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Fine Gael closing down Rural Ireland??

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    #182
    LeinsterDub
    Registered Users Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭LeinsterDub


    http://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2017/0411/866927-post-postmasters-mayo-protest/
    An Post has indicated that 265 post offices around the country are unviable and may face closure


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    #183
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,487 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    There doesn't seem to be much discussion in this thread about how post offices could be closed, yet postal services maintained and in some ways even increased!

    There are a few way to do this, one way to do this is what they are doing in the UK. Closing post offices, but transferring the service into the local shop.

    Now no, I don't mean a separate post office inside the shop like you often see in Ireland. I mean getting rid of the postmaster and instead having the normal shop keeper do the same job.

    This approach has a few advantages, it saves An Post on wages, it improves revenue to the local shop, making it more sustainable, but best of all the postal services operate to the times that the shop are open, rather then the normal rubbish postal opening hours.

    Frankly I'd love to see the same happening in even city post offices. My local post office is in a shop, the post office is open 9:30 to 5:30 and closes for an hour and half at lunch time, pretty useless for anyone working. But the shop it is in is open until 10pm 7 days a week. I'd love to see postal services being taken over by the shop staff, it would lead to a much better level of service.

    Doing the same in rural Ireland where viable could help strengthen the local shop, while offering a better service then your current post office offers.

    Another alternative is installing Parcel Motel style lockers in villages. The German equivalent of An Post, Duestche Post does this. Their machines are very sophisticated. You can not only send and receive large packages, but you can also print stamps and weigh your packages to get a stamp printed. Really a great service, almost a fully automated post office that is open 24/7. Again much longer opening hours then a post office. Again frankly I'd rather see my local post office closed and replaced with a service like this, it would be much more useful to me.

    Finally for elderly people who can't use such automated services, then you can have a post bus type service that comes to the village once a week to help such people.

    An Post really needs to move with the times and improve it's services or in the urban areas it is also going to lose a lot of business to the likes of Parcel Motel.


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    #184
    murphaph
    Registered Users Posts: 19,018 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    bk wrote: »
    There doesn't seem to be much discussion in this thread about how post offices could be closed, yet postal services maintained and in some ways even increased!

    There are a few way to do this, one way to do this is what they are doing in the UK. Closing post offices, but transferring the service into the local shop.

    Now no, I don't mean a separate post office inside the shop like you often see in Ireland. I mean getting rid of the postmaster and instead having the normal shop keeper do the same job.

    This approach has a few advantages, it saves An Post on wages, it improves revenue to the local shop, making it more sustainable, but best of all the postal services operate to the times that the shop are open, rather then the normal rubbish postal opening hours.

    Frankly I'd love to see the same happening in even city post offices. My local post office is in a shop, the post office is open 9:30 to 5:30 and closes for an hour and half at lunch time, pretty useless for anyone working. But the shop it is in is open until 10pm 7 days a week. I'd love to see postal services being taken over by the shop staff, it would lead to a much better level of service.

    Doing the same in rural Ireland where viable could help strengthen the local shop, while offering a better service then your current post office offers.

    Another alternative is installing Parcel Motel style lockers in villages. The German equivalent of An Post, Duestche Post does this. Their machines are very sophisticated. You can not only send and receive large packages, but you can also print stamps and weigh your packages to get a stamp printed. Really a great service, almost a fully automated post office that is open 24/7. Again much longer opening hours then a post office. Again frankly I'd rather see my local post office closed and replaced with a service like this, it would be much more useful to me.

    Finally for elderly people who can't use such automated services, then you can have a post bus type service that comes to the village once a week to help such people.

    An Post really needs to move with the times and improve it's services or in the urban areas it is also going to lose a lot of business to the likes of Parcel Motel.
    Yeah I live in a dorm town outside Berlin. We have all this. The post office closed and moved into a normal shop (Deutsche Post wants to close all its own post offices and move them into shops and is well on the way to doing so). We also have the fancy Packstation you mentioned. It's actually really convenient for me as I have to pass it on the way to the station anyway so I sometimes send small stuff there (larger stuff goes to my neighbour).


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