Royal Mail to be privatised or sold, government says

From the department of inevitability, politicians do have frighteningly short memories nearly as bad as the general public.

I'm not sure how we ended up with such a bad postal service in the UK but I do know that privatising it is far from the answer, just look at the mess with rail service and tell me that's not going to be RM in 5 years.

 

I see the take off of courier mail systems. If RM don't get drastically better across the board (They're fine to me, but hey, a lot of people complain), then they're going to lose ground to other services.

I don't really care, not sending letters, though so perhaps I'm just biased.

 

I just hope they allow other companies in like DHL/FedEx and the like. There was a trial with FedEx a while ago up in Manchester I believe for 1 month, and the results spoke volumes about what people think of Royal Mail in general. FedEx wanted to go into business with mail delivery but couldn't at the time because it wasn't a privatised option.

 

The worry is for places where the profits are thinner.

Cities are great for mail good transport links high density housing etc. Areas of lower population out of the major cities are either going to suffer with a collapsed mail service or we all end up subsidising these unprofitable areas from general taxation this usually ends up in the pockets of investors, this doesn't seem like the best way to run a national resource.

I offer up Railtrack as exhibit A: A service which could never make money since its basically a standalone cost centre. Huge amounts of public money were pumped into the company and every year dividends were paid.

 

Say good by to the 1st class stamp that costs 41p to send a letter anywhere in the UK.


Royal Mail should be state owned, after all it has Royal in the name! Failure has occurred when they released news of getting rid of the postman's bicycle, which will greatly affect the manufacture Pashley, who made those bikes. They last longer than any other crap built in the UK.

This government wasn't the peoples choice, its a bast*rd child of a power struggle that has yet had any benefit on the country. If i hear about Camerons family any more i shall puke, who gives a sh*t if he has had a child, or if his father has passed away. That kinda crap happens on a daily basis in the UK to people having to deal with life, and they sure as hell don't get news coverage. Who else thought it was shocking that during the floods in Pakistan, English media couldn't help but focus on the cricket scandal going on with Pakistan's cricket players. Shocking, utterly shocking.

Floating RM will no doubt cause massive lay-offs, I half expect there to be a postal strike, and a march on downing street before the year is out.

 

Honestly, i think privatising will make it make it better because a private company relies on Customer's Money which we pay (we pay already for the mail, why not just privatise the company then?) and if theywant that money they will have to get it off the customer and the way to do that is to satsify and with a potential end to a monopoly new compaines can enter the market and give us better prices and services which means competition .

 

I don't understand the royal mail hate as i live in a rural area and our postal service is great, infact its better that most of the courier companies. Steveo_mcg makes a very valid point that its rural and remote areas that will suffer the most if the mail service is privatised. Despite the fact i dont live in the highland's you still get the occasional company that classes anything north of Perth the highlands and islands and charges an outrageous premium. I find people complaining that they only get one delivery a day amusing too. Why do you need more than one?

 

Hex's quoted post removed

Removed Hex related stuffs.

The problem with the Royal Mail is that it's the most under appreciated, taken for granted organisation in the UK.

And no, I don't work for them. I'm just thoroughly impressed that I've never had a single item of lost mail and I can send a letter anywhere in the country for 41p. More often than not by the next day.

 

+1

 

Well, these magical things called tracking numbers. I expect that Hex knows that her things go missing between point B and point C because the tracking site says as much.

I've had it happen with Parcel Farce and DHL, although it's never happened to me with Royal Mail, I've seen it happen at work through Royal Mail - Both sending and receiving.

 

He didn't stipulate they were tracked items.

I've had far, far more issues with private carriers than I ever have with the Royal Mail.

 

Deleted everything to do with my post (this includes other posts which were purely quotes of my post and ranting at me and not actually what this thread is about). It was de-railing into a personal thing.

Carry on as if I said NOTHING.

 

Let's just move on and play nice together again shall we? I don't want to have to continue deleting posts, but if this thread doesn't get back on track, I will.

Back on topic... I happen to have lost A LOT of mail recently, including magazines, bank statements, bills and such - it's got to the extent where I've asked my bank to stop sending me statements because they're not getting through and I'd rather it that my bank information wasn't in the wrong hands.

Any other mail is sent to my parents and then couriered to me if I'm not visiting them any time soon. Anything I buy online is sent via courier too, even if there's a Royal Mail option, because I'd like it to get to me.

I think the Royal Mail could improve... it could deliver my mail again for a start because I have lost all confidence in them since moving house. I never had any problems with them before moving, so it's obvious that there's something going on at my local (or regional) sorting office as both are no doubt different to those at my previous residence. I'm tarring all the RM with the same brush, but they're only as good as the last letter they (didn't) send to me.

 

But the problem is that if a private company starts handling the volumes of mail that RM currently handles, chances are that stuff will go missing from there too - the problem isn't inherently Royal Mail's, it's a symptom of the sheer amount of mail they process and the type of people who process it.

I don't believe that mail delivery will necessarily be any better with a privatised company, in fact it might even be worse because any new service will place profitability at the top of any list of priorities - which as steveo says will hurt those of us in rural areas more than people in large towns and cities.

 

But, prior to moving, I never used to not receive mail? The Royal Mail is only as good as its employees in your area and, frankly, I've never had worse service than I get now. I'm spending more than I should have to to make sure I get my mail, as I'm deliberately avoiding them in fear of losing something important.

 

I've been getting other people's mail recently. Bank statements, cards, junk mail, you name it.

I've got to the point now if it comes to me it goes in the bin, unless it's a card or something. I feel too bad about binning it so I hand deliver the buggers.

 

But do you really, really think that would change with a private company handling the mail?

 

What is more likely to occur is a current postal company (UKmail??) would buy out RM.

I still think the government is making a big mistake.


Also to those who are unhappy with your service, RM won't know about said problems until you walk into the sorting office and tell them, i know this falls on deaf ears sometimes, but by repeating it enough it will be sorted.

 

Im not really sure what to make of the service. I feel it does a satisfactory job but I wouldnt say its the best in the world.

I had a card put through my door on wednesday for my package and told to come collect it 48 hours later. Its been over that and today I went to collect and its still not at the collection office.

The reason given?: "Oh it could be a temporary staff member thats gone and put it into one of those post boxes for holding...it can take up to 96 hours sometimes or more to get it back here"

Ridiculous. Say that parcel was urgent? I had a wedding a couple weeks ago with items I was ordering left right and centre and if they had done that with the items I desperately needed then I would have been severely pissed off.

I go abroad in a couple days and I cant rely on my brother to get the parcel as he doesnt get home until its too late and I dont have anyone else to trouble with it either thats suitable enough to ask.

The service can be poor. Why on earth not just leave it with the neighbour or a local branch on the way home in the evening? hows that? then us people from the area can just pick it up the same day later on or the next morning! waaahey! common sense prevails?? no.

 

My service is fine until the regular postie is off. I've lost bank cards, credit cards, bills, stuff i've ordered.

The bank wont post me cards anymore I have to collect them. My mileage and expenses have gone missing so I don't get them paid, I have to send them special delivery or do the 200 mile round trip and hand deliver them.

I used to work next to a sorting office in Berkshire, I've never come accross such a feckless bunch of individuals.

The only thing that they manage to deliver to me reliably is a f*****g mountain of junk mail.

Oh and the Royal Mail can't sort out their own internal telephone directory, I had a second phone line put in for work. BT gave me a number that used to belong to a local post office, I still get calls from Royal Mail asking to speak to whoever about whatever. This line went in 3 years ago and they still haven't updated their information.

Any organisation that inept doen't deserve to survive.