Dec 14 2008
Speed up Post Office management, Lord Mandelson
We are told a big review of the Post Office awaits Lord Mandelson. The Unions are afraid it means faster rounds and more job cuts. Taxpayers are afraid it means more subsidies and underwriting the huge losses in the Pension Fund. What it reflects is the poor management of the company in recent years, cutting the quality of the service whilst increasing the prices and demanding more cash from the government.
What should be done? The first task should be to empower regional and local management, making them responsible for their own revenue generation as well as for costs, and putting them in charge of their property and other assets. It’s not much fun for local managers, constantly being told to cut costs and offered no control over assets and revenue to grow the business in more positive ways.
A couple of years ago I proposed a way of improving the service and releasing cash in my Wokingham area. The main Post Office in Wokingham town occupies a prime position. At the front is a handsome facade and shop space to handle the counters business. At the rear is cramped and inadequate sorting office space in assorted sheds and industrial style building, with a narrow access to the side across a busy town centre pavement and main street.
I suggested they sold off the sorting office and back land for what then would have been a lucrative office redevelopment, bought a suitable modern property on an industrial park with good vehicular access for sorting, and increased the number of counters by knocking the shop through into the store room within the main building to cater for increased demand. Local management thought this all made a lot of sense, but the idea got lost in the rambling central bureaucracy.
Instead, the central management decided on the closure of two branch offices in Wokingham, claiming people could go to the main Post Office in the Town Centre instead. We objected, but they did not wish to hear us. I said they needed to increase the number of counters at the main building first, as there were already long queues. Instead they blundered on with the closures, causing worse queues and worse service in the main office as well as making it more difficult for the elderly to get there at all without a car.
The Wokingham example is just a small one, indicative of problems across the network. the whole thing is one big missed business oportunity, a great franchise that has been grossly mismanaged in recent years. We cannot afford the losses, and cannot afford the Pension losses. Both fund and business need new directions. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the speedy postman debate, the bigger problem the Post office has is the quality and power of management. There is some good local management, and doubtless some bad. None of it has the power to do the job. That’s why the results are poor, there are many missed property opportunities, and many missed opportunities to fire up the staff. They could start by giving them all a share in the business. That would help electrify it.
16 Responses to “Speed up Post Office management, Lord Mandelson”
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
The demise of the Post Office began in 1981 when the Royal Mail and the GPO were split up. Yes, it had its problems but nevertheless it was the envy of Europe and with goodwill and timely intervention the problems could have been fixed. Our post offices have been decimated, simply to fall in line with Europe’s ‘rules’. Successive governments have made ‘a dog’s dinner’ out of our Post Offices and nothing can save them now except a sovereign government independent of the EC. We Brits have become quite used to the depredations of the EU; everything that was once a source of pride and envied by the world has gone – including our parliamentary democracy.
For this government to take on the pension losses of the Post Office; to bail out car manufacturers; to recapitalise banks whilst at the same time lying to the public that this will lead to ‘more lending’; when our troops die in an unfunded and unwinnable war; when our elderly die in deplorable circumstances; when the attributes which made our four united countries ‘great’ in the first place are subverted, eroded and re-written – well, one has to wonder at the outcome.
Some people say that the Brits, and particularly the English, are stupid, dumbed down by soma tv, the BBC, by fast food & cheap fashion. Not so. Just like ‘Tommy’; we see.
I wish you well Mr Redwood. You say, “The Wokingham example is just a small one, indicative of problems across the network.” I agree.
Let me see – have I got this right? Wasn’t there quite a lot of EU interference too? I seem to remember that some sort of competitive element was introduced along with the current method (which I met in Spain) for costing letters on their size.
The maddening thing is that actual postmen and women are some of the nicest, most trustworthy people I meet.
And how much was their pension fund standing at? I forget how many billions of pounds. They are certainly members of the lucky New Class.
Competition is the answer. Open the delivery of all mail to competition and abandon the Royal Mail t it. That would sort it in double quick time.
Bazman Reply:
December 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Lola. Businesses send tonnes of mail, not just cards to their mums.
Lola Reply:
December 15th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Yep. Exactly. I’m one of them.
