The CWU has claimed Royal Mail’s plans to set later delivery but earlier collection times will result in a worse service to the public.
RM’s plans were set out in its Delivery Best Practice Plan (DBPP) put forward to the regulator Postcomm.
Data from RM shows 85 per cent of residential deliveries being completed by midday in the past year (2005/6). This figure would fall to 35 per cent under the DBPP.
“Worse still RM have notified our representatives locally that they are intending to deliberately impose later start times for delivery staff from Monday 13 August, even though Postcomms public consultation does not close until 28 August,” said Bob Gibson, assistant secretary at the CWU. “We believe that this is an unacceptable deterioration in service for small businesses and residential customers both in rural and urban areas.”
A further astonishing admission from RM concerned the ability of competitors to access the mail market. “Earlier later times and earlier collection times would.. create a barrier to entry on quality grounds, as competitors will struggle to match universal early delivery and late collection times,” says the RM submission.
The CWU believe this admission raises serious questions over the real motives of the present RM management. “We see this as a distortion of the supposed objective of competition,” said Bob. “RM should not be seeking to restrict the service it provides to customers on the grounds that to not do so would deter the competition. Moreover, concerns over collection and delivery times apply particularly to rural areas and it is widely recognised that private postal operators are very unlikely to seek to compete with RM over rural collection and deliveries, with or without changes to the times at which they occur.”
The union also believe RM are using the 56 mph EU speed restriction on vehicles weighing 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes as an excuse to defer delivery times. “Most vehicles are already unlikely to travel at speeds in excess of 56 mph, so the effect of the legislation should be minimal. It is also worth noting that regardless of the legislation 60 per cent of all mail due for delivery is available at midnight. Therefore if current working time arrangements are maintained, the legislation should not affect delivery times,” said Bob.
The CWU has real concerns about RM’s efforts to close the window between delivery and collection times. “ A suitable window between delivery and collection times must be established to enable customers to respond to correspondence on the same day,” said Bob. “RM must publish and give greater publicity to its schedule of collection and delivery times. Adherence to the schedule should also now become a condition of RM’s licence to prevent further cost cutting and service deterioration.” |
