Jersey's postal service quality in decline survey finds

Jersey Post CEO Kevin Keen says two thirds of people said they thought the postal service was ok

A review by Jersey's competition watchdog found a third of people felt the quality of the postal service had fallen in the past year.

The report also revealed a 5% decline in the amount being posted year on year for the past six years.

The review involved discussions with postal operators, mail order companies and a survey of 750 customers.

Jersey Post CEO Kevin Keen disputed the survey, calling it spin on the part of the competition watchdog.

'Cost of things'

He said: "We have a more recent survey of the whole of the island that found 70% said the service was good or very good and 90% said their postman was very good.

"We are not pleasing all the people all the time but we have to put that in context with the cost of things."

Jersey competition regulator, John Curran, said the way a postal service should work when people were no longer sending letters needed to be examined.

"The amount of mail we receive and the amount of mail we post is declining but the amount of online shopping we do is increasing," he said.

"We are using the service differently and so we need to take that into account."

Mr Curran said the watchdog would be working with Jersey Post to monitor the quality of service and setting it targets to meet.

Mr Keen said despite a decline in the amount of post people were sending, he could not imagine a time when the island would not have a postal service.

"I am sure lots of people were saying radio would disappear when TV came along. The postal service is very important and will be around for some time," he said.

"Yes it is declining but our job is to make it declines as slowly as possible.

"We have gone down to a five day delivery, we have taken huge amounts of costs out so we are still optimistic about the future."