ANNOUNCEMENT : ALL OF ROYAL MAIL'S EMPLOYMENT POLICIES (AGREEMENTS) AT A GLANCE (Updated 2021)... HERE
ANNOUNCEMENT : PLEASE BE AWARE WE ARE NOT ON FACEBOOK AT ALL!
Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
-
- FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
- Posts: 69489
- Joined: 30 Dec 2006, 10:29
- Gender: Male
- Location: Proud to be part of the Union
Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
https://inews.co.uk/news/royal-mail-rei ... rs-1639591
By Laurie Havelock
Royal Mail has reached a “crossroads” in its post-pandemic life, as the lockdown boom in parcel deliveries starts to wear off and unionised staff push for better pay.
The delivery firm’s annual pre-tax profits have dipped by 8.8 per cent to £662m, as the easing of Covid restrictions has led to a 7 per cent drop in demand for parcel deliveries, only somewhat offset by a contract to distribute virus testing kits.
Royal Mail’s chairman said that revenues were largely flat thanks to the tailwinds of the pandemic “now dissipating”. Keith Williams said that the firm was now positioning itself for a drop in economic growth and prolonged high inflation that might pose further challenges to its UK and international business.
“We are at a crossroads with the transformation of Royal Mail,” he said. “We need to adapt our business to a post-pandemic world and whilst we are making progress in some areas, more needs to be done in others”.
A large part of this transformation will mean the firm continues to pivot away from delivering letters to its more profitable parcel business. Royal Mail reported that it was handling around 60 per cent fewer letters than at its peak in 2004-2005, and 20 per cent fewer than at the beginning of the pandemic, while its parcel volume was continuing to grow.
Chief executive Simon Thompson said that although more than half of those parcels are processed automatically, it has highlighted a wider need to “accelerate the transformation” of the firm to be able to compete with its parcel rivals.
The company, which also houses the GLS unit that operates across Europe and the US, is under pressure not just from its international parcel rivals, including the likes of DPD and Amazon, but also from staff represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The threat of inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9 per cent this week, also poses a dual threat to Royal Mail.
On one hand, the service has warned that it will have to raise prices for customers. Earlier this year, the firm hiked first class stamp prices by 10p to 95p and second class stamps by 2p to 68p. It said it would have to bring them up again to meet higher wage, energy and food costs.
On the other, the firm’s postal workers are demanding better pay in response to their own rapidly rising cost of living. Though Royal Mail has offered a 3.5 per cent rise so far, with a further 2 per cent rise for those who meet productivity quotas, the CWU is pushing for an inflation-based pay increase with “no strings attached” – that is, no performance-based targets to meet.
The union points out – fairly – that Royal Mail would not make any money without its workers. “Every single penny of the £758m [adjusted operating] profit was from letter, parcel and test kits collected, processed, distributed and delivered by key postal workers, not by board members and not by shareholders but by our members,” said Terry Pullinger, the CWU’s deputy secretary general.
“Inflationary pressures are threatening to unpick that progress and have reignited troubles with its work force as talks continue to avert a potential nationwide strike,” summarised AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
One ongoing problem is that we, Royal Mail’s customers, see the company as a national service: its red-liveried vans and helpful posties are as much as part of the fabric of British life as our NHS or helpful neighbourhood police officers.
But, as of 2015, Royal Mail is a fully privatised company with a duty to its shareholders as much as to its customers. The firm is already struggling to cut costs, and news that revenues are sliding and that the pay dispute is looming sent its shares sliding down 10 per cent in morning trading, stripping £400m from Royal Mail’s market value.
Combined with Thompson’s previous comments about digitisation, it may become obvious to shareholders that Royal Mail may not really need an army of helpful workers to deliver letters every day when some of that operation can be slimmed down, streamlined and digitised. There is a need, the chief executive said, to “reinvent this British icon for the next generations”.
However it shakes out, there is still a deal of ground to make up between the two sides. The last time there was such a dispute between CWU and Royal Mail, it took two years of bitter negotiations before it was eventually settled in December 2020. The firm’s reinvention may have to wait a little longer until its loyal posties are back onside.
By Laurie Havelock
Royal Mail has reached a “crossroads” in its post-pandemic life, as the lockdown boom in parcel deliveries starts to wear off and unionised staff push for better pay.
