st monoploy report v rries expressmen
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Post Office ground almost to a t las week the question of whether or t it s ould be allowed to maintain its Inop ly has been raised by the vern ent Phis eek Industry Secretary Sir Keith eph ild the House of Commons that m °poly is "under review" and a art ' be reaching him by the end of y .f th monopoly is ended the way will ope for a parcels boom for the private Hat rs who could also begin to carry til.
)es ite the competition from Road line, .tio al Carriers, and the British Rail d S r service plus all the other parcels Tie s the Post Office still carries the iJo ty of parcels in Britain.
Roo. line is the largest single competi • ca ing a million parcels a week and po esrnan for Roadline said that there ;o a overlap but the two exist happily get er. But the Post Office Users National Council was adamant that it does not want the parcels situation to be extended.
"Private enterprise would merely cream off the most profitable postal traffic leaving the difficult and less economic work for the Post Office.
"Although many people talk about setting up rival mail services nobody has proposed the national and total coverage that the Post Office gives," said a council spokesman.
A spokesman for the Road Haulage Association said that express carriers would be willing to look at taking on postal work but he warned that it was very much a case of "horses for courses".
"The whole 'problem would have to be reviewed — it is a completely different kind of operation which carriers are not geared to handle.
"The trend is for express carriers to take slightly larger parcels and not multiple deliveries of small items," he said.