Royal Mail sold off to Czech Billionaire

[survivalist]

Good or Bad move? Or are you indifferent?

Personally, I can’t see the relevance of sending letters in 2024 and think they’ll struggle to survive.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/royal-...

[Athlon]

Bad, the Royal Mail is crap these days but it is an institution, I hope they remove the Royal bit now it is not run by the country

[abzmike]

People always say the Royal Mail is irrelevant, but they still deliver 7 billion items a year, that senders at least deem important enough to send. I probably sent 6 xmas and 2 birthday cards, and retuned a few parcels, but received probably 100 largely marketing letters. Still a massive organisation, and will be around in some form long after I’ve gone.
As to whether it’s good for it to be in foreign ownership, maybe not, based on nothing more than experiences from other utilities not in public ownership. Is there a regulator to monitor operational and corporate activities?

[RobB_]

No one sends letters anymore but the RM is setup with all the infra' and staffing to keep maintaing that service 5-6 days a week.

Does it need to be 5-6 days a week? probably not.

What gets sent more in the post now, letters or parcels? = parcels.


Difficult, being able to mail anyone in the UK has been around for a long time and brought us a common expectation of communications - but I can see it's not practical for the gov (i.e. us) sustaining something that fewer and fewer people use - outside of birthday/xmas cards.

[allegro]

I just hope he has nothing to do with Czech postal services. If you think it's bad here, try sending mail there!

[Radec]

The Czech is in the post.

[Rufus Stone]

The billionaire is welcome to them, their service is crap.

The cost is now ridiculous even with the franking discount. They have lost several important documents I posted this year and cost me £27 for a lost package.

[sugerbear]

Rufus Stone said:

The billionaire is welcome to them, their service is crap.

The cost is now ridiculous even with the franking discount. They have lost several important documents I posted this year and cost me £27 for a lost package.

I think we can label this as another successful privatisation. Haven't been government run for a number of years.

[valiant]

Sell off all the valuable land and assets, load it with it debt and run it into the ground and then when it's a shell of its former self, have the government bail it out whilst the owners walk away having made their loot.

See the water companies for inspiration...

[Lefty]

My Mrs came home from the shop the other day and asked me how much I reckoned a 1st class stamp was.

Right here we go.

It should be something like 25p but that can’t be right. Let’s double it. 50p?















£1.65

[Murph7355]

valiant said:

Sell off all the valuable land and assets, load it with it debt and run it into the ground and then when it's a shell of its former self, have the government bail it out whilst the owners walk away having made their loot.

See the water companies for inspiration...

Very different to the water companies IMO. What you note might happen, but the impact to the public will be negligible.

[valiant]

Murph7355 said:

valiant said:

Sell off all the valuable land and assets, load it with it debt and run it into the ground and then when it's a shell of its former self, have the government bail it out whilst the owners walk away having made their loot.

See the water companies for inspiration...

Very different to the water companies IMO. What you note might happen, but the impact to the public will be negligible.

I suppose it depends on if you view it as an essential service or not which admittedly is a debatable point.

Lots of sectors like the NHS still rely heavily on RM so to say they'll be negligible impact is a bit premature but we'll see I suppose.

[Murph7355]

valiant said:

I suppose it depends on if you view it as an essential service or not which admittedly is a debatable point.

Lots of sectors like the NHS still rely heavily on RM so to say they'll be negligible impact is a bit premature but we'll see I suppose.

100yrs ago, probably.

50yrs ago, definitely.

Now? No chance.

Don't get me started on NHS admin. I've had my appointment before the post has brought me confirmation of it. And why in the 2020s can all medical details not been seen by all medical professionals immediately?

Times have changed.

[eccles]

Rufus Stone said:

The billionaire is welcome to them, their service is crap.

The cost is now ridiculous even with the franking discount. They have lost several important documents I posted this year and cost me £27 for a lost package.

Yeah and the private sector companies have such a good reputation for getting things to you!

[A500leroy]

Lefty said:

My Mrs came home from the shop the other day and asked me how much I reckoned a 1st class stamp was.

Right here we go.

It should be something like 25p but that can’t be right. Let’s double it. 50p?















£1.65

Can you get from Glasgow to Newquay within 24 hrs for £1.65.
No?
Not such a bad deal.

[Square Leg]

A500leroy said:

Lefty said:

My Mrs came home from the shop the other day and asked me how much I reckoned a 1st class stamp was.

Right here we go.

It should be something like 25p but that can’t be right. Let’s double it. 50p?















£1.65

Can you get from Glasgow to Newquay within 24 hrs for £1.65.
No?
Not such a bad deal.

Exactly.
Still cheap for what it does.

Can’t say I’ve ever had crap service from the Post office.
My local one is fantastic at delivering stuff.

[bitchstewie]

Lefty said:

My Mrs came home from the shop the other day and asked me how much I reckoned a 1st class stamp was.

Right here we go.

It should be something like 25p but that can’t be right. Let’s double it. 50p?















£1.65

Honestly I think that's a bargain.

Most people don't send paper post these days do they?

[Evil Jack]

valiant said:

Sell off all the valuable land and assets, load it with it debt and run it into the ground and then when it's a shell of its former self, have the government bail it out whilst the owners walk away having made their loot.

See the water companies for inspiration...

Probably something like that, but it's worth pointing out that he's actually bought the entire IDS conglomerate, which contains Royal Mail along with the much more lucrative GLS.

[119]

Excellent, as least things should start to improve.

[dandarez]

abzmike said:

People always say the Royal Mail is irrelevant, but they still deliver 7 billion items a year, that senders at least deem important enough to send. I probably sent 6 xmas and 2 birthday cards, and retuned a few parcels, but received probably 100 largely marketing letters. Still a massive organisation, and will be around in some form long after I’ve gone.
As to whether it’s good for it to be in foreign ownership, maybe not, based on nothing more than experiences from other utilities not in public ownership. Is there a regulator to monitor operational and corporate activities?

I'll pick you up. That is incorrect. It's 7 billion LETTERS, not 'items' a year.

To give some perspective.
I used RM for the majority of my 33 yrs as a book publisher until I retired.

That 7 billion 'letters' has fallen from 20 billion letters a year posted - 'at their peak' which was a bloody long time ago - 20 yrs ago, in 2004/05 to be precise.
7 billion 'letters' were sent last year, and addresses now receive just 4 letters a week; during the same period the number of addresses has increased by over 4 million!
Whilst the number of parcels that Royal Mail delivers has increased, this is in a highly competitive delivery market.
I chose to use parcel delivery firms outside of RM for much of the last 10 yrs of my business, simply because the rivals were more competitive, and importantly, reliable.

Demand for RM parcels has not seen an increase anywhere near enough to offset the financial impact of the massive structural decline in letters.

And we wonder why RM is now in a foreign hand.

As someone above said, the 'Royal' part needs now to be dropped.
Perhaps now call it UK Mail...
oh, hang on a mo, not possible. There is already a 'UK Mail' - it's the trading name of DHS Parcel UK Limited... the parent group being 'Deutche Post' ...Germany.
You couldn't make it up.