Post office to be sold off

[tranceporter]

I still feel that RM are anyday better than DPD and HDNL (Yodel) and the likes. The chances of finding a collection depot close to your house in a 10 mile radius are close to nil. Everytime I miss a package from DPD or HDNL, I have to travel to Gloucester/Bristol, since I nobody is home on weekdays, and all re-deliveries are missed. Or I pay stupid money to have it delivered on weekends. Atleast RM has plenty of collection depots, though I am sure why they open at unearthly times and close early.

[Mich the Tester]

Royal Mail collects and delivers the mail, Parceforce parcles and Post Office Ltd is the retail company which run the Crown Post offices (just under 400) and all three are wholly owned subsidiaries of Royal Mail Group Limited, the majority of the 12000 Post Office Branches are independantly run franchies

Is this some kind of improvement?

[northernladuk]

They were discussing this on Radio 4 and there was a rep from the communication union and unfortunately I didn't hear who the pro sell off guy was. Anyway, the communication union rep pointed out that remote places would get no service where as major hubs would get two a day. Rather astoundingly the pro guy said that is exactly how it should be and if remote areas wanted service they would have to pay a premium. His argument was that if they chose to live in a lovely countryside area they should be charged a premium due to it being remote. I was flabbergasted. Just completely dismissed it without a thought. Makes business sense but still, not an opinion that is going to go down well at all.

[gingerjedi]

Will this be a public issue type sell off like 'Tell Sid'?

My dad made a tidy sum on all the privatisations in the 80's, he used every family member who was eligible to to buy the max allocation and sold within a few days at a decent profit.

[amcdonald]

So in short services will get worse, everyone will pay more and rural service will be cut back even more stopping those living in the country living off selling tat on ebay

[d000hg]

So in short services will get worse, everyone will pay more and rural service will be cut back even more stopping those living in the country living off selling tat on ebay

You're saying the government are better at running things than the private sector?

[gingerjedi]

You're saying the government are better at running things than the private sector?

That depends on what you mean by running things? I think back to the buses, around my way they were less frequent and more expensive once privatised, obviously better for the non travelling tax payer but not the people who want a service.

Transpose that to train services where the public demand is still massive and they bend you over a barrel for the service the public demand, I'm not entirely convinced private is always best when basic infrastructure is concerned.

I don't know why but since postage costs have gone up and some competition has been introduced I've found the postal service to be shockingly bad.

[DodgyAgent]

Royal Mail is a joke anyway...

We need something funny to fill the void left by only fools and horses

[amcdonald]

You're saying the government are better at running things than the private sector?

No, they're just incompetent at privatisations generally, if it works and we keep countrywide postal prices without the cost increasing rapidly, we'll end up paying huge subsidies to someone like Capita instead to run down the service

[Spacecadet]

They were discussing this on Radio 4 and there was a rep from the communication union and unfortunately I didn't hear who the pro sell off guy was. Anyway, the communication union rep pointed out that remote places would get no service where as major hubs would get two a day. Rather astoundingly the pro guy said that is exactly how it should be and if remote areas wanted service they would have to pay a premium. His argument was that if they chose to live in a lovely countryside area they should be charged a premium due to it being remote. I was flabbergasted. Just completely dismissed it without a thought. Makes business sense but still, not an opinion that is going to go down well at all.

I can't remember the last time I had a twice a day delivery from the RM and to be honest I'd barely notice if it went down to once every 2 days for regular mail.