So far, Royal Mail (as well as the DMA) has yet to proof how much their talk about 'going green' is really worth. The company is in a difficult position. The cost of servicing the company's pension plans are rising steeply, the Post Office network is running at a loss and mail volumes are falling (by 2.5 per cent a year) at a time when there is increased competition on the postal market. In 2006/07 Royal Mail Letters made a loss - for the first time – of £12m. At the same time, junk mail is highly lucrative. While 'stamped mail' is making a loss, 'business mail' (which includes junk mail) is profitable.
Royal Mail's answer to this 'challenge' is to modernise. This is not just about working more efficiently, freezing salaries and asking employees to retire later; it also affects the amount of junk mail you receive from your postman.
Currently, Royal Mail is in negotiations with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) about the company's modernisation plans. One of the things that is being discussed is the scrapping of the 'three items per week rule', which says that Royal Mail can't deliver more than three items of unaddressed mail per household per week.
The CWU is not opposed to the scrapping of the 'three items per week' rule, as long as postmen are being paid well and not completely overloaded with junk mail. It is therefore likely that the amount of door to door items delivered by Royal Mail will increase drastically in the near future.