Written evidence from International Flower
Essence Repertoire
ROYAL MAIL
& PARCEL FORCE
SERVICES IN
RURAL & REMOTE
AREAS OF
SCOTLAND
In 2003 I relocated my business from Hampshire to
the Isle of Gigha. This was not without its challenges and costs,
but one of the key elements which enabled me to make the move
was the existence of the daily services of the Royal Mail and
Parcel Force on the island. The simple fact is that if these
services were to be curtailed, I would have to relocate my
business to the mainland.
Ours is primarily a mail-order business, though we
also provide our goods to shops across the UK. For example two
days ago we dispatched 120 bottles of our flower essence sprays
to Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy in Tunbridge Wells by Parcel Force.
There is no cost-effective alternative for getting such a box
from our island to Kent. For all other couriers we have to take
the box over to the mainland ourselves. Whereas with Parcel Force
we simply drop the box at our local Gigha Post Office. We incur
no price penalty for our island location. But for all other couriers
in effect our added costs are such that we virtually never make
use of them.
Even for our export sales (which have grown by over
30% per annum over the past two years) are primarily dispatched
via Parcel Force, as well as the Royal Mail.
We are in the midst of sending out our annual mailshot,
which currently goes out to 18,000 customers across the UK and
Europe. We keep our local Post Office busy, although the Royal
Mail doesn't know this. The Royal Mail decided to have a specific
item-count during one week in September this year, amongst the
various west-coast island Post Offices. But that week was not
one of our busier weeks, whereas during the past fortnight we
have dispatched in excess of 9,000 envelopes 2nd Class (franked)
via the Gigha PO. Although our entire mailshot is handled by the
Royal Mail, and departs Gigha via our local Post Office, yet the
Royal Mail has no means it appears of recognizing that this volume
is actually going out via our local PO.
Personally, I doubt the Royal Mail's own statistics
on mail volume. The idea that email has led to a decrease in letters
may be true, but web shopping has led to a massive increase in
posted small parcels. We typically send out over 12,000 small
parcels a year from our small island base, and 96% of these are
sent via the Royal Mail, while 4% are dispatched with Parcel Force
but this via our local rural island PO. A very few larger shipments
are exported using other couriers, such as a pallet-load of 800
bottles of our sprays which is currently awaiting uplifting from
Tayinloan to make its way to our Distributor in Canada. But these
exceptions are very few, compared with the daily use we make of
the Royal Mail and Parcel Force services.
7 November 2010
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