An Post Price Rises

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mathepac

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I posted a congratulations card to my granddaughter after her 8-12 yo cheerleading team won a prize at a recent competition. I know, I know, don't tell me, now its an Olympic sport!

€1.65 for the stamp, nearly as dear as the card itself.

This rise in stamp prices is apparently to compensate An Post for the drop in postal volumes. Simple-minded me thinks the effect will be to further reduce the volumes, with another consequential rise, etc. Sustainable? I don't think so, not one little bit.

What's the answer here? Privatisation a la Maggie?
 
Yip - seems to be counter productive ...

BUT, I'm in awe of the fact that you could get a card for just over the price of a stamp ! I'm shocked / annoyed at the price of cards in some shops.
 
Interesting price comparison between a stamp (as payment for a service) and a greeting card.

Two printed items is about where the comparison stops.

The cost of producing greeting cards are low, their price high and the retail margins extremely high.

The cost of printing stamps is also low, the cost of processing and delivering mail is high with An Post operating on a shockingly low 4% margin on delivery of mail.

Yet people complain about the price postage? Send a greeting card by DHL if you think An Post is expensive
 
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Yeah, but that's €1.65 from €1.20 in the not-too-distant past.

I've seen greeting cards for as much as €7/€8, rather extravagant for a child. The card itself was from Mr Price as I recall, purchased in desperation as it just said "Congratulations" on the front with no qualification regarding the occasion - no baby, job, engagement, or divorce printed and no message inside, just a blank page, ideal for personalisation.

I have a couple of little label printers that can do fancy insides for blank cards and a range of type-faces to jazz them up. €1.99 for the card I think, and about €30 for the BlueTooth printer from Amazon, Nelko PM220. I needed one as holding a pen and writing are both difficult these days. Take the little printer and my phone to the Post Office and the job is Oxo, address and greeting legible for all.
 
Interesting thread. Not sure that privatisation would help, it hasn't been particularly successful in the UK where stamps are £1.65 first class and £0.85 second class (every second day delivery). Three times a week delivery is now on the cards.

An Post issued an explanatory note when the price increase was announced. A couple of points stand out:
  • New stamp price is below European benchmark of €1.88
  • Daily deliveries to continue
  • Letter volumes have declined over 8% in the last 12 months, 40% since 2017 and 50% in the last decade
  • In Denmark for example, where the volume of letters has declined by 85% since 2008 the price of a stamp is €5.23
I'm not defending An Post; it never conveys the impression of being particularly well run business and it doesn't appear to be doing anything imaginative to appeal to a new generation of potential users. I saw the stats some time back for the split between business and non-business letter post and from memory the latter is a very small part of the volume - just ask yourself how many handwritten/personal letters did you send/receive in the last year?

I love sending handwritten letters, notes and cards (almost as much as I like receiving them) and will continue to do so, even as the price increases. But it is a changing business and will continue to do so.
 
Luternau said:
the cost of processing and delivering mail is high with An Post operating on a shockingly low 4% margin on delivery of mail.
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They need to tackle their cost base built up over decades of civil-service-type inefficiencies. Asking the consumer to constantly bail them out is not only unsustainable, it is downright inequitable.
 
Freelance said:
I love sending handwritten letters, notes and cards (almost as much as I like receiving them) and will continue to do so, even as the price increases. But it is a changing business and will continue to do so.
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Personal letters and cards are a miniscule part of the business now. Most post is either junk or business related and the latter is in sharp decline as organizations are pushing hard to email (and other online) correspondence. I suspect that public service bodies are the laggards in this regard and they are propping up the mail service - unintentionally, presumably, but at a substantial cost. Letter post has declined massively in most of the world over the past 20-25 years. The US seems to be holding up relatively well (ie, a smaller decline) but they have a huge volume of marketing mail.
Denmark has substantially downgraded their Universal Service Obligation and this is likely to be the future trend everywhere. I suspect we will be soon be heading towards something like every second day delivery - especially in rural areas, which must be a huge loss maker currently.
 
I don't understand the proposition of privatising An Post.

The stamp costs €1.65, but the card is even dearer.

The purchase of the stamp enables the transport and delivery of the card for its intended, and meaningful purpose.

The purchase of the more (inexplicably?) expensive card, does little to nothing by itself.

