Bristol businessman Peter Hargreaves on why Royal Management are to blame for the city's chaotic postal strikes.

Many readers of the Bristol Evening Post will have noticed that postal workers have been involved in a small amount of industrial action.

Now, we hear, those strikes have created a million-strong backlog of mail items across the Bristol area.

The initial reaction by most of Royal Mail's customers has been astonishment. I have heard comments such as "Do they not realise that there is a recession on?", "Have they not noticed that hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs?", "They only work mornings", "What a great job – postmen now ride around in vans". Indeed, postal workers must be concerned at how little public sympathy they engender.

Sadly, however, members of the general public who say things like that do not appear to realise the fundamental problem at Royal Mail – it seems to be one of the worst managed businesses in the country.

Not only do I think that it is badly managed but I also regard it as over-managed. To me, an outsider, it looks like there are far too many managers.

This comes right from the very top of the Royal Mail. So much so, that I have visions of thousands of meeting rooms filled with overpaid incompetents pontificating about how to run the business.

I think they are all unnecessary. The postmen know how to run the business. They know how to sort the mail and get the mail out and they do it extremely efficiently – or, should I say, they would if they were not interfered with by the bunch who are supposed to be running the service.

From what I have been told, the other problem is that rumours abound. Because it seems no one knows what is going to happen and who is running the business, it seems internal information is propagated more by rumour than by fact.

When you hear of all the stupid rules about what speed a postman should walk at, or how much weight he has to carry on a bike, is it any wonder that morale has reached rock-bottom?

My view on what should happen at Royal Mail is a simple one. They should sack 90 per cent of the people with titles like administrator and manager and halve the salary of the five per cent they need to keep.

There is no doubt that Royal Mail business is shrinking thanks to the internet, but what we don't see is any downsizing of the management. No, they keep their salaries and bonuses, holidays and perks and lay all the blame at the tired feet of the hardworking postmen.

Perhaps what should really happen is that we should start at the top and sack the board, specifically the chief executive, Adam Crozier, whom I believe is wildly overpaid.

I think I am extremely well qualified to comment on the Royal Mail. Our company is one of Bristol's major users of their 'service'. Many years ago, when we started becoming major users, we were introduced to someone that was called a postal rep. They were supposed to help us. Since then, we have had a succession of these people and, in the 25 years that we have had a postal rep, I can honestly say only one of them was any use whatsoever.

To put things in perspective, on one occasion we asked a question of one of our many postal reps, who couldn't answer it. We suggested he ought to ask his superior. He had to check to find out who his superior was!

Yes, the Royal Mail is struggling. Its business is declining. In fact, it's suffering a slow death.

But I have no doubt that the people running it are accelerating its demise. The saddest irony is that the British taxpayer is going to have to pick up their pension liabilities.