Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Freedom of Information blackout hides location of v2 Post and Go machines!

Once upon a time - back in September 2010 in fact - we published this list of Post Offices which had the first Post & Go Machines to dispense Birds stamps:


Before that details of all Post and Go offices had been published elsewhere, and the full list of offices dispensing Birds III Faststamps was published on the Postagelabelsuk blog The information on these blogs was provided by Royal Mail.

As you will have seen from other blogposts, and comments on them, people want to know which machines have been updated to version 2 producing 40g labels, and accepting premium services.  But Royal Mail are hiding behind the Freedom of Information Act and refusing to say on the grounds that:

"Post Office Limited believes that this information, if disclosed in the
format you have requested, could be used by competitors to prejudice the
commercial interests of Post Office Limited and our partners."
(see this link http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/post_go_machine#comment-22701)

The base information is already in the public domain.  Post Office Ltd has no competitors at this stage which provide a postal service selling stamps.  The suggestion that competitors would use the information "to market their operations, services or products in areas where Post and Go machines are not yet situated."

What a lot of nonsense!


1 comment:

  1. It would also be to the detriment of Royal Mail's profits should they not supply timely information of new releases to collectors and dealers!!!

    ReplyDelete

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