IN the past 12 months the nation's postal service has lost £1.1bn. That equates to £3m a day.

It beggars belief that a vital public service, enjoying a near monopoly, can accrue such huge losses.

Just a few years ago, the service was thriving and highly profitable, the envy of the world.

For it to sink so quickly into a moribund and shambolic organisation is the result of rank bad management.

The same rank bad management which replaced the respected name of the Royal Mail with the 'brand' Consignia, at a cost of £1.5m, only for £1m to be spent 15 months later on bringing back the name Royal Mail.

Regrettably, it is not the management, but the workforce, which is having to carry the can for such disastrous decisions.

A further 17,000 redundancies will be made over the next three years, on top of the 13,000 already announced.

With the revolution in modern communications, it was perhaps inevitable that rationalisation would have had to take place.

It is doubtful, however, whether the cuts would have been so severe with proper guidance of the business.

The same time and effort should have been directed towards driving forward the business as the time and effort placed in dreaming up a new name which few customers appreciated and many ridiculed.

As a result, the Royal Mail is having to cope with increased competition from a position of weakness.

Some of the measures announced yesterday are long overdue and will go some way to remedying the situation. It is unlikely, for example, that the loss of a second delivery will be hardship to residential customers.

However, despite assurances to the contrary, the belief that there is "no danger whatsoever" to the universal delivery service may be misplaced.

It is a lot to ask of an organisation which has a recent history of ineptitude to recover quickly from such heavy financial losses and the haemorrhaging of so many employees.

The days of the postal service as we have known it for generations may be numbered.