17,000 jobs will be shed over the next three years, in addition to the 15,000 job cuts announced earlier this year.

The second post will be scrapped, in a move which the company said would save it �350m a year.

Consignia will also drop its unpopular name, and in the future will be called the Royal Mail Group plc.

The measures have angered unions, who may take industrial action over the job losses.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said that "indiscriminate" shedding of staff could threaten the universal postal service.

What do you think of the changes? Will the postal service improve? What are your experiences of the UK's postal service?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

Your reaction

It's time to cut out the dead wood and streamline the service

Ryan, England

I work in IT and without e-mail my life would be a nightmare, but on the other hand I still like the service of the Post Office, and would gladly pay a few pence extra for a 1st class stamp. I do agree though, that it's time to cut out the dead wood and streamline the service. I know people say that it's been working for 100 years etc, but times change, and the PO needs to change with them!
Ryan, England

I have never encountered a single problem with Royal Mail. When I send mail - it gets there. When I am sent mail - I receive it. I doubt there is any other company out there that could give better service.
Ed, UK

Why is it that incompetence at the top is always paid for by the jobs of those at the bottom? This is not increasing efficiency but is the economics of desperation. Post Office managers asked for more control, got it, and promptly ran a profitable business into the ground. It looks like postal services are destined to go the way of rail, gas, phone, electricity, and water. That is, a much poorer service at greatly increased cost.
Tom, UK

Alan Leighton said it was management that was to blame for the situation in the Post Office. Why, then, do us Royal Mail employees have to bear the brunt for their mistakes. Shouldn't managers take a pay cut and listen to our union? Remember the actual loss was around �300 million the rest is redundancy payments. The increase in stamp prices should raise �170 million (Post Office figures). Therefore there is no need to make 30,000 people live on the dole.
Andy, UK

I have found Royal Mail very flexible and their depots are open on Saturdays too ! The only complaint I have is they educate their staff to become more customer-focussed.
Chris Hood, UK

I don't want a choice of carrier

LouLou, Coventry, UK

Losing the second post is personally not a problem. What does bother me is the insidious spread of deregulation and privatisation into what is a national service. I fear that the UK service will end up being overpriced or non-existent. I don't want a choice of carrier. I want to pop my letters in a nice red Royal Mail box, and know that delivery will happen, for a set price. It should never be opened to commercial competition.
LouLou, Coventry, UK

I think competition is the long-term solution here. When the management idiots at ITV Digital caused that company to go insolvent, at least I had the option to choose Sky. Even if they sack all the officers at Consignia, they will still get their bonuses and pensions, even after wasting all of our tax money. All we get is a new bunch of idiots to complain about next year.
Dave, UK

Part of the post office's traditional role has simply disappeared. All urgent information now travels by wire. It's still very nice to receive real letters or postcards but if they (or granny's knitting patterns) turn up tomorrow rather than today it's not really a problem.
B Essada, UK

Why is John Roberts being allowed to retire and not being sacked? Does this mean he will get a nice retirement package? All the other incompetent bosses who run companies into the ground always seem to come out of it financially better off!
Anne, UK

Looks like sabotage

Jon, UK

Looks like sabotage so that WTO agreements on allowing private business to run national post offices can be implemented without a hue and cry.
Jon, UK

As someone who has lived and worked in a number of countries worldwide I can assure everyone that Consignia is second to none for efficiency and value for money. If the cost of a stamp in the UK were related to other countries then Consignia would be showing a considerable profit and would have money left over for investment making it even more efficient.
Andy, UK

For years, the government has creamed off the profits from the Post Office, denying it the opportunity to compete on the same basis as other delivery operations. The taxpayer has had the benefit of the cash - it seems appropriate to return it when it is needed.
Al, UK

In the past managers and often directors worked their way up through the ranks. They knew the system and with insight would keep things up to date. Today, people are put in these top jobs with no experience and unwilling to interact with the workforce.
PMS, England

This is one of the best companies to work for

K McDonald, England

I hope the Royal Mail can turn this around. This is one of the best companies to work for apart from the bad morale at the moment. Let's hope they learn from the bad management which got us in this terrible mess.
K McDonald, England

Why is it that every time the government privatises something to save the taxpayer money it ends up costing us millions?
Thomas Hayter, UK (living in the USA)

Apparently there are 17 layers of management at Consignia. However, you will find no more than 6-7 in most large profitable companies because it is a well known commercial fact that any more and empire building and inefficiency become more and more prevalent.
Mike Rose, UK

What second post?

