Royal Mail
- Thread starter Skellionz
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Very interesting reading guys. Especially the different Points of view.
Regarding Royal Mail not being able to offer the same collection service as other couriers. ParcelForce offers this service and as they are also a part of the same parent company it would be pointless to also provide this service by Royal Mail. I have often used ParcelForce when shipping parcels overseas because they have been cheaper and have still offered a door to door service collecting directly from me.
Regarding unions. I'm a member of the CWU but don't like unions for their 70's approach to many things they still do. I'm only a member for the help they can offer employees in regard to job related issues such as sick leave and terms and conditions of my own employment. I'm against strike action of any kind and have always continued working when previous action has been taken.
The days of people being attacked for working during a strike are long gone. It is against the law for an employee to be targeted for not taking part and there is a limit on the number of people allowed on a picket line. Managers are also present to make sure they do not cause issues at the start and end time of shifts to protect those wishing to continue working. So it has never been an issue where I work.
Regarding Royal Main losing money, this is quite an artificial argument that is created by creative accounting. The Royal Mail bosses are claiming Royal Mail's mail volumes have fallen by 20% in the last few years. However this figure does not include DSA (DownStream Access) volumes which I'm sure easily account for the 20% fall in direct Royal Mail volumes. So are we really seeing less mail though the system? I personally don't think we are. We are seeing less mail from collections yes, but the DSA being processed at different times of the day in distribution centres can give the impression to other shifts that the volumes are falling because all they are witnessing are the collection mail arriving for direct Royal mail post.
Equally Royal Mail also gets fined a lot of money by the regulator when they don't meet their targets. The is in the millions per week. So the money RM s fined is deducted from their profits and so again makes it look like the company is losing more money. Competitors don't get fined. Is that fair? This is a huge reason Royal Mail can't be competitive. To me it looks like a great system to cream off profits from Royal Mail in the form of fines (to go into the government coffers?) and still be able to claim the company is losing money.
BTW, Royal Mail letters did make a lose in the last year, but overall Royal Mail Group actually did make an overall collective profit of £39M.
And what do you all think of "World Class Mail"? Have you all actually heard of this? Royal Mail are spending millions on this and I've yet to see any difference in how the company is being run. All I can see is it's a great way for the excess of upper management to justify their jobs. Axe a lot of the middle and upper management in Royal Mail and they would save a lot of money and see no difference in the running of the company. There are a lot of managers that are surplus to requirements. And do they need to be driving £80K Audi's? What is wrong with a Mondeo? Or in fact buying their own car. It isn't like shift managers or office workers need to travel much is it?
There is also the talk of the privatisation splitting off the pension fund and the government managing that themselves. Anyone else find that a bit suspicious? The press always talk about the shortfall in Royal Mail pensions, but the actual scheme is still worth a lot of money in how its portfolio of investments is setup. If the government can get their hands on this it won't be to sure up the shortfall, it will be to gain control of its portfolio of stocks and shares.
At the end of the day, modernisation is always needed to improve standards, working conditions and efficiency. With all this comes the need for less workers because less manual labour is needed as it progresses. Regardless of arguments this is a reality and there are no alternatives. All strike action will achieve in trying to fight such changes is a negative impact on the company's business and a loss of trade. Meaning redundancies anyway. I do not get why employees can never see this.
Regarding Royal Mail not being able to offer the same collection service as other couriers. ParcelForce offers this service and as they are also a part of the same parent company it would be pointless to also provide this service by Royal Mail. I have often used ParcelForce when shipping parcels overseas because they have been cheaper and have still offered a door to door service collecting directly from me.
Regarding unions. I'm a member of the CWU but don't like unions for their 70's approach to many things they still do. I'm only a member for the help they can offer employees in regard to job related issues such as sick leave and terms and conditions of my own employment. I'm against strike action of any kind and have always continued working when previous action has been taken.
The days of people being attacked for working during a strike are long gone. It is against the law for an employee to be targeted for not taking part and there is a limit on the number of people allowed on a picket line. Managers are also present to make sure they do not cause issues at the start and end time of shifts to protect those wishing to continue working. So it has never been an issue where I work.
