New cross-party Parliamentary group

A new cross-party parliamentary group on rural services has been formed by MPs and Peers with an interest in the countryside. The All-Party Group on Rural Services has been formed at the initiative of 65 members of both Houses looking to champion the delivery of services in rural services, such as post offices, village schools and community hospitals.

The Group held its inaugural meeting this week, and has elected the following officers:

Chair: Philip Dunne MP (Conservative)

Vice Chair: David Drew MP (Labour)

Vice Chair: Dan Rogerson MP (Liberal Democrat)

Secretary: Baroness Byford (Conservative)

The group identified a series of issues it wished to address as part of its work programme. These include the future of the post office network. The group will, as a first step, inquire into and produce a report on the future of rural post offices, to include positive recommendations to encourage their viability.

Commenting on the formation of the group, its newly elected Chairman, Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, said:

‘This is an important time for the countryside, with the Government planning to close 2,500 post office, threats to community hospitals in rural areas and government funding formulae for local authorities favoring urban over rural areas. We will not be a talking shop, but a group with a clear commitment to recommend action on the issues that count in rural communities.'

Meet Joe Blog

Apparently Postwatch is not the only blogger on postal matters. In a feature today on people who blog about their work, the "Daily Mirror" mentions a blogging postman and you can check out his blog here.

Oh zone!

Postcomm has published the non-confidential responses to its consultation on Zonal Pricing. To get in the zone click on the link below to view the documents.

here

A question of compensation

As previously mentioned on the Postwatch blog, Postcomm are consulting on Royal Mail's Compensation Schemes. At the moment customers often find the various Schemes confusing and Postcomm are seeking to remedy this.

A number of ideas have come out of the discussions held on compensation, one of which is the suggestion that the first response from Royal Mail should be a no quibble offer of a book of twelve first class stamps. This would be offered to customers who did't have a certificate of posting, so removing this often difficult requirement from the first level of compensation. The book of stamps would be offered in the first instance for loss, damage and delay.

It would be really interesting to hear your views on this to feed into our response to the consultation, so please feel free to comment on the blog.

Strategically thinking…..

Postcomm has now published the responses to its Strategy Review. These are available to view on its website www.psc.gov.uk

There were 24 responses in total to the Review from a broad range of stakeholders including postal operators, stakeholder representative groups, local councils and businesses.

Collections and Deliveries

We have been monitoring the issue of final collection times on a national basis since January 2005 and welcomed the opportunity to respond to Postcomm’s recent consultation on this issue.

Key issues raised within the response were:

• We believe that Postcomm should have sought comment on the Post Office Network with regards to this consultation, as it is affected by final collection times. Postwatch considers it inappropriate to review collection and delivery times without first making an assessment of how changes to the post office network could impact on the ability of customers to access the postal service (particularly in rural areas).
  
  
• While the standards of service (on the percentage of next day delivery by 1st Class) has improved significantly over the past few years, and is now at an all time high, Postcomm’s consultation document reveals that consumers are suffering from a lessening level of service by Royal Mail, but are paying the same and in some cases owing to PiP, higher prices for such service. This is unacceptable.
  
  
• We believe it is important for customers to have a choice to respond to correspondence in the same day. Therefore, it is essential that collection times are later than delivery times. Both need to be protected, either through guaranteed limits on collection or delivery times or through regulation, forcing Royal Mail to give a specific window of time for each location.
  

The full document is available on our website at www.postwatch.co.uk

Customer alert

It has come to our attention that a number of people have been contacted by organisations claiming to be working in conjunction with Postwatch or on our behalf. Postwatch would like to reassure anyone that we NEVER ask for bank or credit card details over the telephone. Postwatch are not in partnership with any other organisation to offer customers services or products. If Postwatch undertake any research, customer permission will always be sought before passing on any contact details.

