Royal Mail and TNT clash over ad

A Royal Mail door-drop campaign which accused rival TNT Post of cherry-picking profitable business – among other claims – has heightened tensions between the two firms.
Under the heading “Royal Mail: a key part of your community”, the company’s leaflet explained that it was “very concerned” about TNT Post’s activities in West London, where it has started an end-to-end postal service, including collecting, sorting and delivering customers’ mail to all addresses.
It went on: “This could include your home … If other service providers ‘cherry-pick’ profitable areas – as TNT is doing in West London – Royal Mail still has to deliver at great cost to all 29 million addresses in the UK. This includes the most unprofitable areas. Clearly this threatens the sustainability of the universal service.”
The flip side of the leaflet went on to detail what the postal operator deemed “The Facts”. It contained a table comparing the services of Royal Mail with those of TNT.
TNT felt so strongly that it lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority over five specific statements, including the claim that West London was a “profitable area”.
However, following an investigation, the ASA rejected the complaints on all five points, noting that many of the issues it raised were a response to a leaflet produced by TNT.
Meanwhile, the Communication Workers Union gained the backing of its members yesterday (Tuesday) at its annual conference in Bournemouth to hold a ballot of 120,000 Royal Mail workers over a boycott of “final mile” deliveries.
The CWU wants the industrial action to put pressure on UK authorities to do more to protect Royal Mail from the impact of “unfair” private sector competition in the postal sector.
If the vote supports industrial action, the union could lead a boycott of up to 44% of the UK’s letter mail, with up 26 million items going undelivered each day.

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