Royal Mail takes out defensive ad after 2.1m watch C4 documentary

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 18-Jul-05, 07:00

LONDON - Royal Mail has acted to defend its reputation in the wake of Channel 4's latest undercover documentary, which was seen by 2.1m people, by taking out a full-page ad in Friday's Daily Mail.

The ad explained that Royal Mail has vetted more than 101,000 people since October 2004, and vetted the two reporters who took jobs in making the programme.

The copy said: "Every year 22bn letters and parcels are sent through the post, with 99.93% of them arriving safely. On the rare occasions when mail is stolen, 90% of the incidents are when postmen and postwomen are the victims, not the perpetrators of crime.

"Postmen and postwomen have achieved a remarkable transformation for Royal Mail. We are not perfect and we are determined to do even better on quality of service than the record level we have achieved. In return for all their hard work, they deserve both thanks and fairness from all."

The company referred to its latest quality of service figure for first-class post -- 93.4% being delivered next day -- which it published ahead of the documentary.

The 'Dispatches' documentary shown on Thursday, 'Re-opening the Post', saw reporters repeat the undercover investigation of Royal Mail working practices mounted for a previous documentary, 'Third Class Post', shown in April last year.

The reporters ran an experiment of posting birthday cards containing cash or vouchers, and found that four out of 20 were tampered with or went missing.

They also shot footage showing workers leaving mail in unpadlocked trolleys overnight at Kirby depot, and a machine at a depot in Exeter that was in regular use despite it malfunctioning and ripping up mail.

Contrary to Royal Mail's promise after last year's programme that it would vet all employees, the latest programme showed a worker still wearing a tag because he had recently been released from jail.

Channel 4 said that its unofficial viewing figures showed that 2.1m people watched the programme on Thursday.

Royal Mail had no comment to make on the programme after seeing it and a spokesman said the company had chosen to focus on improving its service.

A Postwatch spokesman said that Postwatch had been shocked by the original 'Dispatches' and was disappointed by the latest programme. He criticised Royal Mail for the state of the machine at Exeter and the trolleys, and welcomed the media attention, which he believed would encourage the company to fix the problems at the depots.

"Royal Mail has £500m sitting on its balance sheet which it could use to invest in improving its services," he said.

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