Perhaps nationalise card manufacturing?
 
Hello,

I'm fine with the €1.65 price of a stamp, it's still a fairly modest cost, for the odd time that I want to post a letter.

Privatisation of An Post doesn't appeal to me.

I'm fine with the idea of deliveries being reduced to every second day, as part of cost cutting measures, though.
 
Sister Sara said:
The purchase of the more (inexplicably?) expensive card, does little to nothing by itself.
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You've never handed a card to someone, without a stamp, at a funeral parlour, or included one with a gift, at a baby shower, birthday party, wedding reception, or other events? The card has meaning, the stamps are becoming too expensive and unnecessary, supporting a branch of public service stuck with 19th-century working methods and thinking.

At the earliest opportunity, I'll be implementing family use of ecards produced and transmitted electronically without the need for paper cards, envelopes, stamps, or the fuel and labour to produce them, transport them, store them, sort them, and deliver them. Some of the greeting card manufacturers, e.g. Hallmark Cards, already produce software to facilitate this. Here's a sample of ten such ecard supply sites, including Hallmark, moonpig, WWF, etc.

The comment about "privatisation a la Maggie" was sarcasm - her legacy of imprisonment, death, and ruin of sub-postmasters in the UK is yet another enormous blot on her time in office, the Post Office software suppliers, and the British justice system. The majority of the innocents, those still alive, caught up in the whole travesty have yet to be adequately compensated.
 
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It's absolutely ridiculous to blame Margaret Thatcher who stepped down in 1990 for the UK Post Office persecution and prosection of their own innocent staff on foot of the Horizon software introduced by the Post Office in 1999.

What's next? Blame Mrs Thatcher for invading Iraq on foot of the dodgy dossier hoax? :D
 
mathepac said:
At the earliest opportunity, I'll be implementing family use of ecards produced and transmitted electronically without the need for paper cards, envelopes, stamps, or the fuel and labour to produce them, transport them, store them, sort them, and deliver them.
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Also e-Mass Cards are available online so you can save not only on post but on the time, emotional energy and fuel costs involved in travelling to funerals and wakes.

How can An Post compete with this - a Mass included in the stamp price?
 
A Mass Card, in any form, is a poor substitute for meeting a bereaved family at a funeral, wake or removal.
 
mathepac said:
The card has meaning, the stamps are becoming too expensive and unnecessary, supporting a branch of public service stuck with 19th-century working methods and thinking.
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Tell that to all the elderly in remote locations in rural Ireland so. Remember covid and the support the postmen provided delivering food, medicine etc.

Not everything should be solely commercial.
 
T McGibney said:
It's absolutely ridiculous to blame Margaret Thatcher who stepped down in 1990 for the UK Post Office persecution and prosection of their own innocent staff on foot of the Horizon software introduced by the Post Office in 1999.
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The drive towards wholesale privatisation started with Thatcher and continued well after her political demise, her monetarist policies influencing thinking and actions outside of the Conservative party.
 
@mathepac Mrs Thatcher's monetarism was a policy adopted to resolve the rampant and ruinous inflation of the guts of 20% per annum that had racked 1970s Britain and necessitated Labour Chancellor Dennis Healey calling in the IMF in 1976.

It is a poor excuse for, and has absolutely nothing to do with, the malpractice that decades later led to the Post Office's implementation of the flawed Horizon system, the persecution including jailings of innocent staff members, and the subsequent cover-up that was still ongoing long after Mrs Thatcher's eventual death in advanced old age.

The privatisation of the Post Office started six months after her death, 23 years after her leaving office, and 14 years after the adoption of Horizon.
 
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In our rural area post is already 2-3 times per week. Not officially, but in practice. Eg never a delivery on Monday, even if I'm expecting something. Other days variable. And when post does arrive there are usually at least two items. Having said that, give me an An Post anytime - at least they deliver properly. Unlike the couriers who just dump stuff on my step and drive off at speed without ringing/knocking.
 
mathepac said:
You've never handed a card to someone, without a stamp, at a funeral parlour, or included one with a gift, at a baby shower, birthday party, wedding reception, or other events?
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Hi Mathepac,

I did of course hand a card in those situations and it is true as you say, they have meaning.

I was working on the assumption that when buying a stamp to send a card that it is intended the delivery services of An Post are to be utilised out of necessity.
 
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