Saving the Royal Mail's universal postal service in the digital age
Saving the Royal Mail's universal postal service in the digital age

Author: Richard Hooper

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-09-10

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780101793728

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Coalition Government asked Richard Hooper to update the 2008 report "Modernise or decline: policies to maintain the universal postal service in the United Kingdom" (Cm. 7529, 2008, ISBN 9780101752923). He finds the universal postal service still under serious threat, with most of the original causes for concern having got worse: the market and Royal Mail's market share continue to decline; the company has still not modernised sufficiently; the accounting pension deficit has grown from £2.9bn to £8.0bn; the current regulatory regime is not fit for purpose. The 2008 recommendation that private sector capital is required by Royal Mail is reiterated, for several reasons. The company is unlikely to generate sufficient cash to finance the modernisation required. Private sector capital will inject private sector disciplines and reduce the risk of political intervention in commercial decisions. And the state of the public finances means that Royal Mail will find it harder to compete for Government capital against other public spending priorities. But private capital will not be attracted without action on the pension deficit and the regulatory regime. The historic pension deficit should be taken over by the public purse. A new regulatory framework must be created that increases certainly for investors in the postal services sector in general and in Royal Mail in particular. Postcomm has recently consulted on a new framework, and this should be built upon. This update sets out the high level principles that should guide regulation, ensuring the overall burden is reduced.

The Future of the Postal Sector in a Digital World
The Future of the Postal Sector in a Digital World

Author: Michael Crew

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-11-28

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 331924454X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Worldwide, postal operators have been slow to address the threats from and opportunities created by electronic competition. The European Commission and member states are wrestling with these issues, while at the same time continuing to deal with the interrelated issues of implementing entry into postal markets and maintaining the universal service obligation. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 in the U.S. exacerbated financial and managerial problems faced by USPS that result in part from electronic substitution for letter delivery. A major aim of this book is to examine policies to address postal operations in a digital world and ways in which postal operators might reinvent themselves to respond to threats and exploit opportunities. Potential opportunities examined include parcels, e-commerce, digital delivery, regulatory innovations and pricing. This book will be of interest to postal operators, regulatory commissions, consulting firms, competitors and customers, experts in the postal economics, law, and business, and those charged with the responsibility for designing and implementing postal sector policies. Researchers in regulatory economics, transportation technology and industrial organization will also find considerable food for thought in this volume.

The Value of Everything
The Value of Everything

Author: Mariana Mazzucato

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2018-09-11

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1610396758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Modern economies reward activities that extract value rather than create it. This must change to ensure a capitalism that works for us all. Shortlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A scathing indictment of our current global financial system, The Value of Everything rigorously scrutinizes the way in which economic value has been accounted and reveals how economic theory has failed to clearly delineate the difference between value creation and value extraction. Mariana Mazzucato argues that the increasingly blurry distinction between the two categories has allowed certain actors in the economy to portray themselves as value creators, while in reality they are just moving around existing value or, even worse, destroying it. The book uses case studies-from Silicon Valley to the financial sector to big pharma-to show how the foggy notions of value create confusion between rents and profits, reward extractors and creators, and distort the measurements of growth and GDP. In the process, innovation suffers and inequality rises. The lesson here is urgent and sobering: to rescue our economy from the next inevitable crisis and to foster long-term economic growth, we will need to rethink capitalism, rethink the role of public policy and the importance of the public sector, and redefine how we measure value in our society.

Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail
Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail

Author: Michael A. Crew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0857935828

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This compilation of original papers selected from the 19th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics and authored by an international cast of economists, lawyers, regulators and industry practitioners addresses perhaps the major problem that has ever faced the postal sector – electronic competition from information and communication technologies (ICT). This has increased significantly over the last few years with a consequent serious drop in mail volume. All postal services have been hard hit by ICT, but probably the hardest hit is the United States Postal Service, which has lost almost a quarter of its mail volume since 2007. The loss of mail volume has a devastating effect on scale economies, which now work against post offices, forcing up their unit costs. Strategies to stem the loss in volume include non-linear pricing or volume discounts, increased efficiency and the development of new products. This loss of mail volume from ICT is one of a number of current problems addressed in this volume. The Universal Service Obligation (USO) continues to be a leading issue and concern that ICT undermines postal services' ability to finance the USO is discussed. The importance of measuring and forecasting demand and costs take on even greater importance as ICT undermines the foundations of the postal business. This thought provoking book brings to bear new analyses of the most serious threat post offices have ever faced and raises fundamental questions as to the future of mail. Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail is an ideal resource for students, researchers in regulation and competition law, postal administrations, policy makers, consulting firms and regulatory bodies.

