The UK postal regulator Postcomm plans to fine Royal Mail a total of £11.7 million (€17.1million) for failures in customer service. The fine, mostly for loss of or damage to 14.6 million
letters and parcels, is the latest blow to the UK post office.
Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, said that the proposed financialpenalties were for serious breaches in 2004/05 of Royal Mail’s licence obligations to protect themail and deliver it on time. The bulk of the fine (£11.38 million) covered insufficient mailprotection and the remainder for poor mail delivery performance across parts of London.
“Customers are entitled to expect that when they post mail it will reach its destination. Butduring 2004/05, around 14.6 million letters, packets and parcels in Royal Mail’s care were lost,stolen, damaged or interfered with,” said Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm. A Postcomm reviewfound Royal Mail procedures were not being properly applied and measures to prevent loss or theftwere ineffective. But the regulator noted that Royal Mail had improved its mail protection sincethe time of the breaches.
In a statement, Royal Mail stressed that it put top priority on mail security. The mailbreaches had occurred during a time of “massive operational change” and the post office believedits mail system was now “one of the safest and most secure in the world”. Last year the totalamount of mail stolen was around 0.006% of an annual volume of 22 billion items, Royal Mail said.Around 80 per cent of stolen mail was taken by external persons, while staff were responsible forthe theft of an estimated 200,000 items.
But the British post office added: “We believe that the scale of the fine is unfair, has nobasis in logic, and does not follow Postcomm’s own regulatory guidelines. The fine simply divertsmoney that could otherwise have been invested in customer service to Treasury coffers, with nobenefit whatsoever for customers.” The post office would be appealing against the fine.
