Royal Mail has warned that the cost of a first-class stamp will see a significant increase if the postal service is to continue six-day deliveries.
The price of a first-class stamp increased by 10p to 95p in March, while a second-class stamp rose to 68p. A further increase could push the cost of a first-class stamp to exceed £1 for the first time.
Chairman Keith Williams said that fewer letters were being sent, which means that it’s costing more to deliver at the weekend.
Keith Williams said that the cost to them was being driven in part by the fact that the volume of letters had declined, and that they’re delivering the same number of letters over six days when they could be doing it over five, so that was pushing up stamp costs.
It comes after Grant Shapps told a select committee that he wouldn’t let Royal Mail decrease the number of days it delivers.
The postal service is legally required to deliver posts six days a week but regulator Ofcom has accepted proof that 97 per cent would be happy to reduce service to five days.
It’s been struggling to modernise in order to compete with other delivery services, like Evri and Amazon.
Mr Williams told a newspaper outlet that Royal Mail is permitted to generate a profit margin of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent under post-nationalisation regulations, and he said that they’ve made that margin in two years since privatisation.
The Chairman said the postal service was stuck between the government and the regulator as it failed to meet financial sustainability targets.
The Royal Mail chief also said that Mr Shapps might be forced to allow the changes.
The postal service has also been hit by strikes throughout December, which is normally its busiest time.
Strikes have driven up delivery prices for businesses across the country and some have limited their delivery options as a result.
Charges at John Lewis have gone up from £3.95 for standard delivery for items of more than £50 to £4.50 since November. Argos has increased its charge for fast delivery by £1.
Retailer Oliver Bonas has suspended their click-and-collect option, leaving Christmas shoppers fewer ways to order gifts.
A representative for John Lewis said the retailer was working to keep its delivery prices as low as possible.
But the sad fact is, you never actually see a postman around these days, twice a week if you’re lucky.
As a child, twice a day a postman would deliver the mail and you could set your watch by the smartly attired postie, now it’s just completely random, but that’s because everything is done by email and text – online everything these days, which is killing the postal service.
You can mark my words, eventually, Royal Mail will be a thing of the past because it’s far easier to send by email or text – you can even do e-signature these days if something needs to be signed and just send it straight back.
Most people have mobile phones and computers that they can send correspondence on, apart from those that don’t!
Everything is now going paper free, or at least you’re being encouraged to do so, and contracts are being done over the phone, you don’t even have to sign for much these days, and most people don’t write letters anymore because the new generation doesn’t know how to.
People don’t write letters anymore, and back in the day other courier companies weren’t around, but with all this technology we don’t seem to need a postman – why would you when everything these days is done online?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 