Mail mega-hub centre problems should be sorted
An Post insisted yesterday they saw no reason why the problems with the Dublin Mail Centre over Christmas should be repeated in two other new "mega-hub" centres coming into operation this year, but Minister for Communications Dermot Ahern, said: "We will just have to wait and see."
Mr Ahern summoned An Post chief executive John Hynes to a meeting yesterday morning to explain why a million Christmas cards posted on time for Christmas delivery went
undelivered until December 30 and New Year's Eve.
He said afterwards he called the meeting because he felt the public needed an explanation and because he wanted assurances that lessons had been learned.
The minister said the problems had not only emerged during the Christmas rush but were noticeable in his native County Louth as far back as early December.
Letters posted in Louth, Meath, Wicklow and parts of Monaghan for local delivery, are now sorted in Dublin since the centralised automated system came into operation six weeks ago.
An existing centre in Portlaoise
already deals with most of the post from the midlands and south Leinster and a similar system is being phased in at a new central sorting centre in Athlone, which will soon handle all mail from the west and northwest,
including Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.
By the middle of this year the same arrangement will apply at a new centre in Little Island outside Cork city which will sort all mail posted in Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick and
Tipperary.
Minister Ahern said he had been given assurances by Mr Hynes that there would be no delays under the expansion of the automated sorting systems, but added he would have to wait and see.
Mr Hynes denied there was any problem with the system itself but said the extra volume of mail in the weeks leading up to Christmas, combined with cost-cutting and staff reductions, had caused difficulties adjusting to the new arrangement.
He said he did not foresee any
repeat of the problems in Dublin or elsewhere. He said An Post was
contractually obliged to prioritise business and international mail which was why "social" mail such as Christmas cards were left to last and
ultimately were late.
He said he was disappointed to have let customers down but pointed out it was one million items out of 100 million posted in December and said An Post's overall delivery record for 2002 92% of mail delivered overnight had improved by 4% on 2001.
"With hindsight we would have done it differently," he said, but added agreements had been in place with the trade unions to begin the new system, designed to improve efficiency and cut costs, and An Post was under pressure to return to profitability this year.
Mr Hynes also denied claims that the square-shaped Christmas cards or coloured envelopes had presented problems for the automated system.
Minister Ahern meanwhile hinted he would be in favour of introducing postal codes as some addresses placed on envelopes were "not particularly informative".
He said he was aware An Post management did not feel postal codes were necessary at this time but added he was "not altogether sure about that".
