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An Post chief executive David McRedmond has criticised Britain’s Royal Mail for failing small businesses after Brexit.
In a letter to the Financial Times, Mr McRedmond said trade from Britain to Ireland through postal channels had fallen by 52% in one year.
He said the UK Post Office has refused to implement the necessary systems to comply with the new EU customs rules that apply to the UK after Brexit.
David McRedmond also said that issues with parcels being sent from small businesses in the UK has been “extremely expensive for An Post”.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, he said that when items are posted to Ireland and do not have the right data they are sent back to the UK, as instructed by Irish customs.
He said the loss to An Post is about €25m in one year and comes “directly from the lost revenue from people not sending”.
The cost of implementing customs is “anywhere up to €20m”, so it has been extremely expensive for An Post, he added.
Mr Redmond said it is difficult to estimate the loss to UK businesses, but estimated it to cost €150-200m in one year.
He said the post offices in the UK are not telling people that they must put in the right codes to send certain items.
Mr Redmond said if the correct systems are not put in place, it could impact on deliveries.
“So we’re now been very direct and saying, you need to put them in or we won’t be able to take in parcels from you much longer,” he stated.
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In relation to personal packages getting into Ireland from the UK, he said there were no issues, and this was a specific issue with small businesses.
“In terms of items that have come from people in the UK – citizen to citizen – we’ve worked with Irish customs to be able to get them through the system,” the an Post CEO said.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said that customs authorities now require more detailed information to control the cross-border flow of goods.
“Royal Mail has invested significantly in enhancing the online posting experience for our customers. This process helps customers fill out all of the required documentation and classifications so that they can drop off their items at the Post Office if they wish,” a statement from the company said.
“We recommend customers also take advantage of our Parcel Collect service where we print then deliver shipping and customs labels on our customers’ behalf, as well as digitally transmit customs information to its destination for added convenience,” the statement added.
“For account customers we have also introduced Postal Delivery Duties Paid wherever it is available,” it concluded.