Adrian, UK

What second post? I remember them as a child in the 1970s but not since then!
Adrian, UK

Yet again the staff are the last to be told about today's announcement. We find out on our way to work, through the media...
Pete, UK

If the second post is scrapped, does this mean we will all get our post before the 9.30am deadline for the first post? We are in Greater London, but don't usuually get any post before lunchtime, which seems to mean we only get a second post. I
Natalie Bird, England

I have worked for Royal Mail for 20 years. Our business is still using the same work methods used a century ago. The second delivery everyone is screaming about losing is in fact only delivering 4% of the mail for 20% of the cost. This mail can easily be incorporated into the first delivery by deferring the time that the delivery commences by about 90 minutes. Few people receive a second delivery today because 96% of the mail is available on the first delivery.

As a workforce we are stumped as to why we are making such huge losses - some answers could be: Government interference, days lost to industrial action, one day wonders to change the way we work and inefficiency. The union shout about the job losses but if it was truly honest a lot of the problems could have been avoided by them being part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. Mistakes have been made by senior managers and they should pay the price of those mistakes. Change is long overdue and if we were honest in the business we would admit it, apart from the militants who seem to spoil the job for the majority of hard working, honest posties.
Alan, Royal Mail North East, England

I live in a village and our postman is reliable, efficient and knows most of the people. I'll gladly pay extra on a stamp for his service but not the suits who put the mail in this mess.
Keith Jones, UK

"Snail-mail" as a technology, and doorstep delivery as a concept, are both doomed long-term. These days we have faxes, emails, mobile phones, SMS; we pay our bills online and send e-greetings. I haven't received an old-tech letter for three weeks, and don't miss them at all. Would I care of postmen as a race vanished? Not really.
David Moran, Scotland/Australia

Managers suddenly feel the need to mess around with something that wasn't broken in the first place

Andy, UK

Why, after 100-odd years of the world's best postal service do managers suddenly feel the need to mess around with something that wasn't broken in the first place? Several people have already mentioned the obvious in that there are too many managers, internal markets and waste of time relaunches. As a lot of the workforce now face redundancy and we all lose out on the second class postal service, perhaps the senior managers (as the sponsors of the changes) should also be given the boot - without the huge redundancy pay-outs normally given to managers.
Andy, UK

Only a few years ago, we had a profitable and reliable postal service in the UK - which many other developed countries looked on at in anger. I suspect the trade union movement will blame the government of the day, but I think the problems within the service have been brought on by a small group of their members who cannot be bothered to deliver mail to the correct address or provide an acceptable level of service to the customer. Overall, Royal Mail does provide a good level of service but it is always the minority that spoils it for the majority!
David Harrington, UK

Any redundancies in the Post Office should be among those fat cats who decided to take services like vehicle licensing away from the Post Office. It is also a great inconvenience to people on low incomes - and children - that very small savings accounts were stopped.
Pat, N Ireland

If Consignia carries on like it is you aren't going to have a postal system anymore, it's as simple as that. The solution is simple: renationalise it, pay the staff a wage that will mean they care about their job and put the price of stamps up. I work for Consignia and I know what is happening. I don't really care and I'm off to get another job.
James, UK

Why are we so obsessed with our public services making a profit? In many countries it is accepted that some public services can only be effective if subsidised. Of course we want them to be as efficient as possible but this does not necessarily mean that they have to make money.
Craig Watson, UK/NL

Why can't the government simply focus on delivering service? Forget the the consultants, forget the name changes, just deliver the mail on time and keep it within budget. Back to simple, straight-forward basics.
Peter D, USA

A chief reason for underpaid posties was the government's insistence on having their mail sent free! Postmen had an unsuccessful strike in 1970 and on their return they adopted a policy of not helping any colleagues who were struggling. A permanent loss of goodwill. When will they ever learn?
John Rawlinson, U.K

The government has given the rights to the most profitable services to other companies.

