK rail and bus markets to provide services to destinations which could not otherwise be covered. This would create a truly liberalised market which would benefit UK businesses and consumers.”

We already cover every address, if this worse case scenario ever came in then it would disastrous for residents and businesses. We've got some silly bastards making these decisions haven't we? jesus wept on a thousand virgins