Like countless others, I am aghast and incredulous at the fact that the postal service to my house has all but collapsed. Instead of the breakfast post and a second delivery later in the morning, post now arrives at any time of day -- if at all. We are now going for days at a time with no delivery whatsoever. The harrassed postmen say the situation at the sorting office is utter chaos, with sacks of unopened mail. Urgent or otherwise important letters are being catastrophically delayed or even lost altogether.

In today's Teleghraph. Stephen Robinson describes the mayhem and tries to find out why this has happened. Apparently, it's because the second post has been combined with the first since so few letters were being delivered by the second post. This was the argument that persuaded the regulator Postwatch to go along with the plan.

'Who could conceivably complain about losing the second post, that quaint relic of a bygone era which, these days, brings nothing more enticing than the offer of a pre-approved credit card? Postwatch swallowed the argument, and, as millions of us are now finding, the glory of an overnight postal service in this country has been destroyed at a stroke. In our corner of north-west London, we have lost not our second delivery, but our first. The post no longer comes at 8\u2001am over the first cup of tea, as it used to, but around noon, long after we have left for work. In effect, we, and millions of other people who go out to work each day, have lost the benefits of overnight mail delivery. I find this is the common outcome of this innovation: no one I have spoken to says their post comes earlier than it did before. In large parts of Britain, people are now reading their post over supper rather than breakfast. If you want to send your sister a birthday card, forget about posting it the day before with a first class stamp, because, even if it navigates its way past wildcat strikers at your local sorting office, she will no longer get it the next morning before she goes to work.'

How extraordinary that, not only did this comatose regulator allow this debacle to happen (so much for regulation) but that, given the extremely serious consquences for everyone from a collapsed postal delivery service, there isn't insurrection on the streets as a result.

Posted by melanie at April 23, 2004