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Losses at An Post.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,326 ✭✭✭Farmer Pudsey


    I sometime think that we are gone overboard with this fixation with competition. If you look at the electricity and telecoms I see little or no advantage in what we have done in the interest of competition. While in aviation it is a success and I could see advantages in Bus Eireann having competition the electricity competition is a farce, in telecoms we have gone from one of the best in Europe to one of the worst in 20 odd years. In the case of An Post I see little or no advantage of competition in the letter market.

    Yes it needs reform as the ESB needs but setting up a competitor may not be the answer it may just see a reduction of service.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    in telecoms we have gone from one of the best in Europe to one of the worst in 20 odd years.
    That's not really true. While we won't (and shouldn't) have 100Mb broadband in Achill Island any time soon, the urban areas are different. In addition, selling the network with eircom was a disastrous decision.
    In the case of An Post I see little or no advantage of competition in the letter market.
    I would agree if competition is shackled like it is with the "deregulated" electricity market, where again, ESB's competitors have no choice but to use ESB's network.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,863 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    Xenophile wrote: »
    While in the office one morning the post man arrived to deliver the mail and while he was there he collected the outgoing mail.

    My parents live rurally and their current postman would do this, no problem. A previous postman let them know in no uncertain terms he would do no such thing. So its an individual thing. While they had the grumpy postman they'd have to drive 4 miles to the nearest postbox.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,224 ✭✭✭Going Forward


    My parents live rurally and their current postman would do this, no problem. A previous postman let them know in no uncertain terms he would do no such thing. So its an individual thing. While they had the grumpy postman they'd have to drive 4 miles to the nearest postbox.

    Interesting points which raise couple of questions: who do you complain to and what is the protocol for postman "obliging" collecting your mail for posting.

    An Post in my experience is not very pro customer service, plus theres sure,y room for an improved parcel service facility for rare general public users.yes there are other providers but its nigh on impossible to work out what it will cost


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,224 ✭✭✭Going Forward


    I sometime think that we are gone overboard with this fixation with competition. If you look at the electricity and telecoms I see little or no advantage in what we have done in the interest of competition. While in aviation it is a success and I could see advantages in Bus Eireann having competition the electricity competition is a farce, in telecoms we have gone from one of the best in Europe to one of the worst in 20 odd years. In the case of An Post I see little or no advantage of competition in the letter market.

    Yes it needs reform as the ESB needs but setting up a competitor may not be the answer it may just see a reduction of service.

    Agreed, competition for the sake of compliance, resulting in duopolies and cartels.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,003 ✭✭✭✭The Muppet


    Hello! Rural people are taxpayers too and thus are entitled to the same service as those living in urban areas. However, your idea has some merit assuming in return that rural dwellers have their income tax slashed.

    It's obviously more expensive to deliver mail etc in rural areas over urban areas. I'd say an increase on those taxes for rural dwellers would be more to the point, no one's forcing them to live out in the sticks. Other services could follow suit.

    Urban Dwellers now pay more property tax than rural dwellers on a similar principal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,584 ✭✭✭TouchingVirus


    Xenophile wrote: »
    About forty years ago I was in the South of England in a small rural village which hosted seminars for people from all over the world. While in the office one morning the post man arrived to deliver the mail and while he was there he collected the outgoing mail. Has anyone seen this arrangement in Ireland for any office or organisation or company with outgoing mail?

    It happens in our office, we even have a collection scan point so the postie can use his handheld device to record when he picks up our post.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,070 ✭✭✭Xenophile


    It happens in our office, we even have a collection scan point so the postie can use his handheld device to record when he picks up our post.

    Is this An Post? What kind of bar code does he scan? This being the beginning of the month many companies are sending out hundreds of statements of account. Is every envelope scanned individually? Your reply is appreciated!

    The Forum on Spirituality has been closed for years. Please bring it back, there are lots of Spiritual people in Ireland and elsewhere.



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭ardmacha


    This being the beginning of the month many companies are sending out hundreds of statements of account.

    I think if hundreds of items are being sent, the company might reasonably be expected to bring them to the office.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,262 ✭✭✭markpb


    Xenophile wrote: »
    Is this An Post? What kind of bar code does he scan? This being the beginning of the month many companies are sending out hundreds of statements of account. Is every envelope scanned individually? Your reply is appreciated!

    In our office, there's a barcode on An Post headed paper inside the front door. There's a notice that says (something like) it's to be scanned by AP staff when collecting post. I presume it's to track when they were at my office rather than anything to do with the post itself.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,070 ✭✭✭Xenophile


    markpb wrote: »
    In our office, there's a barcode on An Post headed paper inside the front door. There's a notice that says (something like) it's to be scanned by AP staff when collecting post. I presume it's to track when they were at my office rather than anything to do with the post itself.

    A good idea, makes great sense in many ways.

    The Forum on Spirituality has been closed for years. Please bring it back, there are lots of Spiritual people in Ireland and elsewhere.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,440 ✭✭✭donkey balls


    People saying that An Post does not have any competition clearly don't know much about the postal/express parcel/freight industry,There are loads of companies operating here in Ireland one even dedicated to snail mail the majority of them use sub contractors known in the industry as (owner drivers).
    Now some of these companies charge a fuel surcharge when calculating the cost of shipping/posting something the same as haulage companies and airlines,So a big cost for AN post would be diesel& maintenance for the trucks(which I used to see on a nightly basis in a previous life) and the up keep of the four main sorting hubs in Athlone/Dublin/Portaoise&Cork.
    Also any time I get a package delivered by An Post it is scanned and I sign on the pda/scanner device,And I don't and have never worked for An Post but I know a lot about transport&logistics.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,340 ✭✭✭SPDUB


    Interesting points which raise couple of questions: who do you complain to and what is the protocol for postman "obliging" collecting your mail for posting.

    You can't complain because a postie on deliveries is not allowed to pick up post .

    Any obliging postie doing so is technically breaking the rules and could be disciplined for doing so

    There are a number of duties where a postie delivers to an address in the morning and then does collections from post offices and postboxes in the afternoon and may do a collection from some of the bigger companies on his morning route

    But they are the only ones allowed to collect from some people and only then in the afternoon
    I presume it's to track when they were at my office rather than anything to do with the post itself

    Correct and also to prove they were there even if that day they didn't pick up anything from that office
    People should be made have a post box in a cluster with other houses and reduce delivery time

    Comreg won't allow it
    An Post are battling their Regulator in the courts (guess who pays for that?) in order to gain more power and continue with their outdated ways

    In fact it's to stop Comreg trying to do a power grab themselves by demanding that current ambiguous addresses be delivered to by two different delivery offices if necessary .Guess who will pay for that .

    The High court judge agreed with An Post that it's not Comreg's function to tell An Post had to organise it's delivery routes on an individual office basis


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