Mayor Boris urged to investigate private postal service

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Mayor Boris urged to investigate private postal service after reports of mail being dumped

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MAYOR of London Boris Johnson has been urged to investigate a controversial private postal service after a number of high-profile mishaps including an abandoned delivery bike in Bloomsbury.

Politicians on the London Assembly discussed concerns of a “poor quality service” provided by TNT Post.

Labour member Murad Qureshi told the committee: “We see an increasing number of cases of poor quality of service, including a large number of reports of TNT mail being dumped.”

Earlier this month concerns were raised after a TNT Post delivery bike carrying bags full of letters was abandoned in Little Russell Street.

Mr Qureshi said: “In central London you only have to look at the headlines of the West End Extra to see stories about postage bikes going missing with confidential mail in Bloomsbury.”

Residents in Maida Vale have reported TNT Post being dumped and Westminster North MP Karen Buck said: “If it wishes to be in competition with Royal Mail it has to provide a service that’s professional and at a level that users expect.”

Mr Qureshi called for Royal Mail to be brought back into public ownership after its privatisation last year. He said: “The increasing number of poor postal service cases, rising costs of delivery and unfair competition in the market has emphasised the need for government to bring the national postal service back into public ownership.”

Former deputy mayor of London Green Jenny Jones said the motion was “very timely and valid,” adding: “The botched privatisation of Royal Mail has opened the door to poor services from rivals, which could threaten a universal service. But I don’t want us to be in the business of regulating the market to protect a private monopoly. The only way to guarantee Londoners will be able to continue sending and receiving letters throughout the country at a single price is to bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership.”

A motion was passed, calling on the mayor to look at the private postal service and lobby the government to bring the service back into public ownership.

Opposing the motion, Conservative Richard Tracey said: “The Conservative Party very much follows, supports and indeed preaches the gospel of competition. We most certainly don’t wish to drag things into public ownership where there is no need for this.”

“If perchance there are some inequities or, indeed, some illegal practices going on the legislation has provided for a review of the practices of TNT or whoever else it is”

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post, said: “All postal operators operate under the same regulatory conditions on mail integrity when delivering mail and TNT Post adheres to and enforces the Mail Integrity Code. On the very rare occasions when an operative has failed to deliver mail we will take the necessary disciplinary action. Competition is the best news in years for the postal sector – we are creating quality jobs for thousands of people, many of them young or long-term unemployed who have changed their lives by working at TNT Post.”

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FORUM: After Vince Cable’s botched privatisation, is it time to take back our Royal Mail?

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RECENTLY, NW1 postcode residents like me were sent a letter by Royal Mail explaining, in a roundabout way, that our delivery service was going to be reduced and become less reliable.

This message does not bode well for the future considering it’s a central London postal district where we have plenty of business mail just less than a year after the privatisation of the Royal Mail.

Since the botched privatisation of the Royal Mail by Vince Cable, the postal service has become more expensive and service levels in London have dropped, through no fault of postal workers I hasten to add.

Postage costs were increased before privatisation, no doubt, to make the sell-off a more attractive proposition in the run-up to its initial public offering.

There was a further increase of a few pence on both first and second class mail in February of this year, so that in recent time we have had 20 per cent increase in price.

The prospect of future price rises also exists, as the service has the power to increase prices as much as it likes.

As for quality of the delivery service, the reality is that we are seeing a growing number of service providers like TNT who are being criticised for poor service, including reports of large amounts of mail dumped in central London neighbourhoods like Bloomsbury where TNT bicycles loaded with confidential letters were left unattended (see West End Extra July 4 report).

We have also had other cases in W9 and W10 delivery services with TNT again the culprit – and where the local MP Karen Buck has suggested they need to “get a grip” on things.

Poor service by others places even more pressure on the Royal Mail with much of the dumped or mis-delivered mail placed in Royal Mail post boxes for correct delivery.

The absence of standards for TNT and other competitors is undermining the overall quality of postal services and having a knock-on effect on universal postal services.

The universal “one price goes anywhere” postal service is an important one and

is made possible by the Royal Mail using its revenues from urban areas to cover the higher cost of delivery in rural areas.

The growth of direct delivery competition, particularly in urban centres like central London threatens the fundmental principles of cross subsidy at risk, threatening the viability of universal postal services and therebyhitting city people just as much as rural communities.

The loss of the universal service obligation would be disastrous for these communities.

The quality of the service in central London is also being affected as the direct deliveries cherry-pick the best bits of the Royal Mail, like the business traffic, and delivery service levels drop.

We should not forget the impact also on employ­ment standards with TNT employing people

on zero-hour contracts and below living wages and expect­ing to employ up to 20,000 in 2018 from its present 1,000 base.

This model of employment is replacing decent jobs with precarious employment on inadequate pay, putting a burden on public finances via benefit support and reduced income tax revenue.

Such reductions in terms and conditions are damaging not only to the people it employs but also the quality of postal services, making it even more difficult for the Royal Mail to deliver its performance targets.

One final word on the Royal Mail privatisation. At the time of its sale, some 70 per cent of a poll in The Sunday Times was against its privatisation.

The service has been in public ownership since the reign of Charles I and became a cherished national institution, suggesting many were happy with the service and its values.

However, last week the BIS Committee at the House of Commons reported that Vince Cable’s botched sale of the Royal Mail cost the taxpayer £1billion.

Now OFCOM have a statutory duty to protect the universal postal service over and above any competition considerations but, so far, have shown an unwillingness to step in.

If OFCOM are not minded to protect the principle of a universal postal service than maybe we should consider its return to public ownership?

The government still has a 30 per cent stake in Royal Mail, something to build on for full public ownership.