I use postal services and couriers a lot.

Royal mail is far from being the worst! There is still something left of the public service ethos, despite the battering the workforce have taken over the years. It is a great credit to the service.

Readers of this forum might like to remember that Royal Mail was once profitable, but the profits were creamed off into the consolidate fund by the Treasury on the 'golden goose' principal of public finance. The market was then opened to competition without much thinking through of the issues, on the simplistic view that competition would magically drive up efficiency.