Royal Mail....oh dear

[Bletchleyite]

Is it no longer the case that competing letter delivery companies are not only permitted in the UK but the Royal Mail is required to carry their letters for the "last mile"?

I'm sure it used to be. Though now I think of it, I'm not sure when the last time was that I saw such a letter.

Pretty sure it's only large volume letters.

 

[Cdd89]

You'd have to remove the letters monopoly to allow competition though. At present they're more like a privatised water firm.

Even as a monopoly, they're still providing a non-essential service except in niche cases, which is a key difference between them and (e.g.) privatised water. That limits what they can charge for postage. Furthermore, if RM were allowed to charge £10 for a 2nd class stamp, the country would sort itself out. Not that I'm suggesting complete deregulation, nor would RM do this as it would be a stupid business decision that loses them money; but it's an example of a non-problem in my opinion.

 

[lookapigeon]

I don't understand how Royal Mail can 'lose' letters to the volume and frequency that they do. Do they pretty much hire anyone off the street with a pulse these days and chuck them on the job?

 

[Peter Sarf]

Is it no longer the case that competing letter delivery companies are not only permitted in the UK but the Royal Mail is required to carry their letters for the "last mile"?

I'm sure it used to be. Though now I think of it, I'm not sure when the last time was that I saw such a letter.

And, I wonder, is it the last mile that is the problem with the Royal Mail delivery service.
As in the door-to-door part of the process rather than emptying post boxes, taking the contents to a sorting centre, sorting them and passing them to the sorting centre nearest to the delivery address for one more (automated) sort.

If it is the last mile or so that is the problem then no competing letter delivery company is going to rely on the last mile part of Royal Mail !.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 21:46 ==

I don't understand how Royal Mail can 'lose' letters to the volume and frequency that they do. Do they pretty much hire anyone off the street with a pulse these days and chuck them on the job?

Well apparently it is less experienced staff that mess deliveries in my road. I do not see the postman often enough but apparently the regular we had has left the job. We apparently get a variety of people now and they are easily able to overlook my neighbours and my own front doors. This is because our two front doors are on the side of our houses house (which are an end of terrace) whereas the rest all have front doors facing the road.

 

[brad465]

And, I wonder, is it the last mile that is the problem with the Royal Mail delivery service.
As in the door-to-door part of the process rather than emptying post boxes, taking the contents to a sorting centre, sorting them and passing them to the sorting centre nearest to the delivery address for one more (automated) sort.

If it is the last mile or so that is the problem then no competing letter delivery company is going to rely on the last mile part of Royal Mail !.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 21:46 ==


Well apparently it is less experienced staff that mess deliveries in my road. I do not see the postman often enough but apparently the regular we had has left the job. We apparently get a variety of people now and they are easily able to overlook my neighbours and my own front doors. This is because our two front doors are on the side of our houses house (which are an end of terrace) whereas the rest all have front doors facing the road.

One thing that can help rival companies with parcels is having collection lockers/locations to deliver to. These are more efficient for the last mile and thus often cost less in postage, plus they have the added benefit that recipients don't have to worry about being at home when the delivery is due. This of course is harder to do with letters given the scales involved.

 

[Bletchleyite]

One thing that can help rival companies with parcels is having collection lockers/locations to deliver to. These are more efficient for the last mile and thus often cost less in postage, plus they have the added benefit that recipients don't have to worry about being at home when the delivery is due. This of course is harder to do with letters given the scales involved.

Royal Mail does too, and you can divert to the post office too.

 

[Gonzoiku]

I once placed a postcard at Preston station into a letterbox on the side of the Whitehaven-Huddersfield TPO departing at 23:15. It was delivered in Cleckheaton at 07:35. The stamp cost 4.5p. That was 1974: an altogether different world. My friend still has the card!

4.5p!! That must have been at least 1p surcharge for the TPO. Used it myself more than once at Kings Cross for letters to Edinburgh

GZ

 

[35B]

Does the king have any say in the matter? I've genuinely no idea, is there any law preventing me from setting up a company called 'Royal Felt Tip Pens Ltd?' What if my surname were Royal?

I've been told that all new stamp designs have to be approved by the King. The link is I believe enshrined in law, and also relates to the use of the Royal Cipher.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Friday at 13:38 ==

Is it no longer the case that competing letter delivery companies are not only permitted in the UK but the Royal Mail is required to carry their letters for the "last mile"?