Competition from what, Lola? Countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain et al) which don’t adhere to the rules of the EU; countries (France; Denmark; Ireland) which vote against it will be ignored. There will be no competition because everything will be regulated and conform to an arbitrary norm.
The whole lot is stuff and nonsense. The Trades Unions have been in favour of a united Europe since the end of WWII. All it is is International Socialism under another name.
Food for thought: why is our Parliament taking the longest Christmas break? Answer: because they’re not needed; they oversee only 20% of UK legislation.
Mr Redwood, perhaps you should take a tip from the Fabian Society. I’d vote for you if you were my MEP.
The Royal Mail is British, Westminster has promised the Globalists free reign, so the Royal Mail is to be destroyed so that Global companies like FedEx and can take over.
Redwood, have you been at the sause?
John – I think you misundrestand Mandelson’s motivations. (words left out)There is no point at all in rationally explaining better ways of doing things – you have to focus on how good (words left out)Mandelson would look as a result of a particular course of action. Then he might take an interest. (Oh and if it can involve him meeting some real celebrities, especially anyone with serious money, then you stand a real chance of movement).
Mandelson – the best argument yet for an elected House of Lords …
Whilst it has a £7bn pensions deficit it is nothing but a dead man walking. As for the whole public sector, the pensions issue is just growing whilst being ignored by the Government. What number does it have to reach before they realise it is killing off the productive side of the country (in this case the post business).
No doubt the paymasters of Labour will hold out as long as possible, unfortunately they are only damaging their own long term prospects as the rest of the public sector follows the post office. Controlled via targets and investment in all the wrong places.
It is only after 10 years that prior investment decisions come home to roost.
Lola Reply:
December 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Careful with the £7Bn ’shortfall. It depends on how you measure it. I agree that it does have a shortfall but what it exactly is will never be known with what would be considered by the layman as certainty. The quantum of the shortfall is very sensitve to small changes in the factors used in calculating the ’shortfall’. And the PO is being required to make eye watering contributions to the scheme to fund this ’shortfall’ which adds hugely to its problems. The whole private company defined benefit pension scheme universe in the UK is in a mess because of these calculations are taken as Gospel. The history of such forecasting by the GAD and the various regulatory ’systems’ since 1986 is nothing short of a scandal. It has seemed to me to be largely ‘think of a number’ based on how the wind is blowing today.
JR: “What it reflects is the poor management of the company in recent years”
More failure but no doubt Leighton and Crozier will collect a big pay out to go!
Totally agree with Lola.
Has there ever been an efficient public service delivered by a monopoly?
Emails are free, as technology advances the postal service will be limited to parcels and sensitive documents, much more suited to competition. Let them charge thier own rates. Royal mail should be forced to accept competition and all post offices should offer a choice of mail service providers, with varying services and prices.
There is no incentive to reform without competition.
I live in Wokingham. About 3 yrs ago the PO lunched a ‘consultation process’ on my local post office. We all sent in our inputs and heard nothing other than that they were closing it. They said “Don’t worry, because there is another one only a mile away and you can go to that instead”. A year or so later, with no consultation, they closed the one they had told us to go to once our local post office closed. We now have no local Post Office anywhere near.
Today I had to post some packages for my business (I’m self employed). So I went in to Wokingham at 11.30am in order to avoid the lunchtime queues at the Post Office. When I got there, the queue (which folds back on itself twice) was already to the entrance. I looked inside to see only two counters open. I went away and did some other errands. I returned 30 minutes later – the queue was even longer, so I gave up.
Can someone please tell me how you can post a package in Wokingham without spending half the day in a queue. Please?
This is the story of nationalised industries. Since the war, over vast swathes of the British economy, management has been characterised by incompetence, hubris and overcentralisation.
When the right are in we have had insane rounds of cuts, WHen the left is in we have ballooning expenditure, and all the time services worsen and the quality of life suffers.
The only solution is to decentralise and for government to get out of running businesses.
Now someone plse tell that to Brown.
Have been thinking about the proposed part privatisation of Royal Mail. Can I ask if the State abdicating its responsibilites would have any implication for postal votes?