Royal Mail like any other privatised company [Archive]

Kodiak

27-Nov-14, 12:51

It is perfectly true that other companies who deliver mail do not have to deliver to every address in the UK. Due to this they do pick the most profitable destination to deliver to.

As an example they will not deliver to High Rise Flats because it takes too long to deliver. They will also not deliver to rural areas like here in Caithness. So what happens to the mail that they accept to deliver but they refuse to deliver to that area or Postcode.

Royal Mail deliver it for them, they have no choice and they are forced, by OfCom, to deliver mail to addresses that other companies refuse to deliver to. Not only that but for every letter or packet that they deliver on behalf of another company they lose money. It costs Royal Mail a certain amount of money to deliver each and every Letter/Packet.

If another company passes on to Royal Mail a Letter to be delivered to an address that they refuse to deliver to then they are required to pay Royal Mail a Payment for them to do this. Unfortunately Royal Mail are Not allowed to charge them the full amount that it costs them to deliver this Letter. I have been informed that for every letter that Royal Mail delivers for another Company they lose 3p. This does sound a lot but in actual fact the shear volume of the mail means that Royal Mail lose Millions if not Billions of Pounds in a Year.

On the other hand for the companies who hand over the Mail to Royal Mail it means greater Profit as it cost them far less for them to get the passed over mail delivered.

What is the answer? Well I believe that any company who wants to classed as a Postal Service should have the same restrictions placed on them as Royal Mail. This would mean that if you post a Letter in Lands End via UKMail then it should be Delivered to the address by UKMail even if the address is John O'Groats. Then there would be fair competition and not as it is now with companies being allowed to pick where they wish to deliver to.