AS Britain's public services downsize, the Royal Mail is the latest to announce a reduction in facilities and head count.

    The Royal Mail will lay off 3,500 with the loss of 1,000 line managers and 1,700 head office staff while operational staff in London will be cut by 751, though the downsizing is being effected through "voluntary redundancy".

    A Royal Mail statement said the number of postal items posted in London is expected to more than halve between 2006 and 2014, which will reduce the number of mail centres by half of the 64 centres functioning in 2010.

    "New methods designed to enable employees to deal with the changes in the postal market - a decline in letters and an increase in packets - are being introduced," said the statement according to the UK's Transport Intelligence.

    What appears to be happening is that Royal Mail is centralising its operations around fewer, larger facilities, said the UK's Transport Intelligence. The company will continue to invest in key mail sorting facilities such as Mount Pleasant in central London but overall the programme represents a drastic reduction in the operational capacity of the business," said the report.

(Source:http://www.schednet.com)