Member Article

Businesses benefit from postal competition

Postal service competition is cutting costs for many business customers through lower prices and better quality in Royal Mail’s service, the industry regulator Postcomm has announced.

The regulator’s figures show that since opening for competition in January, postal services have become cheaper for one in five businesses, while a further 38% said the choice of services on offer has improved. One in three businesses also said Royal Mail’s service had improved, although an increasing number are opting for Royal Mail’s rivals, such as Business Post.

The results of the survey show that the number of businesses switching to Royal Mail’s top three competitors during 2005-06 has doubled, and the proportion of businesses using other competitors was four times higher. However Postcomm sounded a note of caution, saying competition was still in its infancy, as Royal Mail currently controls 96% of the addressed letters market.

Sarah Chambers, chief executive of Postcomm, said: “There is great promise for the further development of competition in the UK mail market, but it is clear that the is much still to be done, particularly to meet the challenges posed by alternative means of communication. Although Royal Mail remains by far the largest operator in the market, competition has encouraged it to raise its game, especially on quality of service.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .