Heard some rather alarming news this morning, to the effect that postal services to remote areas of the country could be reduced and subjected to higher charges. Mailshots from banks and major companies, constituting one third of the Royal Mail's business, could be restricted to urban areas, where deliveries cost less.
It would appear that the Royal Mail is more interested in making money than delivering (sic) a service. Charging people more for their location is discrimination, and this move should be opposed in the strongest possible terms.
Moves are afoot to curb charges, levied by private companies, for delivering items to places like the Western Isles. How often do you see in the small print that an extra charge (how about £15) will be made for taking the item here.
The planes fly here anyway. The ferries do sail. So what's the deal?
"If all post/mail/delivery/packages were delivered by a private company, then distance would have to be taken into account, when administering a charge. Living on an island does have it's good pluses and minuses, this I'm afraid will end up as the latter>..."
ReplyDeleteTws from The croft Lewis
"The problem is that the "universal obligation" does not apply to the private companies so they cherry-pick the profitable business from the Royal Mail. Successive Governments have allowed (encouraged!) this to happen, and it is getting beyond the tipping point. I warned about this in 2005 at the Environmental Services Committee, but the press didn't pick it up. TNT now have the DWP contract, meaning yet another big source of income has been removed from the Royal Mail. There are NO moves afoot to curb charges to the islands - we tried, but the OFT and Postcomm refuse to intervene. We are being left to the tender mercies of the market, which is institutionally biased against us."
Cllr Angus Nicolson from Stornoway
"Look on the bright side; no more credit card applications, political leaflets, shopping surveys. To be honest, if I never got any more junk mail I would probably be quite happy to pay extra to get my National Geographic. And I don't get many birthday cards anyway."
Nic from Coll
""tender mercies"? As Clir well knows, the market has no tender mercies. Listen to Monk : "it's a jungle out there.""
mjc from NM,USA
"The mail service acts like it travels on log rafts and dog sleds to get to these "remote" places! "
Michellechoza from Mainland Orkney
"The mail service is very good on Lewis, it's at the other end, be it Glasgow, Inverness, London that the real problems lie. The posties on these islands are, generally, very trustworthy and do a super job, however the same can't be said for other areas of the country. It's sad that what is happening to the P.O. is called progress. For who? Not for us on the islands that's for sure. "
Tws from Lewis
"As the councillor says the government is to blame for this carry on. The government want the Royal Mail to be competitive in relation to private companies but keep the rules such that they can't be. They're too lazy to support public services and that includes their local authorities and the NHS who are equally suffering at the moment."
Buzz from Glasgow
"The Royal Mail should be congratulated on the brilliant service to Lewis in the last year. First class mail arrives next day just like anywhere in the UK. Pretty amazing given the geography, and takes a dedicated flight to achieve it. Let's hope they can maintain the service in the face of the cherry-picking competition they are being exposed to..."
leodhaisach from leodhais