Postcomm agrees to Royal Mail stopping Sunday collections

Postcomm has published its agreement to Royal Mail’s request to stop collecting post from post boxes and businesses on Sundays and Bank Holidays. The document is available here.

The agreement is subject to several customer safeguards which Postwatch suggested, and which have been agreed by Royal Mail:

- Royal Mail will communicate the changes to customers, through placing notices on postboxes and at Crown post offices where Sunday/bank holidays collections take place, as well as contacting the 50 businesses that currently receive a tailored Sunday collection service.

- Collection plate information will be amended.

- Post boxes in areas of high usage will be monitored and emptied if there is a risk of overflowing.

Postwatch accepts that some customers will be inconvenienced by the change. However, given the low volumes of Sunday collections and the relatively high cost of the service, on balance, we believe this move is justified, insofar as it will help reduce Royal Mail’s costs and ensure the universal service continues to be delivered at an affordable price.

To inform our position, Postwatch commissioned research to investigate the customer need for Sunday collections. 68 percent of respondents said they used the service either ‘very seldom’ or ‘never’. Our research is available here.

Strategy Review document published

Postcomm, the postal regulator, has published emerging findings of its strategy review.

The document, which has a deadline for responses of 26 November Postwatch, is available here.

Postwatch will take its time considering the substance of the report, and our response will be published on our website. One immediate comment is that we welcome the regulator’s confirmation that the universal postal service is in a healthy state and there is no need at the moment to consider how it could be alternatively funded. We are also pleased Postcomm has highlighted the need for Royal Mail to address its costs, and for the mail industry as a whole to put more energy into producing innovative solutions to attract and retain customers.

On the downside, it is disappointing that post offices are not considered in the report. The network plays an integral role in providing access to parts of the universal postal service. Ignoring this results in an incomplete picture of the issue.

Timetable for consultations on post office closures published

Post Office Ltd has released details on its website of when it will consult locally throughout the UK on post office closures. Go here for more information.

The Government has decided that up to 2,500 closures will take place in 2008. To that end, Post Office Ltd will divide the UK into about 50 ‘area plans’. Each area plan will be made up of a number of parliamentary constituencies and be subject to six weeks public consultation. The first public consultation –covering Kent – starts on 17 September 2007.

This is a major change - every parliamentary constituency in the UK will be affected – and it is important that customers engage in the process. Find out when Post Office Ltd will bring forward proposals in your area; then, when public consultation is underway, look out for more information at branches, or contact Post Office Ltd.

PiP - One Year On

It is now a full year since the new pricing system, Pricing in Proportion (PiP), was introduced. On the whole customers seem to have adapted to the new system very well with a few problems occuring in relation to poor advice at post office counters and items being incorrectly held at delivery offices due to underpayment.

If you have any experiences, good or bad, on the new system then we would love to hear from you.

New Postwatch Website

Our new website is now live!

This is something we've been working on for a little while so naturally we are somewhat excited to see it all live. There are a few kinks that are being ironed out at the moment but those shall be rectified soon. Please take a look, and do let us know your thoughts/comments.

Royal Mail accounts - at last

At long last, Royal Mail has published its regulatory accounts for 2006/07. You can check these out here.

This is not an easy document to understand, so here are some headline figures:

• First class stamps made a loss of £71M compared to a loss of £128M in the previous year – so a significant improvement in performance but still a sizable loss
  
• Second class stamps made a loss of £114M compared to a loss of £115M in the previous year – so no change and still major losses
  
• First & second class meters made a profit of £116M compared to a profit of £203M in the previous year – so a large drop in profitability
  
• First & second class postage paid impressions (PPI) made a profit of £51M compared to a profit of £82M the previous year – so another fall in profitability.
  
• Mailsort, Cleanmail & Walksort made a loss of £61M compared to a profit of £48M the previous year – so another reverse.
  
• Downstream access made a loss of £44M compared to a loss of £14M the previous year – this is because of volumes more than doubling to over 2.4 billion items.
  
• Other products made a profit of £111M compared to a profit of £121M the previous year – again a reverse.

Combining all the product groups in the price controlled area, for 2006/07 Royal Mail made a loss of £12M compared to profit of £197M the previous year – a significant reverse in fortunes.

Industrial action to go ahead in Crown Post Offices

Industrial action is scheduled to take place at crown post offices at the following times:

Friday 10th August, from 2.30pm until close of business
Monday 13th August, from 2.30pm until close of business
Wednesday 15th August, from 3.30pm until close of business

Postal strike suspended

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has suspended the industrial action involving mail workers that was scheduled to start today. The CWU and Royal Mail will meet for talks to seek a resolution to the dispute.

Postwatch welcomes this news, and hopes both sides will be able to reach an agreement. Customers should be aware that a normal delivery service will not resume immediately, as staff work to clear the backlog of mail caused by the strikes.

Regulator proposes 2nd class stamp price rise

Postcomm, the postal regulator, has proposed to allow Royal Mail to raise the price of 2nd class stamps to 29 pence in April 2009. 2nd class stamps currently cost 24 pence.

Price rises are never good news for customers, and Postwatch will be asking the regulator to justify its proposal. We believe the priority should not be allowing Royal Mail to impose further inflation-busting price hikes, but exploring ways to make efficiency gains.

Another 14 months for Postwatch

Ministers at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) have today agreed a date for establishing the new National Consumer Council which will bring together Postwatch, Energywatch and the current NCC. The Secretary of State, John Hutton, approved the recommendation from the Consumer Minister, Gareth Thomas that the new body will be in place with effect from 1st October 2008.

Ministers believe that an October date will ensure the success of the merger and go the furthest towards achieving the merger objectives and providing a better deal for consumers, envisaged by the Consumer, Estate Agents and Redress Act.

The key issues which led Ministers to decide an October start-up date are:

• Consumer Direct are key to the new consumer experience on Energy and Postal complaints, and they will not be in a position to take those calls until October.
• October will allow the new CEO and council to give all staff a fair deal through the transition and ensure the decisions they make on the structure of the new organisation deliver a world class consumer organisation.
• The Post Office Network Restructuring Programme, currently underway with the support of Postwatch, will be almost complete by October thus allowing the new body to have a fresh start in representing consumer interests in the new Post Office network

All Going on a Summer Holiday?

August/September is usually a relatively quiet period in the world of post, however, this year is somewhat different with Postcomm publishing a range of consultations in the coming weeks. Please see timetable below (dates are approximate):

Interim Review (Price Control):
Publication date - 9th August
Running for 2 months (early October deadline)

Zonal Pricing:
Publication date - 16th August
Running for 2 months (mid October deadline)

Strategy Review:
Publication date - 23rd August
Running for 3 months (late November deadline)

Those interested in any of the above should check the Postwatch and Postcomm websites regularly as well as national press for full documents and further information.

SMEs: A chance to have your say

It's been great to hear from customers with their thoughts on the current strikes and following on from this we would specifically like to hear, on this occassion, from SMEs.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry we are conducting research on the current and future needs of SMEs and would love to hear from any such organisations that would be willing to be interviewed over the telephone.

If you could send through an email to victoria.marshment@postwatch.co.uk, we'll contact you from there.

How is the strike affecting you?

The CWU have just announced a further 2 weeks of strikes. There seems to be no end in sight.

Postwatch would like to know how the strikes are affecting you? Has a package not arrived in time, or have you recieved no post at all?

Please let us know.