An attempt to bury a piece of bad news was made by the Royal Mail during the Christmas period, when it announced big rises in the cost of stamps.
In case you missed it, as of April, the cost of a standard first-class stamp will rise by 3p - 8.3% - to 39p, whilst a second-class stamp will also rise by 3p - equivalent to 11% - to 30p.
Quite aside from the merits of those hikes in current economic conditions, can anybody tell me what is the point of still having two classes of mail?
The current deal is that first-class mail is supposed to reach any domestic mainland address the next working day after posting, whilst second-class mail has three working days to get there.
Actually, that's not true, the Royal Mail only has "targets" of 93% and 98.5% respectively for delivering the mail to those schedules.
All the same, I've always wondered what happens to the second-class mail after the postman empties the sack at the sorting office: does it get put into a special box for a couple of days before being sent on its way with the first-class mail that begins its journey as soon as it arrives there?
Wouldn't it be more simple and efficient all round if there were one class of mail for all domestic post with a "target" to deliver it all as soon as possible?
