What can be done with Royal Mail?
To kick off, I don’t believe in universal coverage for the following reason:
Why should the people in the Shetlands (who choose to live there of their own accord) be able to force the rest of the country into paying more than the market rate for letters, against their will, in order to subsidise them? Why should everyone else pay their costs?
Just remove the Royal Mail’s legal privilege and TNT will soon have them out on the streets, however something needs to be done with the remains of the company and simply handing it over to big business isn’t an option. Two avenues are open as far as I can see as to what can be done in the interlude of it’s demise.
- The Co-op Option.
We should hand over mail deliveries to a co-operative consortium comprised of companies with the capacity for moving, sorting and storing mail (e.g. haulage firms and the supermarkets), companies and organisations capable of receiving and holding mail (e.g. supermarkets, newsagents, pubs, churches etc.) and individuals capable of delivering mail (e.g. anyone over the age of 13 who won’t nick it and who wants to earn some cash on the side).
A service that is owned in small parts by individuals and their communities-with large firms providing the muscle-will be much more personal and hopefully cheaper than the current Royal Mail. It will also allow competition, and give tens of thousands the chance to participate in a great civic venture. As, well as destroying the hold vested interests like the CWU and government have over the postal system.
Local stores (many of which have Post Offices attached ATM anyway), pubs and haulage firms are all struggling. By involving them in the postal business then it will be possible to revive them.
- Part Privatisation
Germany’s postal service, Deutsch Post was partly privatised back in 2000 and now it is one of Germany’s biggest companies and through DHL and other subsidiaries is a 40billion Euro company making lots of money for its shareholders the largest of which is the German Government.
DP has become flexible, post offices have shut, but they’ve been replaced by new post machines. In Germany you can find a sort of post vending machine where you can do all the business you could at the post office.
In the event of a stake being sold off the new private owner would provide:
- Funds for modernisation
- Expertise (if it’s a big European logistics company)
In the event of a stake being sold off the government would pay for:
- Post Office subsidies (lots of money)
- Agree to cover the (currently £5billion) pensions black hole (the biggest corporate pensions black hole in the London listed companies is ~£2billion)
The Royal mail needs to be made more efficient full stop, if it wants to survive, and although this would only delay the inevitable end of the service it’s good to see Mandelson has some pragmatism about him.
One thing that everyone must admit however, is that the days of a Nationalised Royal Mail monopoly are over.
Yes, it’s a reasonable idea. But the company should be private, and not underwritten by taxpayers. The government could maintain a stake, yes, and it could cover the pensions black hole (since that is of its making) but that scheme must be closed to all new entrants immediately.
Other than that, taxpayers should have no exposure: as such, I would rather that the state dispensed with the whole operation. Hey, sell it for a penny to the workers—the stupid bastards could then run the company into the ground with their own money.
DK
One of the main issues I have with selling it off to an oridinary established company is basicly handing a monopoly over.
‘the stupid bastards could then run the company into the ground with their own money.’
Exactly.
I think this is not much like the idea of a co-op as I know it!
Probably quite difficult to start with something as big and as spread out as the post office, One of the things that is perhaps needed for a co-op is some sense of a common bond – common purpose. Easier to do that with a defined community. I think a mix of big business and little individuals is difficult to make workable too.
The arguements about different bits of the country paying more does rather cut across the idea of the post office. It assumes that people do always have choices – and that they would be willing to gear their choices to fit the commercial constraints you would be chosing to impose on them here.
Whose benefit is the service for? is it for the customers? or is it for the providers of the service?
The variable rate idea really does not work well. This is what happened with bus deregulation. The private companies only wanted the nice profitable bits, – the consequence loads of rural communities with no bus service and people totally dependant on cars.
It is never a bad idea to play with ideas. and there are often genuinely creative ways of funding things that are “worth doing” but aren’t getting done because they cannot generate a sufficiently attractive reward for people motivated by money.
Keep thinking things through – but don’t ever suppose that money in itself is worth anything much! There are so many more things that are much more important.