A competitive start to 2007

Following a relatively slow start competition in the UK mail market seems to be taking off. Already in 2007 two large contracts have been awarded to Royal Mail's competitors.

The Department for Work and Pensions awarded UK Mail a £12m contract to handle a third of its post. It is thought that this will lead to a saving of £1.7m a year.

BT have awarded the single biggest contract since the market was opened to TNT Post. The contract, worth £90m over 2 years, will see BT use TNT Post's Premier service and it is hoped it will offer valuable benefits to BT and their 25 million customers.

It is encouraging to see organisations considering all the options when awarding their mail contracts and these decisions hopefully herald the start of a truly competitive market

Croydon: The latest area to be hit by final collection time changes

In May 2006, Royal Mail changed the final collection times at hundreds of pillar boxes in the CR (Croydon) postcode area. In some cases, the final collection time was put back, allowing customers longer to post their letters. But in over 300 cases the collection times were brought forward, often by as much as an hour and 45 minutes.

From our correspondence with Royal Mail, it seems they have made these changes for operational reasons and to be consistent with their own collection specifications. However, it is clear that no account has been taken of what local customers want. We understand that Royal Mail want to make efficiency savings, but this should not be at the expense of customer service or without first taking account of what level of service is needed.

Postwatch has received complaints from residents’ associations in Croydon who feel the new times are too early, particularly now that Royal Mail tends to deliver mail later in the day.

Have you been affected by the changes to final collection times in Croydon or elsewhere? Please let us have your comments.

The future of postal services in Europe

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to open European Union postal markets fully to competition by 2009, in line with the agreed target date set out in the current Postal Directive.

Full market opening will mean that national operators will no longer have a monopoly on mail below a certain weight (currently a maximum of 50 grams). Member States will be allowed a flexible choice of means to finance universal service provision or the possibility to share out the universal service obligation between operators.

The proposal maintains the current universal service obligations of at least one delivery and collection, 5 days a week. The obligation to ensure affordability of postal services is maintained in the proposal, as is the possibility for Member States to impose a uniform tariff for single piece tariff items such as consumer mail.

Postwatch will be posting updates on this subject as and when anything of significance occurs.

Where is Postcomm going?

The postal regulator Postcomm has published for consultation its draft Business Plan for 2007/08. The 43-page document was made available on 20 December 2006 and is now available on-line here.

The document points out that:

"On 16 November of this year the DTI introduced a Bill entitled "The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill". The DTI proposes a three tier consumer representation model. It includes abolishing Postwatch and transferring many of its functions to a new consumer body, Consumer Voice, that would deal with research, advocacy and consumer education. A second element of the model, Consumer Direct, would be established to provide advice and deal with basic complaints. The third element proposed is a new redress scheme for consumers which would give the power to those responsible for the scheme to resolve every complaint. The timing and impact of these changes is uncertain. However, Postcomm has assumed for the purposes of this plan that there will be no requirement for it to undertake additional tasks. If this were to change, then it would no doubt require further resources."

This comment sits rather oddly with the statement in Postcomm's submission to DTI on the new proposals when it commented: "A well resourced Consumer Panel can provide effective, evidence-based advice and information to a regulator. If Postwatch is abolished then Postcomm would support the establishment of a Postal Services Panel."

Comments on the Draft Business Plan are requested by Postcomm by 20 March 2007. Postwatch will, of course, be submitting comments.

Stalled Direction

In early November 2006, Postwatch responded to Postcomm’s consultation on Royal Mail’s universal service obligation for delivery services. The Postwatch response expressed a number of areas of concern with the current Delivery Exceptions Direction, which was due to expire on 31st December 2006.

On 21st December 2006, Postcomm advised Postwatch that it would like to extend the current Direction by six months, until 30th June 2007. Postwatch strongly questioned whether the length of time is in the best interest of customers, and asked Postcomm to reconsider their proposed timetable. However, Postcomm has now advised that the current Direction issued in 2003 has been extended.