Competition in Jersey a threat to Guernsey Post
Thursday 22nd July 2010, 2:30PM BST.
ALLOWING competition into Jersey’s bulk mailing market could force Guernsey Post to look at cutting household deliveries, according to the company’s chief executive.
The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority will decide in October whether to open up the bulk mailing market to competition and Gordon Steele said some local companies might choose to send their mail through Jersey because it would be cheaper.
New entrants to the market would be able to undercut them, he said, because they did not have to provide any other postal services.
‘As a competitor comes in they do not have to pay anything for the universal service. It costs us £3m. a year to empty boxes, deliver mail and run post offices.’
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Must be a tough call…does Guernsey allow a small minority of local businesses to keep subsidising the Post Office whilst it spends money like water on hare brained schemes that have nothing to do with improving Post services (banks, shops, bureau de change etc) or should it remove some of the restrictions which have placed a massive cost burden on the bulk mailers and threatened hundreds of jobs and tax take?
Don’t be misled into thinking that protecting GP’s monopoly will safeguard daily post and all their jobs. The bulk mailers cannot continue to pay such huge sums of money for GP to drive a van up to the airport every day so, eventually, bulk mailers will be forced to leave the island taking jobs, tax and postal subsidies with them.
Relaxing the restrictions on posting larger items will at least keep the business in Guernsey, even if it isn’t in the GP’s coffers it will still be contributing to the States.
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What twaddle Gordon Steele speaks – more scaremongering – there is a protected area under (a proposed) 65p where the Post Office maintain their monopoly.
Here’s a hint..reduce your costs not increase them. Have 6 day a week contracts that mean all of your Saturday staff are not on overtime.
This debate is ridiculous – if you can’t manage the business – let someone else do it who can – and if that’s a competitor – then make them responsible for the USO and let’s see how they they do it.
Some facts:-
In the year up to 31 March 2010 the company had an income of £45.4m, a 5% rise on the year before, and the underlying profit was £1.2m
It was noted that over the course of the last four years, GPL’s overhead costs have more than doubled, from £2.9m in 2005/06 to £5.9m in 2009/10, and that current overhead costs are £2.2m higher than that forecast at the time of the 2006 Price Control Review by GPL management for the current year.
If Mrs Vic ran the household budget like this….I’d be considering my options!!
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How does he keep pulling the wool over the eyes of everyone?
Chairman eats out of his hand, Treasury do nothing, BBC clique think he is wonderful – what does it take for people to wake up and smell the coffee?
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Goodbye Gordon…….
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Goodbye Gordon
About time some sanity came to bear.
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Wow – looks like they smelt the coffee – wasnt expecting that – go for it boley, lets have a Guernsey Chief Executive who doesnt fly in on a Monday afternoon and fly out on a Thursday afternoon, but lives here and cares about Guernsey
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