Peter Carr, Chairman of Postwatch, commenting on the Royal Mail’s publication of its Regulatory Accounts said: “To quote the losses of domestic mail disregards the opportunity to improve profits by reducing costs rather by increasing profits. Cross subsidies are a fact of life in most consumer industries.
“It should be noted that 65 per cent of the mail sent from business is delivered to domestic customers. Would reducing the amount of stamped mail delivered really improve profitability?
“By emphasising the bad news the conclusion can be drawn that the Accounts are being used to fire the first shots in the next Price Control discussions and to attempt to put pressure on the Regulator to agree to the introduction of Sized Based Pricing.
These issues rather than improving service performance seem to be Royal Mail’s real priorities.
“Royal Mail should have used today’s publication to highlight that the profit from their Universal Service products has increased from £9million in 2002, to £322million in 2004. That Universal Service turnover is up by over £200million on the previous year. And that the margin has increased from 1.4 per cent last year to 5.5 this. These figures show the Universal Service is getting stronger. This is good news for Royal Mail’s customers.”
