Two can play
Sir: As Mr Cook (19 June) says, the numbers game is one which two can play at. I could extract arbitrary dates through the years to prove that the cost of postal services compares favourably with this or that commodity. But this is an exchange which could go on forever.
It seems equally fruitless to compare present-day services with those in the 'thirties. Times change and commodities and public services adjust accordingly.
But there are factors which have affected postal prices and services and it would be beneficial to your readers and Mr Cook to know these.
The mass-production techniques of the factory are not adaptable to letter-handling. Each of the 30 million letters dealt with every weekday is an individual communication between one person and another; each has to be sorted separately and finally delivered to a unique address of which there are now over 22 million in the UK, a total increasing by 300,000 each year. The letter would be more fairly compared with the hand-built Rolls-Royce than the massproduced family saloon.
It is true that collections and deliveries were thicker on the ground in the pre-war years but let us not forget the economic and working conditions in the country at that time.
In 1939 a postman in central London worked a forty-eight-hour week for £.3.75. In most cases he worked a split duty being booked off between the morning and evening peaks of work. Today a postman in London works a forty-three-hour week for 08.61. He earns more in three hours than his pre-war predecessor did in a week and it is only right that our postmen should be paid a fair and proper wage. In addition there are enhanced premium rates for work at night and weekends.
It is easy to think nostalgically of the mail services provided in the 'thirties ,but one thing is clear; such lavish services nowadays would be astronomically expensive. And the customer, who would have to foot the bill, would soon be thinking just as nostalgically about 64p and Sip postage rates.
Peter H. Young Director of Public Relations, Post Office Central Headquarters, 23 Howland Street, London W1
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