I'm sure it used to be. Though now I think of it, I'm not sure when the last time was that I saw such a letter.

Competitors are allowed to deliver the final mile, but the cost of doing so is prohibitive and the only company that tried pulled out.

Because Royal Mail have an effective monopoly on this, their wholesale business is ring-fenced from the main retail business, and subject to a whole different layer of regulation.

 

[Buzby]

I've been told that all new stamp designs have to be approved by the King.

Certainly this is becoming an increasing irrelevance due to the sale of ‘traditional’ stamps being considerably diminished as pre-purchased QR codes now the primary method of paying for postage. Similarly sale of special stamps has plummeted and I did hear that RM are now able to print/issue as little as 500 on a bespoke basis, ramping up should they become popular. This of course means collectibility suffers as by definition they never be ’rare’ like the issues of old.

 

[35B]

Certainly this is becoming an increasing irrelevance due to the sale of ‘traditional’ stamps being considerably diminished as pre-purchased QR codes now the primary method of paying for postage. Similarly sale of special stamps has plummeted and I did hear that RM are now able to print/issue as little as 500 on a bespoke basis, ramping up should they become popular. This of course means collectibility suffers as by definition they never be ’rare’ like the issues of old.

The relevance remains, in that it is a constraint on how Royal Mail may operate. I agree on what that means for the collectors market

 

[jon81uk]

The relevance remains, in that it is a constraint on how Royal Mail may operate. I agree on what that means for the collectors market

Is it really a constraint?

 

[35B]

Is it really a constraint?

In practice, yes - if only just bureaucratic

 

[zero]

It costs £200 a year to collect all the crap that RM outputs these days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_commemorative_stamps_2020–2029

Then when you pass away, your collection gets auctioned off for 25% of its face value. Although with the way things are going, the price of a 1st class stamp (if it still exists) may have increased by more than 4x in a decade or two from now.

Last year my friend purchased a collection of every stamp that RM had issued since decimalisation to around 2015, painstakingly curated in a lovely album with individual labels. With some regret he destroyed the album and began using the stamps for postage.

The majority of those stamps were those with a value rather than 1st or 2nd, so after inflation the collector's heirs probably received around 10% of what he originally paid for them. Though, the collector may have been mollified to know that at least some of the recipients of the packages mailed by my friend appreciated the use of diverse old UK stamps.

 

[HSTEd]

I think that now that it is merely a private company operating in a extremely competitive market, it will probably not survive.

It will be bled to death competing with businesses without a universal service commitment and who do not have a strongly unionised workforce.


In a world where rapid and effective delivery of packages is arguably more important than it has ever been, this seems to be a great shame.
Instead we have a race to the bottom built on unsafe practices and human misery.

 

[_toommm_]

They are absolutely useless. Where I live in SW London, they haven't delivered post in over two weeks, and I was waiting on a good few very important letters. My other half had to go to the local sorting office to get our post, and there wasn't even an apology or explanation to her as to why they aren't delivering.

 

[GusB]

Just to add a bit of balance to the thread, I can't really complain about the service that I receive from Royal Mail. My post, if any, generally arrives at the same time each day and the posties are always friendly. Maybe it's because I live in a rural area - who knows?

One thing I have noticed lately is that many of its vans haven't actually been in RM livery. For the last couple of months they seem to have been plain white, or they've carried the livery of one of the large rental companies. I was quite surprised the other day when a red van actually turned up.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Package posted RM48 last Tuesday 6th, supposedly arriving Thursday 8th between 0950 and 1350. Still waiting. It arrived at North West Midlands Mail Centre (Wolverhampton) at 1500 on Thursday 8th. It then arrived at North West Midlands Mail Centre (Wolverhampton) at 1700 on Saturday 10th. Must have been on a luxury spa retreat! Next normal delivery (on alternate days system) will be Tuesday 13th. RM48 or RM168?

 

[SteveHFC]

We have a couple of magazines that we get on subscription that are now over a month late, plus a bank card that hasn't turned up despite it being posted by the bank 3 weeks ago. Complained to the Royal Mail - just a generic reply received absolving themselves of all blame. Not good enough - but it's not going to change.