Nathan Hobbs, Luton

I think everyone here has missed the point. The government has given the rights to the most profitable services to other companies. All the Post Office is left with is the loss-making national daily delivery service. Now they don't have the other stuff to subsidise it with these losses were inevitable. The government will now need to either subsidise the Post Office or watch it go bankrupt. The company is now basically insolvent. There is no way it can ever make a profit.
Nathan Hobbs, Luton, UK

Just as the workers who were the backbone of the Post Office were postmen (and women), then should we not call those responsible for the Consignia spasm "Con-men"? Perhaps if the Post Office had insisted that its managers should rise "through the ranks" more, rather than being appointed with little Post Office experience, we would be more likely to have a profitable service?
David, United Kingdom

I think there is sometime wrong with the management team. I have worked for Royal Mail before and I realised that there were too many bosses and supervisors. The management structure needs changes not the name of the company. Also there is a lot of work done for one charge. For example, if someone changes his postal address, Royal Mail should be able to stop all letters going to the previous address after they have received information that the person no longer lives there.
Kay Denkyi, UK

Make mismanagement of a company a criminal offence

Charles Nullens, UK

I think it is time to make mismanagement of a company a criminal offence - similar to emblezzement or fraud - and stop showering these failing Chief Executives with money they clearly do not deserve.
Charles Nullens, UK

At 10 years of age I moved to a new village. My best friend would write me a letter in the morning and the postie would deliver it by lunchtime. Whilst he drove on around the village I could read my letter, write a reply and pop it into the postbox in the lane. On his way back the postie collected the post from the box and my letter would get back to my friend the same day! Now that's what I'd call service. (OK it was nearly 40 years ago but so what?) Service is what the Royal Mail should be all about. Too many organisations get caught up in internal politics instead of remembering that the customer is their greatest asset followed only by their staff. Service counts for much more than re-branding. Thank goodness at least the name Royal Mail is coming back to it's rightful place. How tragic so many good workers have to pay the price of this foolish exercise.
SJ, UK

So the government is bailing out this company now - to the tune of �1.9bn - as well as Railtrack. I think I'll take the cost of every stamp I have ever purchased off my next tax return, I can't see any point in paying for this twice.
Phil, UK

Once again incompetents running a company are thrown a bundle of cash by the government, on top of which the industry is supposed to sit back while thousands of jobs are cut and the service reduced... sounds familiar.
Andy Richardson, UK

Same old story: teflon-coated twerps at the top of the heap sacrificing those beneath them when their latest incomptence surfaces. Directors and ministers : when will you stop ruining our lives ?
Dave, UK

Wouldn't massive accounting losses and mass dissatisfaction of the service make privatisation more palatable?

Merx England

Has it been truly coincidental that the initial name change and restructuring were brought about when the public made it clear that they did not want the Royal Mail privatised? Wouldn't massive accounting losses and mass dissatisfaction of the service make privatisation more palatable? We are never told what portions of these losses are due to the name change and new internal bureaucracy. Staff may be made redundant, reducing the levels of service but they can always be replaced at a later date to return to status quo. Look at the history of privatisation of national assets, all were deliberately run down, and within a couple of years profits were at an all time high. And let's not forget - most were initially bought by the current management consortiums who quickly sold for obscene profits. I feel Rik Bean is wrong to say that the restructuring and name change were ill-conceived. Far from it.
Merx England, UK

Will I get any letters delivered at all?

Justin R, UK

The postal 'delivery' service where I live in High Wycombe is patchy to say the least. I'm just concerned with the number of job losses - will I get any letters delivered at all? The parcel service is even worse, I've been waiting two weeks for a parcel to be delivered and they have not once managed to meet an agreed delivery date. Looks like a company that is prime for competition, about time I would say.
Justin R, UK

I don't know what everyone is whingeing about. My postal service is great! The post comes after I've left for work, but nothing is too urgent till I come back in the evening; most of it's junk mail that goes straight in the bin. When I've sent stuff it almost always gets there the following day and I was amazed that when I sent something to the US by ordinary post, it got there two days later. That's better than enough for anyone!
Matt, UK

How can Consignia say they will save money by dropping the second post? Where I live we haven't had a second post for years!!
Penny Blay, England

Now that the government has bailed out the Post Office with taxpayers money, I hope we are not subjected to huge increases in the costs of sending letters - this truly would be Stamp Duty....
Brendan, UK

80 million plus letters a day at say 20p a stamp - where does all of the money go?
Paul Lovett, England

Royal Mail is amongst the cheapest mail services in the world

Mark, Royal Mail, Manchester

Paul Lovett: may I explain that there may be 80 million items a day being posted at a cost of 20p a stamp, the money, my friend, is being used to help improve the service. Royal Mail is amongst the cheapest mail services in the world. Just think, it costs 27p to post a letter first class from anywhere in the UK. Find a cheaper alternative if you can. It is also a fact that it does indeed cost 28p to deliver every letter that costs the customer 27p.
Mark, customer management, Royal Mail, Manchester, England

If people used the correct postcode it would save Royal Mail millions. Did you know they have a dedicated team of workers who have to sift through piles of undelivered mail with addresses such as "The lady in red who lives in the end caravan"? If it costs Royal Mail 28p to deliver a letter then that's what the customer should pay. Stick the price up now!
Sarah Miles, UK

