Royal Mail owner approves £3.5bn takeover deal with Czech billionaire

misterthrifty

I think this will be very negative for many customers of RM, the reduction in service we have seen since RM was privatised will accelerate and we will end up with an underfunded & ignored rump of a huge international business. Unfortunately, the regulator and this government are not prepared to do anything about it. We are likely to see deliveries reduced to every other day (where this doesn't happen already), parcels will be prioritised over letters, Post Offices will be cut out of the system so smaller offices are likely to close.
I feel very sad that the service that we have had for 100s of years can be given away so cheaply, we have already seen what has happened with the water industry when international businesses have taken them over and taken out all of the assets. 

DUBVENDOR

Just to be clear RM and the Post Office are separate companies . 

[Deleted User]

DUBVENDOR said:

Just to be clear RM and the Post Office are separate companies . 

I believe they know that.

What they’re saying is Post Office may lose their almost-exclusivity in handling stuff for Royal Mail, as is the case at present.

RFW

[Deleted User] said:

DUBVENDOR said:

Just to be clear RM and the Post Office are separate companies . 

I believe they know that.

What they’re saying is Post Office may lose their almost-exclusivity in handling stuff for Royal Mail, as is the case at present.

They've never really broken the connection. I use 3 or 4 Royal Mail delivery points depending where I am. 2 of those have a Post Office attached.

RM as it is has been heading to ruin many businesses with continual price increases. There's possibly a faint hope that the Czech owners may actually be competent and realise there won't be a business if the prices keep going up as the service goes down. Not much hope, but it's the only one we've got. The other hope is that it deteriorates rapidly and the government are forced to buy it back and resurrect it.

400ixl

RFW said:

There's possibly a faint hope that the Czech owners may actually be competent and realise there won't be a business if the prices keep going up as the service goes down. Not much hope, but it's the only one we've got. The other hope is that it deteriorates rapidly and the government are forced to buy it back and resurrect it.

Or they actually understand that the current & previous business models are no longer viable in the modern age and the business needs to evolve.

Parcels should be prioritised over letters. Letters could well be every other day and not at weekends, very few are time critical these days and there could be a tier which puts them in the parcels bracket if priority is required. Creating more reliability at every other day delivery is better than unreliability.

The Post Office also needs to look at what other services it can run outside of letters and parcels, banking is a good start but there are many other services they could provide, especially in rural areas.

Hoenir

misterthrifty said:

I think this will be very negative for many customers of RM, the reduction in service we have seen since RM was privatised will accelerate 

I dread to think of what the business would have turned out to be had it not. Totally under the thumb of a Union living in the past. No great surprise new entrants to the sector have chipped away at RM's market share. While it's core letter business has in essence disappeared thanks to technology. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RFW said:

RM as it is has been heading to ruin many businesses with continual price increases. 

I think the issue is that the major companies that allow the couriers achieve volume pay peanuts then the individual or small businesses get hit with the bulk of the price increases from a relative viewpoint. 

The problem with Royal Mail is the problem with the industry, there no regulation for the competitors and fierce competition for parcels. 

Royal Mail has always been a higher level of service but is being dragged down to the lowest common denominator, given online retailer is clearly important to the economy and trust is required to inspire confidence in consumers personally I think there should be independent avenue for complaints to be raised, either as the sender or recipient, with a fee imposed upon the courier in a similar sense to typical ombudsman schemes.  
 
This would force the lowest common denominator up slightly because the lower end of the market would have to pay better to avoid complaints about parcels left in bins, on doorsteps, delivered 3 streets away, etc because the delivery driver isn't paid enough to care.

Better pay would bring the other couriers up to Royal Mail's standard who, currently, still employ delivery staff and give them a paid for van rather than saying: "here's x per drop, you be self employed and deal with the running costs, fingers crossed you don't get ill because we won't be helping you with that". 

Pensions, holiday, sick pay, it should be standard for anyone working for a company like this rather than such obligations side stepped.

I'm sure this would push prices up a bit but everything has a limit, higher prices are already denting volume in some markets (fast food is a noticeable area) and volume is required to achieve economics of scale and starve off competition for those who don't have vast funds to achieve such scales, either that or prices rise to a point where competition outside the current oligopoly is viable again. 

Unfortunately the same old same old is likely to continue, workers will get less benefits, customers will receive less service and some billionaire will have a bit more money.... 

RFW

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

RFW said:

RM as it is has been heading to ruin many businesses with continual price increases. 

Royal Mail has always been a higher level of service but is being dragged down to the lowest common denominator, given online retailer is clearly important to the economy and trust is required to inspire confidence in consumers personally I think there should be independent avenue for complaints to be raised, either as the sender or recipient, with a fee imposed upon the courier in a similar sense to typical ombudsman schemes.  
 

This is why it should never have been privatised. Not because I want cheaper post (well maybe a bit!) but because the value of the service to businesses and consumers is worth more than the profits it can make from them.

Probably the best buyer for RM now would have been Amazon or similar, and Amazon is by no means one of my favourite companies. Their business model is such that the RM franchise would give them more value so they'd be able to continue to offer daily deliveries. RM has probably only survived the last few years thanks to Amazon. Amazon has encouraged RM to have more delivery days and a better tracked service.

Money_Grabber13579

RFW said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

RFW said:

RM as it is has been heading to ruin many businesses with continual price increases. 

Royal Mail has always been a higher level of service but is being dragged down to the lowest common denominator, given online retailer is clearly important to the economy and trust is required to inspire confidence in consumers personally I think there should be independent avenue for complaints to be raised, either as the sender or recipient, with a fee imposed upon the courier in a similar sense to typical ombudsman schemes.  
 

This is why it should never have been privatised. Not because I want cheaper post (well maybe a bit!) but because the value of the service to businesses and consumers is worth more than the profits it can make from them.

Probably the best buyer for RM now would have been Amazon or similar, and Amazon is by no means one of my favourite companies. Their business model is such that the RM franchise would give them more value so they'd be able to continue to offer daily deliveries. RM has probably only survived the last few years thanks to Amazon. Amazon has encouraged RM to have more delivery days and a better tracked service.

The market should never have been opened to competition and should have been regulated properly. It must be obvious to everyone that 6 different vans with 6 different drivers delivering 6 different parcels is far more expensive to operate than 1 van with 1 driver delivering 6 parcels.