Royal Mail Rivals

Former_MSE_Andrea

Poll started 29 March: The Royal Mail has lost its monopoly on delivering our post, possibly starting from next year. If other companies were to set up different coloured boxes next to the traditional red Royal Mail ones, would you:

a. Stick with the Royal Mail?
b. Use one of the new providers and stay with them?
c. Always check the cheapest provider for the type of mail you're sending?
d. I don’t send post, e-mail is much cheaper.

Vote here. Click reply to discuss.

pinkfluffybabe

It would be in money saving interests to compare each company for the particular type of post you were sending and to use it based on that.

I think Royal Mail have done so much wrong and been so unreliable that people will happily turn their backs. Ive lost count of the amount of times I have had to complain to them about missing post.

Although it might be silly to have rows of postboxes on each street, it is good to have competition.

Roehyde

It would be good to have competition if the new companies that will offer new services had to match the nationwide service that the Royal Mail is required to.

As it stands, RM's rivals can target the most lucrative parts of the postal service, namely the large volume business to business mail, and undercut the Royal Mail. They won't be required to deliver the virtually loss-making post that you and I send, whereas the Royal Mail will still have to.

Areas of the post such as the business to business mail heavily subsidise the cost of the regular post, sending letters or birthdays cards to friends and relatives in areas of the country that aren't densely populated, such as the countryside, for example.
Without the profits from business to business, etc, the Royal Mail will have to either put their prices up significantly, or get Government subsidies (more taxes for us) or most likely reduce their service to a level significantly worse than it already is.

A worst case scenario would be that the Royal Mail could potentially go out of business, and the Government would have to virtually beg another company to provide a nationwide service to replace RM. That company would probably get to charge whatever prices it wanted, and you can bet that it wouldn't be cheap.

IvanOpinion

I am not convinced that privatising the postage service is a good move. It is OK if you live in London or are sending letters to London but I think that it will not be long before we find that it costs an additional £1-or-so to post letters to North Scotland or any of the off shore islands (that is assuming that someone even wants to deliver to these regions). At least with the Royal Mail there was a single charge irrespective of where the item was to go.

I think the Royal Mail will see this as an opportunity to get out of some of the loss making areas. People in those areas may even be lucky to get their post once a week.

I may be highlighting the worst possible case, but it is very easy to see it occurring

Ivan

Hunnymonster

For my money it's the reliability of the service that's the most important - in the last 6 months I've sold about 100 items on eBay and posted them all first class (with proof of posting of course) to correct UK addresses with postcodes.... as checked with the Royal Mail's own postcode/address checker..... in about 90% of cases the articles showed up as expected in 1-2 days - the remainder vanished in a blackhole (actually a sorting office in SE London I think) for 10 days - until I faxed off the 'lost mail' report then in each case the item was delivered in 24 hours.

Recent experience no. 2 is in selling my house - I just happened to call my solicitor to ask how it was going, and he was agitated that I hadn't received his last letter (he'd posted 7 working days before, 1st class, recorded) although he had confirmation of delivery, the delivery office manager could find no record of it - still it was only the contract of sale and the transfer deed for signing (eeek!), not like it was important.... NOT! Luckily I had the time to go and sign in person and he could reconstruct the documents. The originals showed up a further 6 days later - with no explanation why they'd been flagged as delivered when plainly they hadn't been.

scarlets_knees

I totally agree with Hunnymonster, while price is important it's reliability and coverage that's the key. I used to work for a company that sent out thousands of tickets for events and the biggest problem we had was Royal Mail yet we got all the calls from disgruntled customers. The excuses they gave for lost and missing post were unbelivable, I can't tell you the number of stolen Mail vans there must be out there, we had 3 different ones reported in one day! That kind of service affects the business and the customer and often it's the customer footing the bill.

arkonite_babe

Reliability is the big thing. I've had many problems getting my post delivered to my address and even after two complaints and the assurance that it won't happen again, guess what happened today?

If competition makes Royal Mail more reliable and forces them to be more competitive, then I'm all for it.

gerz

Isn't it funny that although the Royal Mail is going to be opened up to competition, it will still be delivering the letters and sorting them!!! All the new companies will do is pick the mail up and take them to the nearest Royal Mail sorting depot.

chris.cunningham

yet the knives are all ready out to stab R M in the back before it the competition begins to handle your Mail. What about the milkmen who now deliver parcels and LEAVE them on the doorstep in all weathers I think the good old postie does a tremendous job giving the amount of mail they have to deliver, before you judge R.M
have a chat with your locally postie ( just like i did a few weeks ago? i now see them in a different light)

pinkfluffybabe

Here's what a good job our postie does:

Repeatedly delivers my post to the house next door where no one lives.
Leaves parcels on my doorstep in full view of the street/in the rain.
Throws parcels over my garden fence into a puddle.
Puts 'while you were out' cards through without a) bringing the parcel or b) chapping the door.
Leaves my garden littered with elastic bands.
Delivers my mail at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Unacceptable. No matter how many times i write it doesnt get resolved although i havent had to buy stamps in quite some time. I would chat to my local postie but he comes while i am at work and anytime i do spot one its a different one each time.

gerz

I thought I better stand up for Royal Mail as like everything today nothing and nobody gets praised it always lets concentrate on the negative!
Our postie starts at 4.30am and starts by sorting the mail for the whole area. After a set time he has to prepare his mail for his delivery round. He then bags the mail for delivery, (sometimes 8 bags weighing 16 kilos each) and then sets out on delivery. However the postie in return ask for

Number on doors

bigger letter boxes

dogs kept under control

good access to properties

But more importantly correctly addressed letters!

:j