Budfrog wrote:Cross subsidising one stream with another breaches competition laws and this has a bearing on RM's pricing strategy.
I don't think RM intends to provide the "too cold" plate of porridge.I think they will let the competition do that and hope that people are prepared to pay that extra premium for what they perceive must be a better service because it's more expensive.
I think they believe they are the M&S of delivery.
Like I said it's a dangerous strategy.
Brain Fury wrote:Perhaps they are pricing to reflect actual costs and to achieve growth in the parcel sectors that generate the most revenue / profit? Perhaps they think there's no point in offering low prices for say large parcels if we lose money on them when we could be using the network to accommodate the growth in smaller parcels. Perhaps they have looked at the market and competitors prices and think that customers will be prepared to pay more than the lowest available price to get a better service?
Trouble is small parcels have dropped in volume a lot, some nights it seems like half of the small parcels are Amazon
I believe it to be a deliberate attempt to ram privatisation through at the earliest opportunity.
It would surely be better to make, say 50p on maybe 5 million parcels and retain that share of the market, than increase prices like they have and lose a massive chunk of the work we had, to make even say £5 per parcel.
On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to lose 50p on some parcels just to retain market share across all sectors. As I understand it, RM was happy to lose the larger parcels to Parcelforce or elsewhere because we were losing money on them and it allows us to carry more parcels in other sectors of the market. I don't think the strategy is to lose market share but even if we did, as long as this is offset by the overall growth in the parcels market we would be better off.
Talking of cross subsidy, that's just what we've been doing for years, using the profitable sectors of our business to support the unprofitable ones. The big change in strategy is clearly that each sector has to pay it's own way and securing greater freedom from the regulator has allowed us to achieve this by pricing accordingly.
I don't think a short term increase in profit is necessary to "ram through" privatisation. It's going to happen anyway and the type of investor we want is going to be looking for long term returns.
Brain Fury wrote:On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to lose 50p on some parcels just to retain market share across all sectors.
It does when you have customers that post across all sectors.
They might be forced to take their large parcels elsewhere and while they are at it decide to find another outlet for their small and medium parcels.Any time you push a customer away even over one product,you risk losing all their business.We need to stop seeing customers as single transaction users and see them as a complete revenue stream,not try to milk the maximum profit from every item they post because each "sector" has to pay their way.
Even supermarkets understand that some items are worth more as a customer magnet than they are as a high profit margin,I'm not saying Royal Mail should loss lead but they should be aware of the reasons why customers use Royal Mail in the first place,it's value for money and that means quality and competitive pricing.
Was told today that it is deliberate by my boss. They are intentionally throwing the large parcels away, and don't care if they improve our competitors businesses, they just don't want them. They, according to my boss, want to "encourage customers to only send small parcels" as they fit in with the P&L model. We asked what if a customer wants to send something much larger from their business, RM are apparently not interested as they do lose money on it, I argued that it would be better to increase the price to the point where we break even, just to retain the business and stop competitors gaining from what is a stupid mistake.
UnhappyGremlin wrote:Was told today that it is deliberate by my boss. They are intentionally throwing the large parcels away, and don't care if they improve our competitors businesses, they just don't want them. They, according to my boss, want to "encourage customers to only send small parcels" as they fit in with the P&L model. We asked what if a customer wants to send something much larger from their business, RM are apparently not interested as they do lose money on it, I argued that it would be better to increase the price to the point where we break even, just to retain the business and stop competitors gaining from what is a stupid mistake.
So why all the. R&D and investment in packet automation? What happens to Christmas which has always been a big earner for RM on the back of.... parcels. Why become a parcel carrier that also processes letters.
I can understand diverting streams to Parcelforce but not giving them up to the competition when the letter streams are still falling.
UnhappyGremlin wrote:Was told today that it is deliberate by my boss. They are intentionally throwing the large parcels away, and don't care if they improve our competitors businesses, they just don't want them. They, according to my boss, want to "encourage customers to only send small parcels" as they fit in with the P&L model. We asked what if a customer wants to send something much larger from their business, RM are apparently not interested as they do lose money on it, I argued that it would be better to increase the price to the point where we break even, just to retain the business and stop competitors gaining from what is a stupid mistake.
So why all the. R&D and investment in packet automation? What happens to Christmas which has always been a big earner for RM on the back of.... parcels. Why become a parcel carrier that also processes letters.
I can understand diverting streams to Parcelforce but not giving them up to the competition when the letter streams are still falling.
Apparently it is a gamble, they are hoping that the initial losses will be recouped in a few months. It's mental, but it was a risk they see as worthwhile taking.
The packet automation will be how RM intends to sort the smaller packets, but they can't automate processing for large parcels, and it is more expensive to sort manually.
Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Budfrog wrote:Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Wonder if they get a fixed wage, meaning the hourly rate would be really low, probably below Minimum wage, of as I suspect, they are on X per parcel?
Pretty sure it will be crap either way.
Mind you, there is a postman who comes on RMC who could probably do 120 parcels in about an hour and a half.....
Budfrog wrote:Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Wonder if they get a fixed wage, meaning the hourly rate would be really low, probably below Minimum wage, of as I suspect, they are on X per parcel?
Pretty sure it will be crap either way.
Mind you, there is a postman who comes on RMC who could probably do 120 parcels in about an hour and a half.....
For firms that pay a specified amount per delivered item the drivers are self employed and not covered by the minimum wage act. This driver told me he was employed directly by Amazon so i assume he is on an hourly rate which would need to meet the minimum wage legislation.
Budfrog wrote:Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Wonder if they get a fixed wage, meaning the hourly rate would be really low, probably below Minimum wage, of as I suspect, they are on X per parcel?
Pretty sure it will be crap either way.
Mind you, there is a postman who comes on RMC who could probably do 120 parcels in about an hour and a half.....
For firms that pay a specified amount per delivered item the drivers are self employed and not covered by the minimum wage act. This driver told me he was employed directly by Amazon so i assume he is on an hourly rate which would need to meet the minimum wage legislation.
If that is the case then is he being paid for up to 13 hours a day? I very much doubt it. Wonder what the terms of the contracts are? Weekly hours etc..
I have done in excess of 100 parcels in 7 hours before, but that was in a relatively small area, I'm willing to bet they are expected to cover an entire town or something like that, which would mean loads of driving with large distances between drops.
Budfrog wrote:Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Wonder if they get a fixed wage, meaning the hourly rate would be really low, probably below Minimum wage, of as I suspect, they are on X per parcel?
Pretty sure it will be crap either way.
Mind you, there is a postman who comes on RMC who could probably do 120 parcels in about an hour and a half.....
For firms that pay a specified amount per delivered item the drivers are self employed and not covered by the minimum wage act. This driver told me he was employed directly by Amazon so i assume he is on an hourly rate which would need to meet the minimum wage legislation.
If that is the case then is he being paid for up to 13 hours a day? I very much doubt it. Wonder what the terms of the contracts are? Weekly hours etc..
I have done in excess of 100 parcels in 7 hours before, but that was in a relatively small area, I'm willing to bet they are expected to cover an entire town or something like that, which would mean loads of driving with large distances between drops.
Not sure what hours he is paid for but I'm willing to bet he goes over and into his own time just to keep the job. My impression was that he wasn't that happy to be doing those kind of hours and also have his targets increased.
Budfrog wrote:Just had a parcel delivered from Amazon and asked the driver who he works for. He told me he is an Amazon employee and they are rolling out a nationwide network of deliveries.
I asked what kind of Terms and Conditions and his reply was basically "they work me hard, I was originally targetted with 90 drops/day but that has been increased to 120, some days I work 13Hrs which is not what I was really looking for when I joined". I mentioned the fact that with many carriers you have to supply your own vehicle, he told me that his was supplied and maintained by Amazon.
Wonder if they get a fixed wage, meaning the hourly rate would be really low, probably below Minimum wage, of as I suspect, they are on X per parcel?
Pretty sure it will be crap either way.
Mind you, there is a postman who comes on RMC who could probably do 120 parcels in about an hour and a half.....
For firms that pay a specified amount per delivered item the drivers are self employed and not covered by the minimum wage act. This driver told me he was employed directly by Amazon so i assume he is on an hourly rate which would need to meet the minimum wage legislation.
If that is the case then is he being paid for up to 13 hours a day? I very much doubt it. Wonder what the terms of the contracts are? Weekly hours etc..
I have done in excess of 100 parcels in 7 hours before, but that was in a relatively small area, I'm willing to bet they are expected to cover an entire town or something like that, which would mean loads of driving with large distances between drops.
Not sure what hours he is paid for but I'm willing to bet he goes over and into his own time just to keep the job. My impression was that he wasn't that happy to be doing those kind of hours and also have his targets increased.
At least we get a decent wage and can work only our required hours, I expect they won't have any real recourse to refuse, as it will end in a trip to the Job Centre.
I Have had several packets recently from couriers......nearly all of them were either opened or damaged....and when you ask these idiots how they ended up in this condition. All you get is...'' I dunno mate...that is how they come to me this morning''...fooking twats they are ...also why is it these couriers haven't got a clue where they are delivering too?
On average I would say I get asked about 10 to 20 times a week by all couriers where's this. Where's that...fooking tossers
