Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Royal Mail bids to bin Saturday letter deliveries
Hard-up bosses say volumes are down 60%
SATURDAY mail deliveries and collections are set to be scrapped after nearly 100 years.
The Post Office yesterday confirmed it had asked the Government for permission to do away with the Universal Service Obligation which ensures a six-day service.
Bosses at the privatised postal giant say mail volumes, excluding advertising material, are down 60% since a peak in 2005.
They pointed to previous research suggesting a Monday to Friday service would “meet the needs” of 97% of homes and small businesses.
Parcel deliveries would run seven days a week. Royal Mail boss Simon Roberts refused to be drawn on whether a five-day service could eventually be further reduced or if the loss of Saturday deliveries might cost jobs. All he would say was: “We’re focused on what we see today.”
The company, which already plans 10,000 job losses, said worsening finances made major reform critical.
It went from a £235million profit to a
£219m loss in the six months to September. It says £70m of that was due to pay strikes by the Communication Workers’ Union. As well as the strikes already announced, the CWU
100 year tradition last night confirmed a further six days of stoppages in the run up to Christmas.
Parent company International Distributions Services has repeated a threat to break up the group. Its parcels arm, GLS, made a £162m halfyear profit.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “No business making record profits of £758m in May should be losing over £1m a day in a matter of weeks without gross mismanagement.”