Muted rumblings of progress from the CWU last week, gave little away in terms of bringing the present dispute at Royal Mail to an end - not that anyone else cared too much. The press has busied its time with scathing comment on the potential for national strikes and as has been pointed out numerous times, customers do not have any interest in what the dispute is about. They just want the post moving. They are tired of the rhetoric from both sides - they just want the post moving.

It is thought that the union is still dependent on a majority vote by members for national strike action, to force Royal Mail to rethink its plans for modernisation and to secure a new pay deal which it says should reward workers for their efforts in helping modernise the company. It also wants Royal Mail to desist from bringing in further changes without full discussion with union officials. Lord Mandelson earlier this year warned that the pace of change was not fast enough and was being deliberately delayed by the CWU. Royal Mail bosses also warned that strike action would have lasting consequences as customers switched to other forms of communication.

Since the closure of Postwatch and the setting up of the new Consumer Focus unit, customers have experienced significantly later deliveries and in many cases regular switching of postal workers leading to incorrectly delivered mail but there is no way for customers to complain other than through Royal Mail's national helpline.

If your mail is lost or incorrectly delivered, and I've had this happen myself on numerous occasions over the last year, you're left waiting for any complaint to filter down from Royal Mail's consumer helpline to your local delivery office. In my experience this is not only slow, any improvement appears to be temporary at best and I'm afraid to say that I too have ceased relying on the postal service. It still amazes me that companies still use post to send an invoice - I'd already switched to sending invoices as email attachments 12 years ago.

Hellmail was always very supportive of the role of Postwatch, even if we felt at times that it was shackled by its limited independence, but it wasn't a toothless organisation and made significant progress in terms of resolving many disputes between Royal Mail and customers, and indeed in helping Postcomm build an effective system of regulation. That safeguard has gone entirely and gave Royal Mail a green light to deliver a less reliable service at less cost. A temporary reprieve perhaps, but not addressing the very real problem of volume decline. Quality of Service targets alone are not in themselves a safeguard for consumers and with the goalposts on these having already moved, particularly with respect to what is deemed 'next day', I'm not sure there is much point to Consumer Focus either.

Harsh words but the simple fact is, if the Royal Mail cannot provide a consistent service, (and further strike action will only add to concerns), a permanent exodus to email and electronic mail boxes can only accelerate and leave a massive dent in Royal Mail's plans that it may never recover from. Negotiations between the CWU and Royal Mail are entirely pointless if both sides fail to get a grip on the bigger problem of decline in letters and return to delivering a service to customers who expect far more than they once did.

No matter what agreements are made, without a practical rather than a nostalgic approach to building a future, jobs will go and no amount of strikes will reverse that. Like BT, which was incredibly slow in grasping the need to invest heaviliy in providing internet services, the Royal Mail has spent too much time trying to do battle with electronic communications rather than pioneering them.

© Hellmail.co.uk (04 October 2009)

See Also >>

• Who Cares About Postal Liberalisation Anyway (16 September 2009)
  We are in a digital age that apparently promises so much and whether it be for practical, economic, or even nostalgic reasons, we remain torn between protecting our once great postal services and hanging on to the USO at all costs, and making some kind of giant (if not brave) leap into a world of digital mailboxes...
  
• Adam Crozier - We Need To Modernise To Survive (22 September 2009)
  Speaking to Sky News, Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier condemned postal workers in London for refusing to accept that they should be working all the hours they are paid for and the CWU of trying to scupper attempts to modernise the business. "we have is a company that needs to modernise to survive"...
  
• Protect The Postal Service - Not Destroy It (06 October 2009)
  Did industrial action have any impact on Royal Mail's business? the answer is NO! and Royal Mail has welcomed SKY TV MAG back to 2nd class from TNT's DSA. A lot of email and texting has replaced telephone calls and not hand written letters. Hand written letters are in decline and have been for the last 25 years or so, long before email...
  

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