Latest News »News Archive
Direct Mail: PUG demands open market mail
Users Group (PUG) today issued a rallying call to Ministers to back opening up Europe's postal markets in 2009. The call came hours ahead of the first formal discussion by Ministers of the Commission's recent proposal to lift the final element of monopoly in the postal market.
PUG represents the broad range of associations representing companies that provide services to consumers reliant on the post. PUG members are united in their confidence that a postal sector that responds to user needs will enable them to expand their businesses sustainably into the future.
For example, according to MINTEL estimates, the online retail market is expected to grow by a further 186% between 2005 and 2010; publishing trends show that printed press content will continue to be an important means of disseminating information, ideas and entertainment - the opportunity across the EU is to match the 87% of newspapers delivered by the post in leading member states; while a WIK study prepared for the Commission reports that 24 of the 25 member states expect an increase in direct mail volumes
Per Mortensen, Chairman of PUG, stated "we want to bring Ministers the good news for the postal sector. The market can grow and in so doing provide real long term confidence in the security of universal services. But it can only grow if postal operators become more responsive to users and that's not going to happen unless the market is fully opened up."
Mortensen continued "the opportunities from cross-border mail are even more striking. When the Commission started looking at liberalising the postal sector in 1992 international letter post represented just 3% of mail volumes. It had risen less than 1 percentage point by 2005 according to the Commission's studies. The single market process seems to have passed the post by the wayside, and it is time to start catching up again. The Commission's proposal provides the basis for postal operators to become an engine for growth in E-Commerce, cultural diversity and new services."
11 December 2006