(Replaces item “Royal Mail says open market good for mail”; clarifies source as Postcomm)
UK postal regulator Postcomm has announced large improvements in services following UK postalliberalisation at the beginning of 2006.
A survey by the regulator found business customers to be satisfied with the services in theopen market with 38% saying that they had improved and 20% benefiting from reduced mail prices.
In the past year Royal Mail had “dramatically improved quality”, said Postcomm, exceedingtargets for first class mail by 1.4% to 94.4% and second class mail up to 99.1% from 98.5%.
Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said: “Full competition is off to an encouraging start in2006 with 18 new operators now in the market.“
“Mail is a challenging market because it is being impacted by e-substitution and is pricesensitive, particularly with direct mailers, who account for nearly a fifth of the market as theyhave other ways by which to promote their products and services,” he added.
“However, we believe there is more scope for all postal operators to introduce innovativeproducts which will be valued by customers.”
Most addressed letters are still collected and delivered by Royal Mail, whose universalservice obligation means it must make at least one collection from every post box and at least onedelivery to every home or business premises every working day, although there are concerns aboutfinal postbox collection times in rural areas.