Regarding Royal Main losing money, this is quite an artificial argument that is created by creative accounting. The Royal Mail bosses are claiming Royal Mail's mail volumes have fallen by 20% in the last few years. However this figure does not include DSA (DownStream Access) volumes which I'm sure easily account for the 20% fall in direct Royal Mail volumes. So are we really seeing less mail though the system? I personally don't think we are. We are seeing less mail from collections yes, but the DSA being processed at different times of the day in distribution centres can give the impression to other shifts that the volumes are falling because all they are witnessing are the collection mail arriving for direct Royal mail post.
Equally Royal Mail also gets fined a lot of money by the regulator when they don't meet their targets. The is in the millions per week. So the money RM s fined is deducted from their profits and so again makes it look like the company is losing more money. Competitors don't get fined. Is that fair? This is a huge reason Royal Mail can't be competitive. To me it looks like a great system to cream off profits from Royal Mail in the form of fines (to go into the government coffers?) and still be able to claim the company is losing money.
BTW, Royal Mail letters did make a lose in the last year, but overall Royal Mail Group actually did make an overall collective profit of £39M.
And what do you all think of "World Class Mail"? Have you all actually heard of this? Royal Mail are spending millions on this and I've yet to see any difference in how the company is being run. All I can see is it's a great way for the excess of upper management to justify their jobs. Axe a lot of the middle and upper management in Royal Mail and they would save a lot of money and see no difference in the running of the company. There are a lot of managers that are surplus to requirements. And do they need to be driving £80K Audi's? What is wrong with a Mondeo? Or in fact buying their own car. It isn't like shift managers or office workers need to travel much is it?
There is also the talk of the privatisation splitting off the pension fund and the government managing that themselves. Anyone else find that a bit suspicious? The press always talk about the shortfall in Royal Mail pensions, but the actual scheme is still worth a lot of money in how its portfolio of investments is setup. If the government can get their hands on this it won't be to sure up the shortfall, it will be to gain control of its portfolio of stocks and shares.
At the end of the day, modernisation is always needed to improve standards, working conditions and efficiency. With all this comes the need for less workers because less manual labour is needed as it progresses. Regardless of arguments this is a reality and there are no alternatives. All strike action will achieve in trying to fight such changes is a negative impact on the company's business and a loss of trade. Meaning redundancies anyway. I do not get why employees can never see this.
so just that I understand
whome fixes the price for charging to competitors?
i.e. who's sparky idea was it to charge the TNT 13p and the general public 46p ?
Why can the post-office not say NO?
Why not up the charge for the service?
I am assuming theres a massive ammount of volume sale going on, surely in that there is an off-set?
if not, whom is doing the accounting?
over the last 25 years to my knowledge, governments have been attempting to privatise Royal Mail, I fear that this "back door" errosion is the crux they need to employ such an argument to privatise.
sad... very very sad....
whome fixes the price for charging to competitors?
i.e. who's sparky idea was it to charge the TNT 13p and the general public 46p ?
Why can the post-office not say NO?
Why not up the charge for the service?
I am assuming theres a massive ammount of volume sale going on, surely in that there is an off-set?
if not, whom is doing the accounting?
over the last 25 years to my knowledge, governments have been attempting to privatise Royal Mail, I fear that this "back door" errosion is the crux they need to employ such an argument to privatise.
sad... very very sad....
Whats this DownStream Access thingy you talking about
Downstream access (DSA) is the term used to describe mail which has been collected and distributed by a competitor, but is handed over to Royal Mail centres for final processing onto local delivery offices, where they are delivered.
The Regular is Postcomm. http://www.psc.gov.uk/
Postcomm.
Remember that TNT charge their own customers more than the 13p to collect and forward the mail on for final sorted by Royal Mail and delivery. It is just Royal Mail that are receiving this 13p from TNT per letter to process and deliver their mail.
Because Postcomm controls it and prevents Royal Mail from setting their own prices. This is meant to allow for fair competition, but it only controls the prices Royal Mail can charge and not any of its competitors.
Royal Mail makes a loss on DSA mail, which is the majority of the volume mail they have to handle. When the UK mail market was opened up to fair competition in 2003 the competitors just stole all the best business mail parts away from Royal Mail and left them with all of the residential mail. It is the business mail where profit can be made, not the stamped mail.
Ever since the market was opened up Royal Mail has been arguing that all competitors need to also be regulated by Postcomm in the same way because at the moment it is not fair competition because Royal Mail are not able to run their own business.
Postcomm.
Remember that TNT charge their own customers more than the 13p to collect and forward the mail on for final sorted by Royal Mail and delivery. It is just Royal Mail that are receiving this 13p from TNT per letter to process and deliver their mail.
