Irish postal service one of EU’s worst, most expensive

AN POST provides one of the worst postal services in Europe for on-time deliveries — despite stamps costing more in Ireland than most other EU states.

According to a new EU study, over a quarter of all mail posted within the Republic is not delivered on the next working day.

Only 73% of letters are delivered on time.

The study shows that only postal services in Greece, Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania recorded worse mail delivery performances in 2005 — the latest year for which comparative figures are available.

The report by Eurostat — the EU Statistical Office — shows that deliveries in Ireland were a slight improvement with on-time delivery rates up by 1% on 2004 figures.

However, the latest figures from ComReg — which has statutory responsibility for monitoring An Post’s quality of service — show that next working day deliveries fell back again to 72% during 2006.

The official target set by ComReg for on-time deliveries is 94%.

Over 20 of the 27 EU member states achieve on-time delivery rates in excess of 80% with the vast majority obtaining performance figures greater than 90%.

ComReg claims that part of the problem associated with An Post’s quality of service lies with sorting centres in Dublin where there have been delays to the implementation of work practice changes recommended by the Labour Court.

Although the report notes that the cost of a stamp in Ireland was 48 cents in 2005, the price of a stamp for standard mail has since increased to 55 cents. Only Italy, Finland and Sweden have higher postage charges for standard letters.

Most worryingly for An Post is the continuing decline in the number of items sent by mail with just 655 million items posted in 2005, down from 757 million the previous year — a decrease of 13.5%. According to the report, every Irish person posted 156 items on average in 2005 compared to 184 items just 12 months earlier.

Although the figures reflect the growing use of e-mails and text messages to substitute mail services, Irish mail usage remains slightly above the EU average.

The number of people employed by An Post is also relatively low by European comparisons with just 0.4% of the total labour force engaged in the domestic postal sector.

An Post employed a total of 7,800 staff in 2005 — an increase of almost 300 over the previous year — across its network of around 1,600 post offices.

However, the number of items distributed per An Post worker declined dramatically in 2005 from 101,000 to 84,000. None-the-less, the distribution figure remains one of the highest within the EU.

The findings of the report also suggest that An Post is continuing to lose out on the market for lucrative, direct and registered mail services.

Ordinary letters and postcards accounted for over 90% of all mail posted in the Republic in 2005 — up from 80.3% in 2004.