I am one of the managers without a job

Chris, UK

I am one of the unfortunate managers without a job now the efficiencies programme has kicked in. It's a shame that 13 years of hard work is rewarded like this. It begs the question of how many of those managers right at the top of the tree that are responsible for this shambles will get to keep their jobs while ordinary people with families and mortgages are thrown to the four winds ?
Chris, UK

32,000 job losses over the next three years! What a disaster for the Royal Mail and its workers. However, it's not your postie who is to blame; it is obviously the top level of management whose collective head must be placed on the block for this one. Bumbling, overpaid idiots who have steered this huge national treasure into one iceberg after another.
Mark Paterson, Scotland

Much of the losses have accrued as a result of an ill-conceived restructuring, creating an internal market and the accounting overheads associated with it. Had the Board paid more attention to running the service and listening to both staff and customers, it would not have wasted so much money on consultancies. Mr Leighton understands the chief resource of the business, its staff, and I believe he will turn things around. Sadly, he has been brought in too late to rescue the many workers who have spent up to 40 years in the company. I agree totally with Mark Paterson, heads need to roll!
Rik Bean, UK

So are these the final gasps for the postal service as we know it? How is stopping the second post going benefit the public and shareholders alike? �350m a year seems like a drop in the ocean. I can see the same happening with the mail as the rail network. I'm rapidly losing faith in this government and its ability to maintain the standard of life in this country.
Ben, England

The government is just as much to blame for the large losses. It was them that decided that benefits and pensions would be paid into people's bank accounts instead of paying out from post offices. This left the Post Office to pay for the �400 million computer system on their own. This system is still costing �100 million pounds a year to run which is a cost that would have been shared with the Benefits Agency.
John Smyth, UK

It's a disgrace

Ellen, Scotland

If I lost my company that amount of money I'd have been fired. What makes these managers any different from me? It's just jobs for the boys and lining each others' pockets and a total cover up. It's a disgrace and someone should be held accountable.
Ellen, Scotland

The money spent on the spurious name change to 'Consignia' should be returned.
Chris, UK

I find the current situation the Post Office, sorry 'Consignia' finds itself in deeply distressing and yet unsurprising. It is one of those businesses which government and captains of industry pay lip service to, but never understand. The Post Office is not just a business; it is an institution, and probably a symbol of being British. When you tinker with it, you are changing British society. Perhaps the powers that be ought to try understanding that. With regard to John Roberts, if he had any integrity he would go now.
Tony Davy, England

We get what we pay for

Dave Dixon, UK

After spending a fortune on changing its name to Consignia, why has the Royal Mail continued to use its old name? It's still Royal Mail in the 2002 telephone directories and as a business user, I still receive invoices with the Royal Mail logo. Yes the charges are low, but then the service is poor. We get what we pay for.
Dave Dixon, UK

I live smack bang in the heart of the city of Derby and I've never had a second post. Even the first post doesn't arrive here until 10.30am, so that isn't going to change anything. Strange thing though, I posted a parcel at midday Monday and it was delivered in Lancashire the next day, so Consignia (or whatever they are calling themselves today) must be doing something right.
Barry, UK

The postal service is everyone's favourite excuse for having not sent items or paid bills. "It's in the post."
James Fielding, Scotland

The postal workers shouldn't take this - 32,000 job cuts is ridiculous. Posties live on some of the worst wages in the country and have some of the worst hours. I think the unions should call an official national strike against the deregulation of the postal services.
Dan, Belfast

Dan: you say that the postal workers should strike - who does that affect and what does it ever achieve? The days of industrial action are over, and it is long overdue. The postal service should be placed in the hands of a competant government (if there is such a thing) and the fat cats at the top should be held accountable for the service provided.
Gordon Sinclair, Nottingham

Postal workers are already expected to work like pack-horses

Paul Rutland, England

How can cutting thousands of jobs improve the service? Postal workers are already expected to work like pack-horses when delivering due to management cut-backs over the last few years. The Government should be holding a public enquiry into the poor investments and office closures over recent years that have led to this situation.
Paul Rutland, England

These changes have to be worthwhile if they save the postal service as we know it. The unions are being incredibly short sighted - if the Royal Mail disappears, there will be more than a few thousand job losses.
Tim C, UK

I feel that the postal service is quite good but it could be cheaper. In order to do this, Consignia needs to reduce the number of managers and make top bosses more accountable to the staff.
Gagan, India/UK