News

UK mail regulator Postcomm has denied reports of proposals for a five-day-week postal service.

According to the Financial Times (FT), Postcomm chief executive Sarah Chambers told a conference in London yesterday (25 June) that it might allow Royal Mail to reduce deliveries from six to five days per week in the wake of a review into competition within the mail market.

A spokesperson for the regulator told printweek.com: "It's a lot less exciting than it first would appear... Some remarks were taken out of context.

"There is no proposal from us or any request from Royal Mail to reduce deliveries from six to five days a week."

A spokesperson for Royal Mail confirmed the position. "We've not asked for a five-day delivery, and we've no plans to change things," he told printweek.com.

The Postcomm spokesperson claimed the remarks made at the Institute of Economic Affairs yesterday were based on the debates being stimulated within the ongoing review of the market.

Postcomm's emerging views on responses to the consultation documents being circulated as part of the review will be published in the summer.

The spokesperson said questions of quality of services versus price and the need for levels of delivery services are brought up in these documents.

"As a regulator, we have a responsibility to ask these questions," she added. "Our primary duty is to protect the universal service."

She said the response so far had shown users to be "fairly satisfied" with service levels and added that the regulator is not in a position to change legislation, regardless of the outcome of the review.

"We don't have the power to change the universal service all that much," she said. "It is governed by the Postal Services Act, which is primary legislation."

The FT reported that during the conference, Chambers had said the current postal regulations ensured a "Rolls-Royce" service compared with its European counterparts.

She also questioned whether post needed to be delivered to the front door, rather than mailboxes.

The spokesperson asserted that these kinds of topics were not related to issues of competition and maintaining the core universal service.