yorkshire businesses suffer in postal strike misery

5th Oct 2007

The current postal strikes could be having a damaging effect on the Yorkshire economy and the UK Government should intervene to ensure they are prevented or resolved more quickly.

That's the frank opinion of leading Yorkshire businessman Steve Hull, whose company Sawfish Software, is just one of the thousands of local businesses whose postal communications have ground to a halt in the continuing rows over pay and job cuts.

Steve said: "Competition in all sectors is growing, with firms constantly facing the threat of incoming national and international firms. In many ways the Yorkshire business community is lagging behind other regions and we have to work harder than most to ensure we can compete on a national scale.

"While I empathise with the striking postal workers, who are entirely entitled to stand up for what they feel is right, their stalemate with the Royal Mail is having a damaging impact right across the board and I find it very hard to believe that in this day and age there is no other way to resolve the conflict than through industrial action.

"At Sawfish Software we are fully prepared for situations like this because we have a strong business model that makes full use of modern technologies such as email, video calling and faxing, which means that even during the strike we are able to maintain communications with all of our customers across the country. But not everyone will be so lucky.

"Recent research conducted by Yorkshire Forward found that 18% of Yorkshire businesses still have no computers and 60% are unable to conduct any trade online. While the argument can be made that these businesses can carry on working over the telephone, any activity that needs to be done in writing, such as the signing of a contract or the receipt of an invoice, will be severely delayed, not just by the strike itself, but also in the time it takes to process the backlog. This will mean that suppliers won’t be paid promptly and could cause a lot of uncertainty and worry across the business community.

"My message to companies across Yorkshire would be that we obviously cannot rely on the Government to tackle these situations. As business owners we must take it upon ourselves to ensure that we are prepared for disruptions to the normal channels of communication and embrace new technologies, which will allow us to continue operating when these standard channels are not available. Later this month, the Business Performance Network are hosting a free seminar designed to show businesses of all sizes how they can do just that and hopefully this will go some way towards helping Yorkshire businesses face the challenging times we now find ourselves in."

For more information and to register to attend The Business Performance Network seminar, which is being held at 3 Albion Place, Leeds, from 3pm to 5pm on Thursday, October 24, please contact Linsay Errington on 0870 1607555 or email lerrington@tbpn.co.uk.