2020 and 2021 have been challenging for everyone including the post office and your shop. The pandemic has highlighted the important contribution our business makes to our community locally and increasingly further afield. Our post office managed to stay open over the last 16 months where many other post offices had to close or offer significantly reduced hours.
The autumn and period leading up to Christmas 2020 was particularly challenging: the amount of mail quadrupled, compared to that always extra busy period in previous years, as we all used online shopping for gifts, comfort parcels, letters and cards to post to our family and friends.
Post Office Ltd is proposing to reset the relationship with post masters with a new IT system promised and a focus on business in four core areas: bill payments, banking, travel and mails. The fixed amount our community branch post office receives along with mails fees makes up most of the remuneration of our post office.
Post Office Ltd proposes to change the remuneration structure as part of a new Mails Distribution Agreement signed with Royal Mail at the end of 2020 and coming into force in 2022.
That new Agreement enables the Post Office network to open up to other parcel carriers, in addition to Royal Mail, for the first time in the Post Office’s history and I hope this will generate increased remuneration and footfall for us.
Banking services provided by your Post Office are increasingly important with the vast majority of business and personal accounts for cash and cheque deposits, balance checks and cash withdrawals available.
My thanks to all our customers and I encourage all to use your local post office for mails, banking, travel currencies and the shop for delicious local products, groceries and of course the excellent comprehensive stationery stock.
The Post Office team Gail, Judeth, John and Hazel are, as ever, in good heart and continuing the important job of providing excellent service and bringing customers to our community business.
My appreciation and thanks to our shop committee: all of whom are volunteers, for their support and to the Post Office team who contribute so much to the success of our business.
Maureen Flood