Might post the Christmas Cards next week to give them half a chance of arriving by Christmas 2027!

 

[AdamWW]

Just to add a bit of balance to the thread, I can't really complain about the service that I receive from Royal Mail. My post, if any, generally arrives at the same time each day and the posties are always friendly. Maybe it's because I live in a rural area - who knows?

I have a good experience with parcels getting through the network promptly to my door.

The problem is right at the end where they tend to just get chucked on the doorstep.

They claim that this shouldn't happen, but it would be very easy for them to check if staff are doing it by looking for delivery photos showing a closed door (or indeed in the case of the last thing I had delievered, taken from the bottom of the drive). I imagine AI could do a pretty good job at doing it for them.

So despite their protestations that they tell staff not to do that, it doesn't seem to me as if they try very hard to stop them.

My latest problem was because they failed to collect a parcel (no excuse offered) and when I took it to the post office I had to pay again because the original postage had already been used.

Request for refund completely ignored, and subsequent complaint closed with no way of opening it again.

I suppose they work on the principle that most people will give up rather than waste more of their time trying to get their money back and they are probably right.

 

[Buzby]

I received an email from RM (not a card) saying I wasn’t in when they tried to deliver a parcel I was expecting (I was!) so was invited to select a date for redelivery. I chose the next day - 19th. Online tracking showed this was scheduled. Waited in all day, nothing turned up. After the weekend I waited a few extra days, and noted delivery was still scheduled for 19th. The following week I received another email - my parcel would be returned to the sender if I didn’t collect it. I did the 6 mile round trip to the Delivery Office and asked for it, but it was nowhere to be found. It transpired that although sent Tracked 48, the carrier was not Royal Mail but ParcelForce and it was at THEIR depot - and would be an 18 mile round trip. Asking the RM bod for their phone number, I tried to call but a recorded announcement stated the number had changed and gave me an alternative.

On calling, this obviously central number advised I was in a queue, and the expected wait 38 minutes! After 37 minutes it rang out and CS staffer answered. I gave my tracking number and they promised it would be delivered in 2 days. On the delivery day, I received 2 identical emails, both saying as I hadn’t collected it, it had been returned to the sender.

The schizophrenic tie up between RM & PF is one thing, but as punters have no way of telling which service is being used, it opens the door to situations similar to my experience. I purposely do not use ParcelFarce but I advised the sender of the carp service and they refunded me immediately. Whilst Everi has its faults, the futility of dealing with RM takes the biscuit.

 

[Cambrian359]

Just to add a bit of balance to the thread, I can't really complain about the service that I receive from Royal Mail. My post, if any, generally arrives at the same time each day and the posties are always friendly. Maybe it's because I live in a rural area - who knows?

One thing I have noticed lately is that many of its vans haven't actually been in RM livery. For the last couple of months they seem to have been plain white, or they've carried the livery of one of the large rental companies. I was quite surprised the other day when a red van actually turned up.

Same , rural area and everything is delivered on time. Also parcels are hand delivered to your door where they knock/ring the doorbell and wait for you to answer unlike Amazon who dump on the doorstep without even ringing or knocking the door.
If for any reason your not home when they deliver the delivery depot is a 2 minute walk from my house and they allow people to go collect in set time slots (unofficially you can go anytime). Really can’t complain personally. Same great service with letters.North/mid wales.

 

[Peter Sarf]

We have a couple of magazines that we get on subscription that are now over a month late, plus a bank card that hasn't turned up despite it being posted by the bank 3 weeks ago. Complained to the Royal Mail - just a generic reply received absolving themselves of all blame. Not good enough - but it's not going to change.

Might post the Christmas Cards next week to give them half a chance of arriving by Christmas 2027!

I am seriously thinking of not sending Christmas cards by post this year.

 

[robvulpes]

I am seriously thinking of not sending Christmas cards by post this year.

I now send under 5 Christmas cards by post each year (after several years when RM provided unsatisfactory service in my neck of the woods for both incoming and outgoing mail particularly at Christmas), as I have an email address for all my other intended recipients. As my late parents did, I always preferred to send charity cards in preference to commercial ones; and thankfully there is an option for choosing in one place ecards from a large variety of charities at dontsendmeacard.com [LINK] (No connection with them, just a satisfied user)