Royal Mail

31/10/2007   Royal Mail Special Delivery - Status in October 2007

Following a meeting in London on 16th August involving the N.A.G., BJA, and Royal Mail executives, we have been advised that Royal Mail has revised its proposals for changes to the Special Delivery Next Day Service.

The service was the subject of a public consultation by the postal services regulator, PostComm, last autumn.

The BJA's campaign to bring Royal Mail's proposed service changes to the attention of the trade provoked a tremendous response, and PostComm subsequently asked Royal Mail to take account of the feedback from the trade. Royal Mail's revised plans now include retention of the existing Special Delivery Next Day service, with a maximum compensation limit of £500. Members will recall that the original proposal was to exclude jewellery from Special Delivery Next Day. The new Special Delivery High Value service will be introduced with compensation up to £2,500 as well as the inclusion of a lower £1,000 compensation option and a range of weight bands. This has been designed to provide a greater spread of prices for customers, in contrast to the originally proposed £8.90 starting point for the new service. The High Value service will offer greater safety for Royal Mail personnel, better security for packages, better tracking and a dedicated compensation team handling jewellery claims. Royal Mail will be presenting the new proposals to PostWatch later this month and we expect that a shorter public consultation phase will follow.