Brand Republic reported yesterday that Royal Mail could lose its monopoly on the UK market earlier than expected, following its continual failure to meet performance targets.
Royal Mail's chief executive Adam Crozier said that he was happy to accept complete deregulation, but that "the handcuffs would have to come off", referring to the rules that prevent the company making an acceptable return on revenues.
Royal Mail also called for more freedom to set stamp prices, especially for bulk business mail, to enable it to better compete with private sector companies. Its Dutch and German rivals, which charge much more for their services, are understood to make returns of over 20% compared with 2.5% at Royal Mail.
Crozier also claims that there had to be careful licensing of new entrants to the market to avoid a "free for all" situation where customers are left to find their way through dozens of rival companies with varying levels of service.
The view was echoed by other postal operators, who warned that ending the letters monopoly could result in a "cowboy's charter".
Amicus, the main union representing 14,000 post office managers, said that the moves were premature and could result in chaos.
Peter Skyte, national officer for postal services at Amicus, said that deregulation would encourage "every white van man to chase postal business without adequate safeguards for security, integrity and sustainability of the public postal services".
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