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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Alex Lawson

MYSTERIOUS: Dead letter office royal mail wrestles with a difficult future - What They Never Told You

A small single seater electric vehicle inf ront of an array of larger electric vans, all in Royal Mail's red and yellow livery
Electric delivery vehicles at a Glasgow depot: the 500-year-old service has made efforts to modernise, but is also hoping to be allowed to cut back on certain obligations. Photograph: Royal Mail/PA

If Martin Seidenberg has had any honeymoon period as the new boss of Royal Mail’s parent company, it will end this week. He must respond by Tuesday to a series of testy questions from Liam Byrne MP, the chair of the parliamentary business and trade committee, on Royal Mail’s staff turn­over, poor service and disputed parcels policy.

This is the latest tussle in the troubled history of the 507-year-old company – seen by some as a venerable institution and by others as a corporate conundrum – which faces a huge challenge to reinvent itself amid stiff competition.

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