Masters of the Post
Masters of the Post

Author: Duncan Campbell-Smith

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2011-11-03

Total Pages: 840

ISBN-13: 0141973226

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The origins of the Post Office go back to the early years of the Tudor monarchy: Brian Tuke, a former King's Bailiff in Sandwich, was acknowledged as the first 'Master of the Posts' by Cardinal Wolsey in 1512, and went on to build up a network of 'postmasters' across England for Henry VIII. Over the following five hundred years the Royal Mail expanded to an unimaginable degree to become the largest employer in the country, and the face of the British state for most people in their everyday lives. But it also faced the demands of an increasingly commercial marketplace. With the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the possibility of privatising the Royal Mail has prompted passionate arguments - and has added immeasurably to the difficulties of running it. In charting the whole of this extraordinary story, Duncan Campbell-Smith recounts a series of remarkable tales, including how postal engineers built the first programmable computer for the wartime code-breakers of Bletchley Park and how the Royal Mail managed to successfully continue delivering post to the front lines during two world wars, but also how they failed to avert the Great Train Robbery of 1963. He brings to life many of the dominant personalities in the Royal Mail's history - from Rowland Hill, who imposed a uniform penny post and set the great Victorian expansion on its way, to Tony Benn who championed the modernisation of the service in the 1960s and Tom Jackson who led the postal workers' biggest union through fifteen frequently stormy years up to 1982. This is the first complete history of the Royal Mail up to the present day, based on its comprehensive archives, and including the first detailed account of the past half-century of Britain's postal history, made possible by privileged access to confidential records. Today's debate over the future of the Royal Mail is shown to be just the ;atest chapter in a centuries-old conflict between its roles raising revenue and serving the public. Will its employees remain, like Brian Tuke's postmasters, servants of the Crown? This book could hardly appear at a more timely moment.

Understanding Regulation
Understanding Regulation

Author: Robert Baldwin

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 0199576084

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An introduction to the practical and theoretical issues that are central to the study of regulation, which a particular focus on contested areas and how they are dealt with.

Postal Strategies
Postal Strategies

Author: Pier Luigi Parcu

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-04-25

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 3031253620

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This edited book includes original essays by prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of postal and delivery economics, originally presented at the 30th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held in Rimini, Italy, May 25–27, 2022. The central foci of the book are the role of digital platforms in the postal sector and the impact of vertically integrated firms in delivery markets. Other important topics include the regulation of parcels and their environmental footprint, in light of the innovations affecting the so-called last mile, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the postal sector, on both the global and local levels. Chapters also discuss traditional topics for postal and delivery sectors, including postal costs, the funding of Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the related role of Universal Service Providers. This book is a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors interested in postal and regulatory economics but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

Postal services in Scotland
Postal services in Scotland

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Scottish Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-01-09

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780215555830

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Committee's report considers two key issues: the maintenance of a universal service and the continuation of a sustainable Post Office network across Scotland. The report welcomes assurances that Scotland would not be made exempt from the universal service obligation. Further clarification is needed on Ofcom's power to designate more than one universal service provider. Ofcom should be required to consult with consumers, small businesses and vulnerable users in remote, rural and island communities in Scotland before it recommends any changes to the existing USO. There are considerable advantages to a long, stable and robust relationship between Royal Mail Group and Post Office Ltd and the Committee recommends that a ten year Inter Business Agreement should be reached prior to any sale of Royal Mail. On the Post Office network, the Bill makes no provision for the number of Post Offices and does not set out criteria for access to the network, a matter of concern because the current criteria could be met by 7,500 branches rather than the existing 11,500 branches. This could lead to many closures in Scotland. The Committee recommends that the Government gives assurances to preserving the existing network of branches. Elements of Outreach Post Offices, which replaced 102 Post Office branches in rural and remote parts of Scotland, are not sufficiently robust or reliable to provide an adequate service, according to the Committee, and it fears the new Post Office Local risks downgrading the service further. Improvements should be delivered as a matter of urgency.

The Role of the Postal and Delivery Sector in a Digital Age
The Role of the Postal and Delivery Sector in a Digital Age

Author: Michael A Crew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2014-01-31

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1782546340

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume, the result of the 21st Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics (Ireland, 2013), describes the continuing problem of the decline of the postal sector in the face of electronic competition and offers strategies for the survival of mail s