Do we need what post office does, asks the regulator
Friday 23rd July 2010, 1:00PM BST.
QUESTIONS need to be asked about whether Guernsey Post’s delivery and collection services are still suitable when islanders are increasingly using technology to communicate, according to the Office of Utility Regulation.
Margaret Boden-Heaume sending a message the ‘traditional’ way at St Peter’s Post Office. Such deliveries, collections and counter services Guernsey Post has to provide are ripe for review, according to the OUR. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 1002713)
Guernsey Post is obliged to empty mail boxes, run post offices and make deliveries six days a week under the universal service obligation.
Yesterday, the company’s chief executive Gordon Steele warned these services could be under threat if Jersey’s bulk mailing market is opened to competition. He said new entrants in Jersey would be able to undercut Guernsey Post prices because they do not have to provide these services.
But OUR director of regulation Michael Byrne said it was time to look at how well those services fit with modern needs. ‘Given changes in technology, there is a case to look at whether the existing service is as appropriate as it needs to be.’
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Have we not got rid of the OUR yet??
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The two sides in this arguement are like children.
One says “we don’t need the OUR” the other says “we don’t need the post delivered or collected”.
Play nicely kids or don’t play at all!
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Guern abroad
Apparently we’re going to share ‘Ming the Merciless’ as Scarlett calls him, with Jersey
Might be a good idea to drop him off half way
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The obvious answer is YES WE DO.
It’s all very well for these faceless suits with their business focussed blinkers to ask these sorts of questions but it seems to take no account of the general publics needs.
People will always like to open a proper birthday card, read a letter or postcard so although this type of mail is in decline it is and still will be needed long into the future.
The very fact that the Regulator asks a question like this highlights the high handed approach of the OUR, it is not looking at the the question of postal regulation with a view to the wider picture of what is best for the WHOLE community but seems to be driven to enhance unregulated competitors in a certain (albeit important) sector of postal business at the expense of Guernsey Post which as current laws stand still has service obligations to meet which others do not. Gordon Steele is trying to highlight (perhaps not very well) the facts of how unregulated competition, whether here, Jersey or eleswhwere could effect the services of a heavily regulated incumbent postal operator. The OUR will not tell us this because their mantra is that competition is good for us.
Local bulk mailers will only last as long as the conditions exist for them to be profitable, if the new UK government does as MR Trott warns and closes or substantially reduces the VAT de-minimus threshold then some bulk mailers will undoubtedly think about relocating their operation, they have no alleigence to Guernsey and will move if a better offer comes along, Mr Coates has said this himself.
Regulation may have benefits but it has to be dealt out evenly and fairly. Guernsey Post may indeed need to pull its socks up a bit but GPL is here for the long run not for a quick profit on the back of a possible soon to be diminished VAT de-minimus rule.
The States need to sort out this mess and get the two parties to come to a truce.
I see the review of the OUR is going to cost us £55,000 now because C & E aren’t up to the job.!! Don’t see the regulator telling the States to cut it’s overheads..ah maybe the States should be controlled by the OUR…things would change then eh..!!
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The people of Guersney should be asking DO WE NEED what the regulator Does ?
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I NOTICED MR , STEELE HAD A NICE LITTLE BONUS THIS YEAR, DID THE REGULATER REGULATE THAT?
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Outrageous wages for those doing questionably good jobs on both sides here.
In the blue corner, Flash Gordon, who wants to save the earth in the two minutes it has left, but instead spends his very well paid time posturing to the press and spending an absolute fortune on his own ridiculously high wage, bonuses, and postie’s overtime (not forgetting the legion of office workers, who, trust, me, earn an absolute fortune in wages/bonuses as well)…
and in the red corner, Ming the Merciless, another overpaid waste of space, wasting equal amounts of (our) money, who insists he’s being a ‘fair’ dictator, despite the fact that he has turned into a complete meglomaniac, thanks to our Govt giving him almost total autonomy (well done, great move), who sticks his nose in where it’s not needed, whilst turning a blind eye to where it is, ie. over inflated fixed line and BB prices (all supplied by ONE company) and the private sale of a States owned entity to a commercial company…
so, who will save every one of us now…?
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“The obvious answer is YES WE DO.”
Not necessarily so. At a domestic level, all I seem to get nowadays are bills. Me and my family do not need a 6 day delivery service.
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