Cost threat to mail deliveries

Saturday 19th September 2009, 3:00PM BST.

Gary Whipp.

THE obligation to deliver mail to every address in the Island six days a week is unsustainable in the long term, says the head of a new division of the Jersey Post Group.

Gary Whipp said that mail volumes fell by 16 per cent last year and with the growing popularity of electronic communication it was likely that they would fall further in the years ahead.

‘It is a declining market but the cost of delivery does not go down. Jersey Post still has to collect from around the Island and deliver to every address,’ he said.

He said that it was likely that at some point Islanders will have to decide on how to meet the costs of postal deliveries.

Mr Whipp said that if it was decided that six day delivery to all addresses is to be maintained, then it was likely that either a government subsidy would be required or the price of postage would have to increase.

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