Greetings card retailers have suggested to the communications industry regulator that it scraps a midweek delivery day instead of Saturday if it must reduce the UK’s letter service.
The Greeting Card Association (GCA) told Ofcom that stopping the delivery of standard letters on Tuesday or Wednesday would be less damaging than its original plan to axe weekend deliveries.
It comes in response to Ofcom’s consultation on long-awaited proposals for industry reforms published at the start of the year.
The regulator has published a series of options for the future of the universal service obligation, which requires Royal Mail to deliver nationwide six days a week for a fixed price.
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Ofcom’s suggestions did not specify cutting Saturday deliveries, but Royal Mail has previously pushed for it to be allowed to drop the weekend service.
In her response to the consultation, GCA chief executive Amanda Fergusson said: “In the unlikely case that the case for cutting a delivery day was proven, our members would prefer this to be Tuesday or Wednesday.”
Fergusson said that Saturday deliveries were important to small and medium sized businesses, especially in the run up to seasonal events such as Mother’s Day or Easter, which fall on Sundays.
She suggested another option could be reducing delivery days but waiving any premium on delivery fees in the week before big events like Mother’s Day to grow letter volumes.
She said: “The proposed changes could wipe hundreds of millions of pounds worth of value from our otherwise stable industry and small businesses on high streets and in back bedrooms up and down the country”.
She warned that “the idea of a three-day per week [service] is completely unpalatable to our customers and wider industry”.
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