Because Postcomm controls it and prevents Royal Mail from setting their own prices. This is meant to allow for fair competition, but it only controls the prices Royal Mail can charge and not any of its competitors.
Royal Mail makes a loss on DSA mail, which is the majority of the volume mail they have to handle. When the UK mail market was opened up to fair competition in 2003 the competitors just stole all the best business mail parts away from Royal Mail and left them with all of the residential mail. It is the business mail where profit can be made, not the stamped mail.
Ever since the market was opened up Royal Mail has been arguing that all competitors need to also be regulated by Postcomm in the same way because at the moment it is not fair competition because Royal Mail are not able to run their own business.
thanks for that info blankstare
indeed other companies have come in and cherry picked the bits they want to do but do not have to play by the same rules
indeed other companies have come in and cherry picked the bits they want to do but do not have to play by the same rules
Yes we are going through world class mail in our office and it's goal seems tO be to reduce the place to a clinical Environent in which we are all clones. Tbh it a ridiculous "concept" from a Japanese guy that no doubt we have bought for millions. Most of the practices it employs should already be used really
Ahhh just think ... that Japanese guy will soon be having all you postal workers doing your little exercises in the car park at the beginning of your shift 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27fBKMvMbGY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27fBKMvMbGY
Absolutely. Frankly, as I see it, heads need to roll at Postcomm for that moronic decision. Regulating the Royal Mail to 'encourage competition' but not regulating the private companies is just utterly ridiculous. Of course the privates will cherry-pick only the profitable services, leaving RM to pick up only the expensive side of the business. Any internal subsidies that RM uses to cover the costs of delivering to remote areas will be swallowed up.
Something similar happened with bus services. When they were privatised, insufficient regulation was imposed, meaning that less-profitable routes were lost. The bus service where my parents live was cancelled because of this. Of course, all the major bus services are still running.
ANd Royal Fail strike again, 2 parcels Im waiting on have not arrived despite being posted out First class on the 27th June!!! So I rung them up, they dont investigate till the 16th July?????? WHY? Surely the fact that the ebay seller which is one of the parcels missing has had a load of her postings out not reached their destination yet, despite being posted out on the 27th June is a hint somethings not right. And there has been no report of delays either! GRRR
Oddly I've not had items I sent from Australia to the UK go missing, but given I sent one today I'll find out the hard way I guess.
Royal Mail publish internal performance tables, showing the performance standards of each mail centre, delivery office, distribution centre etc... it would therefore be interesting to find out where the offices you are all having trouble with fall within those league tables.
The distribution centre I work at is currently the best in our region (South West) and is the 4th best in the country.
The distribution centre I work at is currently the best in our region (South West) and is the 4th best in the country.
My ebay items coming from Lincoln to Doncaster. The ebay seller said the other stuff she had posted out hadnt mae it to their locations yet so would be interesting to see where Lincoln and Doncaster are on that list. Can you find out?Royal Mail publish internal performance tables, showing the performance standards of each mail centre, delivery office, distribution centre etc... it would therefore be interesting to find out where the offices you are all having trouble with fall within those league tables.
The distribution centre I work at is currently the best in our region (South West) and is the 4th best in the country.
I spoke customer services this afternoon and they said they only dealing with claims forms received from 20th june today.
so if you think it definitely missing. I would fill out claim for soon has.
---------- Post added at 15:33 ---------- Previous post was at 15:31 ----------
well i know one do I dont trust edited pending investigation should be in top 10 bad uns for packets being nicked. I hope royalmail ips catches and the queen beheads him or her.
then maybe the thieving baskets might not pilfer anymore if they know they'll lose the heads literally.
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Is the Tower of London still in use? I wonder if they still have their Iron Maiden or arm and leg stretching machinery?
My ebay items coming from Lincoln to Doncaster. The ebay seller said the other stuff she had posted out hadnt mae it to their locations yet so would be interesting to see where Lincoln and Doncaster are on that list. Can you find out?
Most recent national report show both those offices have been meeting targets.
The latest national report for 2010/11 can be found as a PDF here:
http://www2.royalmailgroup.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/quarterly_qos_report_q2_10-11.pdf
You can also access older reports at http://www2.royalmailgroup.com/how-were-performing/quality-service-reports which is interesting to compare performance over the years.
There are also more up to date sorting office league tables and I will see if I can find those on the RM Intranet when I get time this week.
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