You Can Close the Bloody Lot, As Far As I'm Concerned (Should we save the Post Office?)

Name: plipplop

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Product:	Should we save the Post Office?
Date:	09/03/08 (186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge variety of services

Disadvantages: Huge variety of problems

The Post Office is a true British institution. As long as we've had stamps, we've had the Post Office. Seen by many as a bastion of British society, the number of Post Offices has dwindled over recent years, prompting a campaign to save as many as possible. It's not until you actually use one that you realise why so many are being closed down. Inefficient, frustrating and near enough redundant, the Post Office is a prime candidate for the next great casualty of the eCommerce revolution.

Varying wildly in size and range of services offered, the Post Office is almost certainly the most prolific of any business run within the UK. You can still find them tucked into an unprofitable corner of some rural businesses, but as time has gone on, the numbers have dwindled as they become increasingly unprofitable as customer demands have changed radically. They are consistently under staffed, with small profit margins minimising the number of staff available to man the counters. It's not uncommon to find city centre post offices with only a skeleton crew, even during surprisingly busy periods and there's always a depressed air of gloom about the place, as though everybody's job is on the line. Realistically, of course, this is entirely the case.

A reasonably basic activity analysis of your average Post Office would yield a lengthy list of customers using the facilities for no other reason than they can't be bothered to use the alternatives; and nobody encourages them to do so.

I fail to understand why, for example, anybody claiming benefits is entitled to use Post Office facilities these days. Anyone claiming benefits should be obliged to have a basic bank account, into which said benefits are paid. The recipients can then withdraw cash at any cash point, at any time of day or night like anyone else. Pensioners wishing to move funds between accounts should do so via the same banking facilities used by everyone else (branches, ATMs, the Internet and telephone banking).

It's never a good idea to use a Post Office towards the end of the month, as the queues quadruple at all times of day with the burden of customers renewing their car tax. This is a facility that is fully available online, a system that offers more security and consistency for the DVLA and means that drivers need never leave their house. The cost to the DVLA is reduced (they don't have to pay the Post Office a commission) and as such savings could be passed on to the public, to encourage them to purchase tax in this way.

In order to increase its profitability, The Post Office has entered into a joint partnership with the Bank of Ireland to offer various financial products. Their attempt to "sell" customers financial products adds to queuing times and strikes me as rather uncompetitive. Financial institutions are very heavily-regulated at some cost to ensure that they only enable skilled / knowledgeable advisors to sell to the general public, and yet your average old lady post mistress can sell what she likes, receiving commission from Bank of Ireland for doing so. If the Post Office wants to operate as a bank that's fine, but they should also trade like one, with all the advantages and disadvantages that this leads to.

I'm not entirely convinced that your average sub Post Office will comply with its commitments under Anti-Money Laundering regulations. I've seen customers pay in quite large sums of cash at a Post Office Counter with barely an eyebrow raised. It's a good means of passing on drugs money, when high street banks are far stricter about their controls. Bearing in mind that this potentially funds terrorism, it's more in the interests of the consumer than you might think.

Other services offered are unnecessary. The need for a Passport checking service indicates either that the form is too complicated or that people are too stupid to fend for themselves. In either case, I resent being stuck behind them in a queue. Why use Postal Orders? Send a cheque, or, as they start to disappear too, send the payment electronically via BACS. Bill payments could be made online or at any other bank. Meter charging can be undertaken at local shops. The list goes on and on.

So what of the actual postal services offered by the Post Office? Clearly, there is still a strong need for this, but there is massive room for improvement. The postal system should be simplified. The difference between first and second class is ridiculously small; the latter should be abandoned to simplify postal tariffs. Post Offices simply don't reflect modern demands either. Many are still closed or only open for a few hours on a Wednesday or Saturday, for example. This is 2008 for goodness sake. I've never known a Post Office open later than 18:00. Other retail units could easily handle the postal elements of trade at far more wide-ranging hours. Imagine a postal counter at your average supermarket, simply dealing in letters and parcels, open until 22:00 with twice daily collections from the Royal Mail. None of the costly overheads of the Post Office and a good logical fit with the volume of customers going there already.

The reality is that there is an emotional attachment to the Post Office, which means that there is a reluctance to do anything other than make continual cutbacks that add to the queuing time and the inconvenience. There is no truly viable alternative for anyone who needs to post a parcel at the current time and it's rather infuriating to stand behind 20 pensioners, benefit claimants and car tax customers when you know that they DO have an alternative.

The title says it all. It's time for the postal service to think rather more radically and, sadly for some, that almost certainly means the end of the Post Office as we know it. Good riddance, I say.

Summary: Close 'em down.