Special Delivery Service

Early in the morning, just as day is dawning Pat feels he's a very happy man which is not necessarily a sentiment shared by all those parents who have endured countless re-runs of the jovial postman and his feline friend Jess. Complete with his replica van and Pat's 'copter' (a new addition in the recently updated version entitled Special Delivery Service), our 21-month-old son sings along to 'PoPo Pat' and shouts for more as soon as the credits roll. It's not until you really study the content of Postman Pat that you notice quite how incompetent the Greendale Postie is; damaging ice cream making machines, dropping pianos and getting balloons stuck on the roof of Ted Glen's workshop to name but a few mishaps. It makes you wonder how he's managed to keep his job for the last 27 years let alone achieve his recent promotion to Head of the Special Delivery Service in the bustling town of Pencaster. However, despite a degree of incompetence and no small measure of misfortune, Pat always manages to deliver on-time, with a smile on his face and upholding a strong set of morals and values. Pat's reputation remains intact.

So, how do we view the reputation of the Royal Mail following the decision by its 120,000 workers to approve strike action? In the current economic climate, it appears that there will be little sympathy for postal workers downing tools; on a corporate level businesses are battling hard to keep their heads above water and delays on customer deliveries and payments could be catastrophic; for the householder it means further disruption to service impacting on vital debt payments and messages of festive cheer at Christmas time not arriving. As with all disputes, there are at least two sides to the story. Royal Mail believe that it is doing the right thing by cutting costs, seeking to improve performance and modernizing at a time when they claim mail volumes are dropping 10% year on year. The Union (CWU), on behalf of its members, question the validity of the figures, highlight the hard work the postal workers do and seek to protect as many jobs as possible. The end result, the probability that the stand off will end up in industrial action, customers will take their business elsewhere and plunge Royal Mail further into financial difficulty thereby making the cycle increasingly vicious. The reputation of Royal Mail and its workers could be irreparably damaged in the weeks and months ahead as customers bemoan lack of or no service and the 'average man in the street' who is accepting pay freezes, cuts and redundancy has their own winter of discontent to cope with.

You see, the fortunate thing for Postman Pat is that he's not operating a commercial business. He's been able to modernize, introducing a new helicopter delivery service without budget constraints. The EU hasn't stepped in to Pencaster and insisted on deregulation, so he operates without competition. And, post volumes have remained consistent for the last 27 years with no sign of that changing. Pat can concentrate on the customer, Granny Smith (Royal Mail's pet name for its customers) which makes him and her happy.

The crux of the issue over reputation here is about timing; the scale of damage to corporate and employer reputation is likely to be greater because public opinion in the current climate will not be supportive to either Royal Mail or its workers and many people will be hoping that the only item of post that arrives on time is the special delivery of the striking postman's P45.