Royal Mail to be floated on stock exchange

dowie

dowie

dowie

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Jez said:
This sounds like an utterly ridiculous suggestion, you would end up with vast areas of a first world nation unable to receive or send any physical items! It will never make financial sense for a private company to deliver mail to some areas.
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Well it is stupid to keep the current system - having competition while handicapping the established player. Really don't see the issue with removing it... if you want to go live on an Island off the coast of Scotland then don't expect a private company to deliver stuff to you at a fraction of the real cost. Maybe couriers can deliver to a depot and local govt in small rural communities can find their own local service...

It is either that or you force other mail/courier companies to deliver everywhere. It simply isn't realistic for a now private entity to compete with an inherent disadvantage.
 
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Dunks

Dunks

Dunks

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dowie said:
[...] Really don't see the issue with removing it... if you want to go live on an Island off the coast of Scotland then don't expect a private company to deliver stuff to you at a fraction of the real cost. [...]
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And if you've moved there before Royal Mail went private?
 

Jez

Jez

Jez

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dowie said:
Well it is stupid to keep the current system - having competition while handicapping the established player. Really don't see the issue with removing it... if you want to go live on an Island off the coast of Scotland then don't expect a private company to deliver stuff to you at a fraction of the real cost. Maybe couriers can deliver to a depot and local govt in small rural communities can find their own local service...

It is either that or you force other mail/courier companies to deliver everywhere. It simply isn't realistic for a now private entity to compete with an inherent disadvantage.
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I am in no way suggesting a solution, but I do not beleive that universal delivery should ever be scrapped. It is a basic service. Much like the telephone networks universal commitment, electricity supply, etc. This isnt 3rd world and if necessary in my opinion public money should subsidise it if it really came to it..
 

Lunatic Dreyfus

Lunatic Dreyfus

Lunatic Dreyfus

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Having worked in this ridiculous company for longer than I should, my impression is the top brass would drop the USO with its 6 day delivery in a heart beat, if they could. However, my guess is they'll take a machine gun to the work force first, in about two years time.

Whatever guff they try to feed us, it's plain that it's all about the bottom line now and with the decline in mail (and increasingly, parcels) that precious profit will be harder to find.
 

norm

norm

norm

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21 Jan 2003
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The USO will simply be reworked so deliveries only occur 3 days a week in rural areas and the really remote places will have to collect their mail from a central point like what happens in Canada.

It was obvious privatisation would cause a loss in the level of service, another fail for the conservatives which will be looked back on in years to come with the same scorn as what Thatcher did hindering BT from modernising the network with fibre back in the 80s.
 

Gazanimal

Gazanimal

Gazanimal

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The USO is fine as long as everyone who delivers mail is governed by that obligation.

Seeing as the USO only applies to RM currently it's getting a kick in the nuts when Whistl (TNT) et all don't have to follow the USO.

Slightly unfair and unlevel playing field for sure but according to OFCOM there's nothing wrong.

(Yes I'm a postie and while I don't like a lot of what RM do, they aren't helped by the idiotic OFCOM)
 
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