Going Postal

at

postal

Graph via An Post

Splutter.

Pooter writes:

The new €1 postal rate will leave Ireland with the 4th highest national postal rate in Europe. Denmark, with the highest rate, offer a second class option for about €1, which is not offered by An Post…

Fight!

Postage Rates To Increase on Thursday, April 13 (An Post)

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36 thoughts on “Going Postal

  1. ivan

    In fairness, it’s rather low considering that the unit cost per house delivery has to be rather high in Ireland, given the percentage of the population that reside in remote areas.

  2. Jake38

    Media statistics, useless as usual. The median in 76 cents which confirms that, as usual, we are being ripped off.

    1. Punkerrandboy

      For once we are not being ripped off. Given the very rural population we have in Ireland and the legal obligation of An Post to deliver to each and every address this is excellent value for money. The price of the stamp has been kept artificially low for many, many years in this country because of the higher cost of delivering to a rural population.

    2. PaddyIrishman

      What price would you consider fair and how would you make up for the deficit in the company? Pay cuts? (Strike) Closing rural Post Offices (bad for those towns and will lead to mass protects and political pressure)? I don’t think there is an easy solution.

      1. anne

        Humour me..how does a public service end up having a deficit?
        The notion is a contradiction in terms.

        There isn’t big money in handing out dole money or the old age pension or facilitating bill payments. These are vital services for some people. As well as postal services of course.

        Why are we being fed a pack of bullpoo about public services running deficits?

        Do we say schools are running a deficit? I mean is that the way forward..the privitisation of every single service?
        Private primary schools will be next, like those advocated by Trump’s Education secretary in the U.S.

        Why are there threats to all these services now? e.g. Bus eireann, An Post. Have the workers been getting huge pay increases the last few years? Of course they haven’t.

        It’s more cuts to services to pay debt that isn’t ours.

        1. Rob_G

          “… how does a public service end up having a deficit?”

          – they end up spending more money than they are taking in? It is fairly self-explanatory…

          1. anne

            We don’t see education for kids as running a profit or deficit..not yet anyway.

            You’re not addressing my question.

          2. Rob_G

            Well, things like schools will always be run at a loss, as there isn’t really an equitable way to charge the end-user, but for other services that do have a revenue stream, is is unreasonable to suggest that they cover the cost of their provision? Like bin services, the post office and, dare I say it, water services?

          1. Fact Checker

            There are well run semi-states and badly-run private businesses. Privatising an organisation doesn’t change its management or its culture.

            Some public bodies are very efficient in my experience (Revenue, DAA). Some are very poor performers, particularly the CIÉ group of companies.

  3. Topsy

    Clearly the average/mean is distorted by the figures for both Denmark & Italy. These two figures should be considered as “outliers” or exceptional figures. and therefore the mean is not a truly accurate figure.

  4. John

    No mention of the cash flow from hordes of online parcels then……..It is not our fault that the management cannot run the company within its fiscal boundaries and cries foul when they cannot pay wages….
    30% increase – a euro a flipping letter – bye bye xmas cards..i will whats app em……

    1. Boj

      Sarcasm might fix it, BUT why not have a look at what Spain are doing? Seems like a better idea.

    2. ahjayzis

      That’s why Wetherspoons never got off the ground.

      Sell more to many for less.

      Or sell less to fewer for more.

      Snail mail is already dying – they’re helping it into it’s grave with such a big hike.

    1. Kieran Nice Young Chap

      Unlike half the countries listed there who seem to have a pretty hit-and-miss approach to getting your mail to you.

      By the middle of next month.

      1. Fact Checker

        Exactly.

        There is a reason why a lot of fax machines were made by an Italian company.

        An Post is actually quite reliable.

  5. wearnicehats

    As stated already the use of the average (or mean) in such a range of values is a nonsense. Kids studying elementary statistics would be told to use the median for the this range – which is 77c

    I was on a train once and got talking to an old guy sitting opposite. He was hand delivering a letter to Limerick rather than posting it because the train was free and he had nothing better to do!

  6. Fact Checker

    It would be great if Comreg could publish some analysis on the unit cost of mail delivery for urban and rural areas.

    The NTA did some work on this recently for poorly-frequented rail lines. Basically showing the taxpayer the subsidy per passenger kilometre.

    The difference between suburban and regional lines was staggering.

    1. anne

      Move everyone to Dublin..get rid of postal, rail, education, healthcare outside of densely populated areas..unit cost goes down, ‘profit’ goes up.

      Profit before people is the way forward.

      Big high rises..that’s what we need.

      1. Fact Checker

        Not in the slightest.

        It is perfectly possible to have as many people living in rural areas but to cluster dwellings. This makes the provision of all sorts of services – water, electricity, postage, broadband – cheaper.

        However in rural Ireland there is a long-standing vogue for living a long distance from your neighbours which inevitably makes services either more expensive or of poorer quality.

        1. Clampers Outside!

          “cluster dwellings” …lets not get carried away with language. :) Surely you mean towns and villages.
          And, I’m sure it wasn’t a fashion to live miles apart, with homes separated by fields, etc. That was down to homes being built on farms, a consequence, rather than a “vogue” or fashion choice, surely.

          1. anne

            would a back and a front garden not be considered ‘clustered dwellings’ i wonder. god forbid you have people with a quarter acre space to live on.

          2. Fact Checker

            Most people who live in one-off housing in Ireland are not farmers.

            Many farmers do not actually live on their farms either due to the fragmented nature of land-holdings.

            It is simply a societal preference. And one which is expensive to provide certain services for.

          3. Clampers Outside!

            I hear ya, and I take your point.

            Any links to claims ( I do believe you , but I’m a bit of an empiricist (believe it or not), so I like to double check).
            I just haven’t looked at stats of that nature in a while, and I’m being lazy asking for a link rather than googlin’ for five mins… :) In fairness…

          4. anne

            detached with a little acreage to the front and back? a swing for the kids..room for 2 cars perhaps..

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