PUBLICATION today of the regulator’s 70-odd page final decision on tariff charges for Guernsey Post means that in principle, from 1 April next year the utility faces unrestricted competition on all packet mail and a small percentage of its letter post.

Whether that is a good or a bad thing depends largely on what sort of a user of GPL services you or your business are and how things shake down in future.

But what is clear is that the consultative process following the Office of Utility Regulation’s earlier draft report has led to substantial changes that ought to be in Guernsey Post’s favour. Whether they are will not be clear until it makes a formal response – which still leaves the possibility of the decision being appealed to the Royal Court.

In the meantime, the way is clear for other postal providers or logistics companies to set up competing services here, which will be welcomed by the island’s increasingly important bulk mailers.

The OUR’s director-general was at pains to make clear that there has been no compromise – regulators don’t do compromise – but the consultations reflect his legal obligation to balance the often conflicting interests of the universal service obligation and the needs of users who vary from ordinary islanders to personalised cards provider moonpig.com and supplements retailer Healthspan.

What has also emerged from the process is that the bulk mailers feel very strongly that Guernsey Post does not sufficiently understand their businesses and does not do enough for them. Some of the representations to the OUR, which are confidential, are said to be very firmly worded.

For GPL, that has to be useful information. No business can afford to alienate half of its customer base – not unless it is a state-owned monopoly insulated from commercial reality.

Guernsey Post is far from that and the hope is the OUR’s final decision is just that: something all users and GPL itself can live with and that the consumer can see benefits from competition.

The alternative is the earlier-threatened legal action and States involvement – which really is in no one’s best interests.