Strikes cause "untold damage" to Royal Mail's reputation
By Kate Pritchard, published 280 days ago in Leadership.
In what David Cameron describes as an “appalling display of weakness” and Lord Mandelson slams as “totally self-defeating”, Royal Mail workers will today press ahead with a two-day strike. Read the reaction from the business secretary and entrepreneurs.
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“Royal Mail has to respond to the fact that ten million fewer letters are being posted each day than three years ago and total mail volumes have fallen by a further eight per cent in the first half of this year,” says Mandelson. “In other words, if it stands still, this company faces terminal decline.
“I very much regret what is happening. Candidly, I think it is totally self-defeating for our postal services and those who work to deliver them,” he continues. “Taking industrial action will not resolve this dispute. It will only serve to drive more customers away from Royal Mail.”
Lord Mandelson says that small businesses will be looking on with “anger and exasperation”. Just as there are signs of the economy recovering and the prospects for their businesses are improving, strikes now will set them back and put their businesses in jeopardy.
Stephen Bentley, chief executive at Granby Marketing Services, accuses the Royal Mail of being "notoriously weak" when it comes to working with small businesses. “I’d expect that many businesses are getting very close to either switching or at least widening their supplier base to include alternative downstream access providers,” he says. “While the strikes continue to do untold damage to Royal Mail’s reputation, it’s a great time for competitors such as TNT to steal a march and capitalise on the goodwill that will inevitably come their way if they can step in to fill the resulting void. However efficient the competition is, however, we’ll still face the problem of the Royal Mail controlling the ‘final mile’.”
Stefan Foryszewski, co-founder of OB10, agrees that the strike will cause serious cash-flow headaches for SMEs. “Not only has your business got to deal with the likelihood that invoices may not arrive but also that your customers’ payments are going to be late, lost among the millions of letters held up in warehouses.
"Over the past few weeks we’ve seen big companies, such as Amazon and John Lewis, turn their backs on the Royal Mail. They are huge multi-national companies – they can afford to do that," he continues. "Small businesses, on the other hand, and those who are most likely to suffer from a number of late payments, cannot easily avoid using such services. This is where e-invoicing can help.”
Stuart Wallis of ISL Tours, a football tournament tour operator, says he’s already turned his back on Royal Mail. "This week we launched our 2010 Football Tour Brochure and sent out 20,000 digital copies in our digital letterhead. This would have cost us over £20,000 using traditional paper and post methods, costs which would normally be bundled into our retail price."
As well as having no worries about brochures being delayed in the strike, Wallis says this digital approach has helped to speed up the sales process and cash flow, reduce operating expenses and open up new routes to market. “We are doing our bit for the planet at the same time," he says.
Are the Royal Mail strikes crippling your business or have you found a way to bypass snail mail? Post your comments below.
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4 comments.
Craig Hartzel 279 days ago.
We are noticing that more businesses are receptive to the idea of sending their Christmas cards digitally to their business contacts because it’s a much more engaging way of connecting with them. It’s also saving time, money, its all measurable, sits better with their CSR, and of course its less hassle for the people involved in sending them out.
Craig Hartzel, Founder http://www.CharityGreetings.com. If you’re a business go to: http://www.CharityGreetings.com/xmas
Steve Adams 279 days ago.
The strike means that businesses need to find alternative ways to send and receive business critical documents. One solution is - Fax. Believe it or not, fax is still widely in use, and has evolved from its traditional machine-to-machine format. Today's fax-to-email or email-to-fax services cannot be beaten on cost, reliability or environmental credentials. There are no start-up costs - you don't need a fax machine to send or receive faxes! And there are no postal costs - financial or environmental. Pay-per-use e-mail fax services allow users to send and receive faxes via email, any time of the day or week. When the postal strike is over, the good news is that businesses will be established users of e-mail faxing and can continue to save time and money using the service.
Harry Clarke 279 days ago.
This might actually, with the benefit of hindsight, be a blessing in disguise. With the definite exception of personal notes of love and thanks, there is very little that is sent by post that would not be better exchanged electronically. This will hasten the UK – perhaps not least of all central government to develop processes that take us forward not backwards. This suicide is progress with a tragic face but progress nonetheless.
James Cameron 279 days ago.
Ultimately I blame the government - how can they allow something so important to the economy and a key part of the infrastructure of the country to be brought to a standstill? Its a farce.