Privatisation of the Post Office

[LewPaper]

I'm a little confused as to why anyone would want to invest in the Post Office at a time when their dividend would be so small, if anything, and being part of the minority shareholders, without the ability to do anything about it.

[Gromit]

The shares are not being offered to the public. In this instance, the term Privatisations means the Nationalised Post Office may go into partnership with a Private company.

The Post Office makes a profit and has a virtual monopoly which would be interesting to a Private Company.

[BertiWooster]

Virtual monopoly ?

Which parts of the postal business are not open to competetion then ?

[Lakitu]

.

[Gromit]

Royal Mail lost its monopoly on letters in 2005 after 350 years, but hardly anyone competes with them to deliver letters, so it is virtually a monopoly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/feb/18 /postalservice

[BertiWooster]

Depends what you consider as ' competing '

Other operators in the market do 'compete' in the letters sector -. just have a look at the envelopes that drops through your letterbox - you'll find a good percentage has a TNT or other , logo on it .

What TNT and other companies do is provide a postal services for business ( which afterall forms the greater percentage of mail sent ) ; where they will collect the mail from the Companies and deposit it into the Royal Mail postal delivery system - paying a fee to Royal Mail to deliver .
The operating cost to TNT thus is far lees that that of Royal Mail .

Added to that they 'cherry pick ' the profitable parts of the business . Afterall which company would want to compete for business , providing a postal service to the hebrides and other loctions ?

[ChuckFickens]

.

[BertiWooster]

. this is catching

[Haggisdj]

... _ _ _ ...

[rov1200]

If the post office goes private expect your stamp to exceed �1 per letter. Also restrictions on where delivered. Also fewer deliveries. Also less post boxes. Many late deliveries. Remember what happened when water was privatised?