The state of Royal Mail

[J T]

TBH I'm of the persuasion that as few public services as possible should be privatised.

Look at the mess the train system is in. Different people own the tracks to the trains, it's all divided up and I get the feeling that it could all be so much better.

I read a great article about privatisation and deregulation of the whole money-business. The crux of it was privatising the profit, but nationalising the risk - so when things get messed up the taxpayer bails them out. Unfortuantely I am too stupid and lazy to remember much more about it - but interesting it was.

[Buleste]

Don't forget the reason that post offices are losing money because the closer the government gets to privatising the Royal Mail the more exclusive services it has stripped form the post offices thus increasing the argument for privitisation as Post Offices are losing money. When are we going to get a government that believes in social responsibility rather than selling stuff off for a quick buck. For the last 29 years Britain has been run by nothing but carpet baggers lining their own pockets.

[TiredOfLife]

I'm a civil servant, so not in the slightest bit surprised, which is a disgrace in itself.

[Harrison]

I completely forgot to mention about the Post Office Counters and the trouble they are in at the moment. As most of you know 2000 post offices are schedules to be closed at some point soon, with a recent announcement that this could increase to 3000.

The reason is due to them not making enough money. Most post offices are franchised businesses owned by self employed shop keepers. This was a very attractive thing to get into until recently because a post master's salary was close to £40K. This in itself is a ridiculous salary and possible one of the reasons they were not making money?

But one of the reasons the post office counters are no longer making money is again due to the government. Most of the services offered by them until recently such as getting your pension over the counter, paying for your car tax, or your TV licence are all contracts between the Post Office and the government departments who handle these licences and services. So what did the government do? They opened these services to tender and other companies took over the handling of how they are paid. Therefore Royal Mail lost the ability for those services to be paid for at a Post Office counter.

Another mad government move. And yet they can't understand why post offices are not making money any longer and need to be closed. It drives me mad!

A central single place handling all of these services, which is what Post Offices were until recently, was the perfect setup. Now we have all of these services scattered around with you having to either pay for things online or find some random shop that handles them. Just mad!

[J T]

Actually, paying for car tax online is great - having it delivered to you is brill (especially as it's not always easy to get to a post office, and having to remember all the insurance/V5/MOt forms).

Agree with most of the other points though

[Harrison]

I do actually agree with you about car tax. I did it online myself last time I had to renew it and it was very quick and simple. Which actually surprised me a lot considering it is the DVLA we are talking about here!

[Stephen Coates]

Some interesting points here.

The staff they employ could also cause problems. On the front page of our newspaper on friday was

'Prison for Pilfering Posties'
They were taking parcels from the Rotherham delivery office and selling the contents on ebay. Over 12 months they made £37924.
And one of them was the supervisor who was told to keep an eye out for people stealing things. He got 3.5 years and the other one got 2.5 years.

[Harrison]

The staff they employ could also cause problems. On the front page of our newspaper on friday was

'Prison for Pilfering Posties'
They were taking parcels from the Rotherham delivery office and selling the contents on ebay. Over 12 months they made £37924.
And one of them was the supervisor who was told to keep an eye out for people stealing things. He got 3.5 years and the other one got 2.5 years.

But you can't blame Royal Mail for that. That is just criminal activities and those have been going on in every large business forever.

[AlexJ]

I do actually agree with you about car tax. I did it online myself last time I had to renew it and it was very quick and simple. Which actually surprised me a lot considering it is the DVLA we are talking about here!

I'd say the DVLA's online tax system is one of the few government computer systems that works as you'd hope. It's great that it'll automatically check MOT and insurance and is really as simple and easy as buying from Amazon or similar.

[Buleste]

I do actually agree with you about car tax. I did it online myself last time I had to renew it and it was very quick and simple. Which actually surprised me a lot considering it is the DVLA we are talking about here!

I'd say the DVLA's online tax system is one of the few government computer systems that works as you'd hope. It's great that it'll automatically check MOT and insurance and is really as simple and easy as buying from Amazon or similar.

Until you find that the data the DVLA has is insecure and you start getting charged for the London Congestion Charge when you live in the scottish highlands.