Oldun

Inevitable, but will it be a better service?

paulr

I'm sure those German hedge funds will be ordering the prospectus as we speak.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Isn't it just a pensions fund with a postal delivery service attached to it?

Oldun

Each RM worker will receive shares, a spoonful of sugar?

Already the union is threatening an all-out strike.

richs2891

Cant be a worse service, - postal costs have risen a lot in last few years- yet no better service.
I don't even think the postman comes once a day to where I live, yet the local post office when its open is good, but I guess that's more the people running the local PO than anything.
I guess the Royal Mail is another example of an old institution been badly run for many years by people with no concept of costs or running a profitable business

Richard

Chip

The one around here does, apparently it's more than the post he delivers to a certain local lady.

Geezer

Not even the Yanks privatise their postal service! If you think it's bad value for money now, wait until it's privatised.

To get the service you want, prices will have to rise significantly, and things like deliveries to Mr A. Hermit in them thar hills will prove uneconomical unless a tier service is introduced, and how will that work? Or, to cover that cost, the all in one price will get hiked.

RM ain't perfect, but privatising it isn't the answer.

Some things just aren't made to be profitable, they are a service.

Geezer

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

We pay billions in subsidy already, so to say it will cost us more is difficult to say, depends on if the charges increase more than the subsidy we already pay.

Privatised companies tend to be better at, shall we say, 'efficiency savings' than public organisations, so we can but hope.

urban

iTrader: (1)

TNT delivery the hospital post in N.Ireland - and they're useless.
Chap I work with got a letter recently telling him about a hospital appointment.
He received the letter the day before the 9:30am appointment was scheduled.
There was a postmark date 7 days before he received it.

Chip

But people said that when Gas was privatised. It hasn't happened. Wherever you live whether its up in the hills or in the city you can pay the same as everyone else.

Geezer

I would say that is quite different. The infrastructure is already in place. If you have gas, they have already done that spend on putting it to your home, the cost of supplying it doesn't change. There is no real cost saving in removing that infrastructure.

But for post, it's dead easy. Someone has to physically deliver it each time. It's a cost each and every time you have to do it. Nice and easy savings to be had, or prices hikes to be had.

Geezer

paulr

Privatisation so far.

Bt.......improved.
Railways......worse
Utilities.......not sure
British airways.....improved

tony de wonderful

Nah, there is gonna be a law which decrees that the RM must provide a six day a week, uniform prices mail service over all the UK.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

As a sweeping statement, I'd say things improve when in an industry where there is healthy competition - it's the only thing that forces prices/charges to be kept in check. Case in point - railways.

Graz

Bad analogy - the majority of folk who live "up in the hills" have to have either their gas or oil shipped in at a much higher cost than those of us on the mains. Only way to save is if you have a regular supply of cheap solid fuel (i.e. you own a woodland).

Chip

But those in the hills who were on mains gas at the time of privatisation are still having their system renewed at great cost to the utilities even though in some cases the cost will never be recouped.

As long as conditions are laid down to deal with deliveries then I really don't see a problem.

Chip

With utilities I think as long as people can turn on a light switch or gas hob they really don't care.

When was the last time your gas/electric was shut off compared to before privatisation( if your old enough to remember).?

Before privatisation we had power cuts quite often, mainly due to the idiots that were led like sheep by Scargill.

BLU

iTrader: (27)

^^ what he said ^^ except Royal Mail is more than capable of being highly profitable under the right management. The savings made through modernisation have turned the business around, there is no reason why this can't continue with any profits being re-invested.

Do you really think that'll be the case a few years down the line if RM end up in private hands?? Its simply a smoke screen to fool the general public that all will be ok! Similar to the shares proposal for the staff, its not worth the paper its written on. The staff were given shares back in 2006, then in 2012 they were worthless (surprise surprise) and were swiped back from them for nothing! The pay deal that is on the table is also riddled with unreasonable conditions!

The pensions deficit was nationalised last year, so regardless of wether RM is sold off or not it will still be the governments responsibility!



The other thing that seems to be overlooked is the universal service obligation (uso) that Vince Cable was making noise about. RM are the only company in the UK that are bout by this law which is enforced by the regulator. TNT, DHL or whoever are perfectly within their rights to 'cherry pick' the profitable parts of the postal service, i.e. dense towns, large businesses etc and they do, London and Manchester being two examples. This erodes RM's ability to make profits, for example, how can the profitable parts of the business subsidise the not-so-profitable parts if the profitable parts are being 'cherry picked' by the competitor - who employ staff on zero hour contracts on an as and when needed basis. That can't be good for the economy imho.

David Lock

Pensions were the millstone around PO's neck and that has been taken off them although I am not quite sure how??

In very basic terms service has got worse. In the "good old days" you got your post early in morning and sometimes a second delivery in the afternoon. Now you are lucky to get mail by mid afternoon. And I think postal costs have risen out of line.

It's now mainly a parcel company serving the internet. But gradually people will realise that their parcel prices can usually be beaten by one of the myriad of courier companies.

dl

tony de wonderful

What pissed me off is that my local GPO shut and was relocated into the top floor of WH Smiths.

Want to buy an envelope to post something? You can't, you have to buy a pack of 10. It's ****ing stupid.

Oldun

Post Office Ltd, although owned by Royal Mail is a separate business and is to remain Government owned.

BLU

iTrader: (27)

Second deliveries were phased out in 2004
The late post is due to the moving of the employee start times to later in the morning on top of a greater workload.
Its far from being a parcels company (thats what parcelforce is for) although parcel delivery have increased greatly, letters whilst in decline still account for a large portion of RM's business (not forgetting the delivery of competitors mail too)!

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

I think the precedent has been set, British Gas, British Telecom etc - great British institutions that once privatised became focused upon corporate bonuses and shareholder dividends and not worried in the slightest about customer satisfaction. Email is still free

r32

I think this is mad. The Govt has decided to take on the pension debt and the PO has started to make a profit any way, 450 Million in the last year for the public, so why sell it? We going to get any of the profit if its sold?

Do any of the other nationalised industries provide good service at a good price? You all know it will end up in foreign hands. I'll guarantee that the service gets worse.

paulr

Bt is better. I'm old enough to remember when you had to pay someone to plug in a new phone. Maggie put a stop to all that rubbish.

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

I left BT 15 years ago after an appalling bout of service and have never looked back until recently, and now I am beholden to BT again as Sky sub-contract lines off them and my broadband line is sh!te

Like-for-like every TV, broadband and phone package I look at and BT offers the worst value

tony de wonderful

It's ideological. Same reason for the bedroom tax.

I'm surprised they took on the pensions liabilities. It's a kind of fake Capitalism where the state has to weigh in to make a market viable IMHO, but that is the neoliberal way. Having said that public pension liabilities are staggering and what is a few more billion?

CrisPDuk

This ^^ is the root of many of Royal Mail's current difficulties, as Blu says, the likes of TNT, DHL and the rest were permitted to move in and pillage the best parts of the mail delivery service, with absolutely no requirement to abide by the USO the Royal Mail isa bound by

If they were given a level playing feild to operate on maybe they would do a lot better

The same happened with the Post Office Counters side of the business, when they permitted other shops to start selling things normally sold only at the Post Office, but kept the restrictions on things the Post Office couldn't sell

Leslie

Can't help feeling that eventually some foreign firm will be creaming off the profits as they are doing with the utilities at the moment!

Les

BLU

iTrader: (27)

Its going to be a sad fact, in the not too distant future, I think .