Regulator wants An Post to ensure better next-day delivery

Communications regulator, Comreg, yesterday declared that it wants An Post to ensure next-day delivery for more than nine out of 10 of all items posted in this country in 2004.

Comreg announced that it has set a target for the State-owned postal service of 94 per cent next-day delivery for "single piece priority mail", which is the ordinary day-to-day correspondence posted by individuals and business. It has set the same target for local post, and the regulator said that it wants 99.5 per cent of all mail posted in this country delivered within three days next year.

Comreg is legally responsible for ensuring quality of service targets for post in the State. In a statement, Comreg said the targets it announced yesterday were interim.

It said that they would remain in place until it had completed a public consultation dealing with appropriate target for the remainder of 2004 and for the succeeding years.

Earlier this year, a Comreg-commissioned TNS survey found that just 75 per cent of all domestic mail was delivered the next day.

However, An Post disputed the findings, arguing that they were based on an "immature" monitoring system. During the summer, the company posted a loss of €70.5 million for 2002, the worst in its history.