Royal Mail will face a new competitive challenge in the next couple of months, with the launch of a service that promises to cut the cost of business mail and reduce the carbon emissions of sending letter through the post it was reported in the Financial Times today.

Viapost will allow customers to email letters to distribution centres around the country, where they will be printed out, folded and sorted before being handed over to local royal Mail distribution for final delivery, this will be a saving for companies who use the service as there will be a reduction in the cost of stationery, printing supplies and labour for filling envelopes. Although it does raise the question of data protection, and client confidentiality.

Royal Mail is already suffering from competition from the likes of TNT Post and UK Mail; I personally have noticed more large organisations preferring to use TNT for their mail.

The Viapost service claims to guarantee first class delivery for the cost of a second class stamp, which sounds pretty impressive, considering a recent conversation I had with a Royal Mail employee who could offer me no certainty of how long a first class recorded delivery would take, so in the end I have to pay three times as much for special next day delivery. It seems to me that the Royal Mail as enjoyed a monopolist situation for too long and the service it provides is not up to the standard it should be, so a bit of healthy competition may be good for everyone, customers in particular, as to a certain extent our choice is fairly limited.

Viapost also think the attraction of reducing carbon footprint will also attract more customers, and take business away from the state owned Royal Mail. It would be interesting to know how much technology has impacted on the delivery numbers as more things now are available on line, for example bank statements, invoices emailed directly to the end customer, which is even better for the environment. People tend to send a text, or email each other instead of writing letters – so it’s possible that the amount of mail Royal Mail have to handle may well have reduced. Although saying that there is always the dreaded junk mail, which seems to increase week by week.