People are talking about who can rich on shares from the privatisation of the Royal Mail. But what will this move by the government mean to the consumer? The Royal mail has deep roots that can be dated back to the 16th century, the time of Henry the eighth. In 1840 the first stamp was introduced along with a fixed cost for delivery anywhere in Great Briton and Ireland, and was dubbed the Penny Post. Interestingly for a time during the early 19th century in London there were multiple deliveries each day. Skip forward to 2006, in attempt [to make the pricing of mail reflect the actual cost of postage the Letter, Large Letter & package system was introduced:
- Letter = No bigger than a C5 (A5) envelope, weight no more than 100g
- Large Letter = No bigger than a C4 (A4) envelope, weight no more than 750g
- Package = Everything bigger than a Large Letter
Simple isn't it? So how much is a Package again? Endless hours queuing in the Post Office and I'm none the wiser. When performing the laborious task of visiting the post office, my frustrations require me to pay them what they ask for and leave as quickly as humanly possible. It was stated the cost of 80% of the post would remain the same. This figure that had to be revised to 70% as the new system was put into place. Meaning that, 30% of the post costs more or less under the then new system. So,
how will privatisation affect the cost to consumers using the Royal Mail? Only time will tell. Here is the latest update on that topic from the BBC news website.
"Royal Mail privatisation in the coming weeks." As you can imagine the politicians are saying the service won’t be affected by the sell-off. I think, and this is just a hunch, the cost of posting your next Christmas card is going to end up costing more.
