Monday, May 07, 2007

Postal competition in Europe, on France 3

Saturday, May 5th 2007 at 7.55 PM (visible quelques jours sur leur site), France 3 show, Avenue de l'Europe was about the introduction of competition on the postal market inside the European Union.

Two cases : Royal Mail in the United Kingdom and the post of Hungary.

Royal Mail's situation remembered me a lot of the French case : big clients go to competitots, introducing a massive tariffs war on the firm-mail market. But, questions arise about the current tariffs payed by simple citizen to benefit of a universal service everywhere in the country ; service only served by the national post administration. Know that in the UK a post office selling Royal Mail's services can be from another brand. Philatelists will nuance by saying that they pay much of the bill with an inflation of stamps and mini-sheets.

The report in Hungary was interesing : how did the local post succeed to close all its post offices in rural regions without making the life of inhabitants difficult ? No one was fired : postmen now circulate in cars throughout their region and propose many services : post, bank, exchanges of goods between villages, etc. But, in the end, a postal manager reminded of the competition problem : if Hungary opens the competition to postal market, this system will not be economicly profitable. Same problem as French rurals.

Until where must the postal competition be open ? How to do it in order to maintain universal service and social links in the country ? The presidential campaign in France didn't often explore these seriously dayly topics.

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