The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Royal Mail

Royal Mail reigns in 50,000 post box delivery times

Author

By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

August 9, 2014 | 2 min read

Royal Mail has pulled forward the delivery times of 50,000 UK post boxes, from 4pm to 3pm, in a bid to cut costs at the newly privatised company.

50,000 boxes will be affected by the plan

This leaves just over half of the Royal Mail’s 115,000 post box schedules untouched by the plans which the company claims will only affect low-traffic boxes.

A Post Office statement said: “Rather than decommission uneconomic post boxes, while staying within the regulated density requirement, Royal Mail will ensure their viability by improving efficiency of its collections arrangements.”

The scheme will affect rural and suburban areas although the company says it will free up funds to introduce 2000 new boxes across the country.

This comes after Ofcom last year created a guideline stating there must be a post box within half a mile of 98 per cent of the country’s households, it read: “Ofcom recognises the need for Royal Mail to become more efficient so it can sustain a universal postal service that consumers value highly.”

However, MP Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, called the plan “disappointing” saying that it will hit both consumers and small businesses.

Umunna said: “In their unnecessary fire sale of Royal Mail, the Tory-led government put vital postal services at risk and, as many feared when the privatisation took place, we are now seeing consumers losing out.”

The UK group currently faces a French anti-competition probe that could see it receive a fine of up to £160m.

Royal Mail

More from Royal Mail

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +