Shout It Loud

As the deal that royal mail faces having 30% of the company being sold off and privatised looking set to go through, we have to wonder if the mail room services are needed anymore.

Is the written letter in danger of dying out? The invention of email has had a damaging effect on letter writing, with the instantaneous sending and receiving, the next to nothing cost and doesnt have the hassle of going out to the postbox/post office to send it. Covering huge distances and spell checking for us, email has certainly benefiited us all. Hasnt email evolved to the point where it is as personal and formal depending on the nature of the letter?

Theres still the need for some direct mail services. Bills are still sent out via the post, but how long before the whole country is online, and receiving their bills via the internet? We will even see a drop in smaller package deliveries now items such as cds and dvds can be downloaded and burned from the computer. Bigger items are now being picked up and sent back by going onto the computer.

So why do we still love having a tangible product and mail we can hold and pop down to the postbox? We can appreciate the effort spent on a birthday, christmas and valentines day card and put them aside to view again in years to come. Certain people just cannot get to grips with their computers will still use conventional mail systems because they need to. Now some products we order, such as a video game for a certain console or a dvd online rental will still have to be sent via post.

When we are in danger of privatisation of our public mail system, we have to ask what is to come for the conventional methods of mail.