Royal Mail Rubbish

[merry]

Royal Mail could reduce the number of days it delivers letters from six per week to five or even three, under proposals to reform the service.

A report from the regulator said the postal service was "getting out of date" and action needed to be taken.

Ofcom said another option would be extending the number of days it takes for most letters to be delivered.

Royal Mail said its current delivery network was "not sustainable" and that reform was "urgently needed".

The company, which was split from the Post Office and privatised a decade ago, is legally obliged to deliver a one-price-goes-anywhere universal service, which means it has to deliver letters six days per week, Monday to Saturday, and parcels Monday to Friday.

In recent years, the volume of letters being posted has plummeted, with half the number being sent compared to 2011 levels, while parcel deliveries have become more popular - and more profitable.

Royal Mail's performance has also deteriorated, with customers regularly not receiving letters about medical appointments and legal documents on time.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom's chief executive, said the regulator was sharing options for reforming the service, putting them out for "national discussion", with an update scheduled for the summer.

"Something's got to give, or the service is going to be too costly, and either stamp prices will go up or it will become unsustainable," she told BBC Breakfast.

'Saturdays sacrosanct'
The government has said it does not support the idea of scrapping postal deliveries on Saturdays.

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, told the BBC Royal Mail needed to "up their game" and that the government was "happy to have a conversation" about reforms.

But he insisted that Saturday deliveries were "sacrosanct" and that a six-day service would remain.

On Wednesday the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said the government was "absolutely committed" to ensuring the Royal Mail's universal service obligations remained as they were.

Saturday post should stay, government says
Ofcom estimated the company could save between £100m and £200m a year if delivery days were cut to five per week, and between £400m and £650m if there were just three postal days.

However, reforming the postal service by cutting delivery days would require the government and parliament to change the current legislation.

BBC

[merry]

I know a couple of the Gang are already not getting daily deliveries! Pani is one of them.

Our postie does however seem to come every day (at the moment!); if he doesn't actually have anything for us he usually has something for the neighbour, or, we see his little red Postman Pat van trundling round the village (I think he covers three.)

[Furby]

I don't think they will save much if allowed to reduce deliveries to three times a week as that's already more than they do now here in furbyland. Usually is once a week sometimes two if lucky. Then there are the bad times probably when a postman is on holiday or sick when it can be a fortnight without anything at all then a dozen letters all at once.

I saw this story too and thought it's like gaslighting. The official position is they deliver every day now and can point to merry as example look see we do. But despite their denials it's obviously already the accepted practise in towns and cities to reduce deliveries and save up post. The prime minister will insist they keep Saturday deliveries but no one is even insisting they do the weekday deliveries. It's all very odd really.

[OurCreature]

It's all very odd really.

It is indeed, Furby. In OC land we have a delivery once a day, 6 days a week. At present the postman appears at something like 08:45 but usually it's nearer 11:30; our delivery frequency might have something to do with the fact that their big sorting office is only 5 minutes walk from my house.

I've watched several news items about O dear Royal Mail is losing so much money, they must find ways of shafting their customers (with the help of Ofcom) so that the happy days of profits and dividends can return. One person said that the system is designed to handle 20 billion items of mail a year; in the last year for which they have figures 7.6 billion items of mail were handled. I would have thought that if the system is handling only 1/3 of the items it was designed for, then surely it should be easy-peasy to meet their delivery targets eg 93% of first class post delivered next day instead of only 75%. Maybe they should appoint a boss of the calibre of WR who would give the 95% of managers who clearly are sub-par their P45s, appoint competent replacements and get on with making Royal Mail do what it should be doing properly.

[eccles]

Prices for first class mail are getting ridiculous so something's got to give. My brother did a round of family visits before Christmas distributing cards and presents. He found that because he drives electric and fuel is cheaper it cost less for him to deliver himself than to buy stamps. And because he visited me first he also saved me additional costs of stamps.

How would a three day service work? If it's the same three days nationwide then posties would be out of work for the other four days of the week. So to counter that and employ fewer posties for a full week there would have to be zones where some get their mail at the beginning of the week and others at the end of the week. All of a sudden you have posties having to learn twice as many routes. And what about second class post?

[Furby]

I guess it will work the way it's already working in furbyland. My post only arrives once a week so my postman is already doing something else the other 5 days. It was already getting bad before COVID and they latched onto COVID with because of COVID for the next 2 years (no one could argue with COVID excuses) then it was the strikes with no post for weeks because of a backlog every time there was a one day strike and it's stayed at once a week most weeks ever since. This is why I am astounded such a fuss about allowing stopping Saturday when it's way behind that already and nowhere seems to be reporting it and they keep talking about Saturdays.

One of the plans for second class post was to get rid of it altogether and allow 1st class post to be on three days delivery (i.e. 2nd class post at first class prices). There would be a new service of urgent delivery at a much higher price.

[Furby]

UK now has counterfeit stamps which are blamed on China and that may be true but it isn't China fault retailers are buying them and selling them for bigger profits or consumers are buying online for less than stamp price. Royal mail do discount stamps to retual companies but margins are small and so any stamps for worthwhile cheaper prices are dodgy is obvious.

It's further confused with the split between royal and post office which is tricky to remember even if you follow the tale which I suspect most people don't. The post office has been in the news for blaming post masters for fraud when software was flakey and this is terrible but two things can be true at the same time. People are claiming they bought at post office and are still counterfeit so either people are lying or post offices are dodgy. . My post offices were closed in COVID so I have to walk to a crown post office two miles away now so I haven't bought any from local shops.

News say royal mail are looking at the problem but what can they do. They don't control China or dodgy retailers or even the retail part of a local post office. Even if they are pretty sure post offices are selling dodgy stamps they will be too scared to accuse them after horizon saga. All they could do is say have to buy from crown offices or direct royal mail and not allow other retailers like in the old days. That would suit me for now but not everyone can get to crown offices that are left which was part of why they let local shops sell them.