Royal Mail

On Saturday I got home to find myself at the start of a mystery which I've still not settled for sure. I found a card from the Royal Mail telling me they failed to deliver a letter / parcel as there was unpaid postage due on it. The mystery came from the fact that I was not expecting anything, from anyone. It didn't help that this was a holiday weekend and I couldn't investigate until today.

You'd imagine this sort of insanity could only happen in the US, but it seems the UK can be equally insane at times. The Royal Mail apparently own the IP rights on your postcode. They've threatened legal action on unauthorized sites who use their feeds to allow people to find postcodes. It turns out that the Royal Mail are paid a handsome fee of £4000 per year for access to this data which many would assume was free, since it's a state monopoly on a public service.

People who go out on strike usually seek public support for their plight, to help add weight to their position over their employers, the Royal Mail are no different. The Royal Mail have a monopoly on some key areas of postal delivery in the UK, which like any other monopoly means "you're stuck with them, for good or ill". It's very hard to feel any sympathy for a company who employs postal delivery staff who are seemingly incapable of reading. I've lost count of the times I've gotten letters not addressed to my house number, even my street name and on the odd occasion town name. I've lost count of how many times I've complained, yet nothing has changed.