Now that Royal Mail's volumes are down...?

The Royal Mail's business volume is down for one reason, inefficiency ! They can no longer be trusted to deliver mail on time, or even to the right address. A letter addressed to me had been to three other towns and post depots before it arrived with a first class stamp three weeks after posting ! It even had the correct postcode on it . The sooner this gang of idiots is privatised, the better !

The rot set in when posties started wearing baseball caps.

The problem that the Post Office has is that it takes as long to deliver one letter as it does a dozen. The physical act of opening the gate, fighting off the dogs, stuffing it through the door, and retreating while watching backside from said dogs, is the same. Posties still have to be paid at least minimum wage. At £6 an hour, one minute for an urban delivery means at least 10p. Five minutes for a rural delivery is 50p, and that is before all the other costs of sorting, distribution and bonuses for the chief executives.

Because of privatisation cherry picking, they got left with a system that has basically remained unchanged since 1840. Unlike telegrams, Royal Mail has no control over email or a share in its profits. They foolishly hived off the parcels section because of some dogmatic Free Market aversion to cross-subsidisation. With the growth in internet ordering, it is parcels that are doing as well as ever.

At the moment, if you want a message to arrive seconds after you sent it, never mind hours or days, you use email. It means everyone who wants this facility these days must own a computer and hire a phone line or similar. It is the equivalent of having a postal address 150 years ago. After these initial costs, email is considerably cheaper and faster than hard copy post. Not as cuddly though.

Hard copies can arrive in their own time, as can the parcels. The market is hardly there for hard copies to be delivered within a day to every home and business in the land for a flat rate fee.

Hence Royal Mail management have been amalgamating delivery routes, so that a delivery started one morning can be finished the next.

Like all progress, nothing is set in stone. Who knows, there might be a revival in a universal door-to-door delivery service. I would welcome thoughts as to what could bring that about.

They have lost two parcels that I returned to the sender. Two letters were posted in an empty house which the owner only visited monthly. Another letter was posted to the correct house number but in the wrong street. But thanks to Royal Mail I am now the owner of two driving licenses. The DVLA had to send me another after the first one got lost, it turned up in the empty house. After repeated complaints they now get their revenge by delivering any parcels to me at 7-15 am. I am retired and don't normally rise so early, I can see the pleasure in his face as he says good morning, parcel for you. The Bast..........

They are now sure to change the regulations...I mean why is a 'large' letter confined to 25mm when no ones letter box is that small?