Remember the postal strike?

[Postdog]

Well I know it annoyed a lot of people, including some people who thought it was over just money. In answer to some of the comments made on here at the time, I took the opportunity to give certain facts from inside the business, and one of the things I said then was that a big factor in the deterioation of the service was the opening up to competition, competition that wasn't on a level playing field, and more importantly, competition that did nothing for joe public. We inside saw this coming, and now fortunately, the powers that be are realising we weren't talking out of our backsides.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/06 /post.consumeraffairs?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfr ont

[BertiWooster]

I could never understand the reasoning behind the opening up of the UK postal business to foreign companies , without there being a reciprocol agreement for foreign markets to be subject to the same competition

The regulator , in my opinion should be sacked ( if he/she is still in post )

What has happened is that the likes of your DHL etc , have simply moved in and cherry picked the profitable parts of the market , without having to incur , the same capital costs that Royal Mail do .
For example they will collect mail for delivery - but simply deposit it with Royal Mail who then have to deliver it through your post box ( for a fraction of the cost that they would incur if they had to provide a service from collection to delivery )

Ask them to provided a universal Postal service , and see what they say .

How can The Royal Mail be expected to compete on such an un-level playing field ?

[sp1214]

If ever there was a case for a monopoly the Post Office fits the bill. But like the NHS is too big and unwieldy. The government should hand it over lock stock and barrel to its employees who would then have a vested interest in its survival.

[buildersmate]

In the free market, competition comes from anywhere - it doesn't have to be foreign. It just happens that TNT is Dutch and DHL are American.
The Uk has led the opening up of former state-owned industries to competition - BT, gas, water, electricity. Other nations in Europe have looked to us to see how to do it. Long may that continue.
In the privatisation of the electricity supplier industry, those that gained at first were the very large users of electricity - they were the first to be able to shop around - followed by medium-sized, then eventually domestic consumers. The price of domestic electricity has only just gone back past the price of pre-1990 levels. I was a consultant in that industry at the time whilst it improved productivity - there was a lot to improve, and prices fell dramatically.

I suggest that a similar thing will happen in Royal Mail. I agree that the Universal Charge is something that should not be tinkered with, but forcing change through these industries takes time. We aren't there yet.

[kev1]

This was the time when postmen ( the greedy barstuwards)were working 6 days a week in rain, snow.
for a fabulous wage of �12 a week

[DrFilth]

BertiWooster is right my postman has to deliver mail from these parasite companies.

[jake-the-peg]

The free market is a myth.

In reality all markets have rules and restrictions. A free market would allow insider trading, price fixing and all sorts of practices which would end up fleecing the consumer.

Some privatisations have been sucessfull and others not. Anyone who gets their water in London and travels on the railway network will tell you that.

The idea that a privatised industry is automatically better for the consumer is deeply flawed by the simple fact that they need to pay out to their shareholders.

Take the US health service, it costs the US 16% of their GDP compared to 8% that the NHS costs us and is ranked way below the NHS in world healthcare provision.

[Postdog]

Builders - having seen your posts, you know an awful lot of good stuff about your field, but you are wrong here.

For one thing, this "competition" is actually an EC led thing, supposedly to break the barriers within the community. Some countries have seen to their cost what privatising and opening up the mail does, and some countries - scheduled to go the same way as us - are having second thoughts about the viability.

That article said that the biggest failure concerns other firms delivering, and it will never happen - they haven't got the infrastructure to deal with that. It says in that about one firm wanting to do central urban deliveries 2 days a week. Yeah, well what about outer urban, rural, and even isolated - and 2 days a week!!. How is that better for joe public?

Less than ten years ago, Royal Mail made huge profits, it was a better service, 2 deliveries a day, we got paid OK because we were able to bump our money up with extra work, the company made money to sunsidise loss makers (counters) and the Government got a huge cut which added to the economy. Not now though.

And I have to disagree that some of the changes made in other industries are beneficial - I had a friend move and have no gas for a while simply because the supplier was in question - the one he had been with and wanted could do nothing as another supplier was contracted to supply that property. It's the same gas whoever is in charge - In the old days, you just got in touch with the local gas or electric board and that was that.

No, the rot in Royal Mail defragmentation needs to be stopped now, otherwise the next step is the end of daily deliveries, which will ultimately lead to the end of all deliveries.

[Gromit]

An efficient postal system is just as important to a very successful economy like ours as good transport infrastructure or an educated workforce.

However, the decline in the postal service has been met by apathy and indifference by the Labour Government. Privatisation is just an attempt at a quick fix, and continues the policy of the government doing nothing, and relying on market forces to mend things. It won't.

Coupled with government indifference, Royal Mail have probably the worst management in British Industry. They have failed miserably to compete with the private companies for bulk mail despite being in the best position to wipe the floor with them.

Satisfaction amongst domestic customers is at an all time low. Relations with the workforce is at an all time low. This, in a service which is crucial to the country.

What is needed is a government with clear objectives of what they want the postal system to do, and a clear policy of how get to that position. Handing over the easy and profitable bits to outsiders is madness.

When the profitable bits are no longer there to subsidise the domestic deliveries, do not be surprised to see the the postage for a letter double or triple in price.