The delivery firm’s annual pre-tax profits have dipped by 8.8 per cent to £662m, as the easing of Covid restrictions has led to a 7 per cent drop in demand for parcel deliveries, only somewhat offset by a contract to distribute virus testing kits.
Royal Mail’s chairman said that revenues were largely flat thanks to the tailwinds of the pandemic “now dissipating”. Keith Williams said that the firm was now positioning itself for a drop in economic growth and prolonged high inflation that might pose further challenges to its UK and international business.
“We are at a crossroads with the transformation of Royal Mail,” he said. “We need to adapt our business to a post-pandemic world and whilst we are making progress in some areas, more needs to be done in others”.
A large part of this transformation will mean the firm continues to pivot away from delivering letters to its more profitable parcel business. Royal Mail reported that it was handling around 60 per cent fewer letters than at its peak in 2004-2005, and 20 per cent fewer than at the beginning of the pandemic, while its parcel volume was continuing to grow.
Chief executive Simon Thompson said that although more than half of those parcels are processed automatically, it has highlighted a wider need to “accelerate the transformation” of the firm to be able to compete with its parcel rivals.
The company, which also houses the GLS unit that operates across Europe and the US, is under pressure not just from its international parcel rivals, including the likes of DPD and Amazon, but also from staff represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The threat of inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9 per cent this week, also poses a dual threat to Royal Mail.
On one hand, the service has warned that it will have to raise prices for customers. Earlier this year, the firm hiked first class stamp prices by 10p to 95p and second class stamps by 2p to 68p. It said it would have to bring them up again to meet higher wage, energy and food costs.
On the other, the firm’s postal workers are demanding better pay in response to their own rapidly rising cost of living. Though Royal Mail has offered a 3.5 per cent rise so far, with a further 2 per cent rise for those who meet productivity quotas, the CWU is pushing for an inflation-based pay increase with “no strings attached” – that is, no performance-based targets to meet.
The union points out – fairly – that Royal Mail would not make any money without its workers. “Every single penny of the £758m [adjusted operating] profit was from letter, parcel and test kits collected, processed, distributed and delivered by key postal workers, not by board members and not by shareholders but by our members,” said Terry Pullinger, the CWU’s deputy secretary general.
“Inflationary pressures are threatening to unpick that progress and have reignited troubles with its work force as talks continue to avert a potential nationwide strike,” summarised AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
One ongoing problem is that we, Royal Mail’s customers, see the company as a national service: its red-liveried vans and helpful posties are as much as part of the fabric of British life as our NHS or helpful neighbourhood police officers.
But, as of 2015, Royal Mail is a fully privatised company with a duty to its shareholders as much as to its customers. The firm is already struggling to cut costs, and news that revenues are sliding and that the pay dispute is looming sent its shares sliding down 10 per cent in morning trading, stripping £400m from Royal Mail’s market value.
Combined with Thompson’s previous comments about digitisation, it may become obvious to shareholders that Royal Mail may not really need an army of helpful workers to deliver letters every day when some of that operation can be slimmed down, streamlined and digitised. There is a need, the chief executive said, to “reinvent this British icon for the next generations”.
However it shakes out, there is still a deal of ground to make up between the two sides. The last time there was such a dispute between CWU and Royal Mail, it took two years of bitter negotiations before it was eventually settled in December 2020. The firm’s reinvention may have to wait a little longer until its loyal posties are back onside.
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts.
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support
Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
"Employers are always seeking more productivity from workers, without considering the human factor, the worker's age, the weather conditions and the intense heat. We need to intervene before it's too late, reducing working hours and the load carried by workers, because it's impossible to sustain the rhythm they're forced to work at for many years."
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support
Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
"Employers are always seeking more productivity from workers, without considering the human factor, the worker's age, the weather conditions and the intense heat. We need to intervene before it's too late, reducing working hours and the load carried by workers, because it's impossible to sustain the rhythm they're forced to work at for many years."
-
- Posts: 357
- Joined: 17 Jan 2014, 21:20
- Gender: Male
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
So how many letters do they post ..Div
-
- Posts: 278
- Joined: 20 Feb 2021, 22:31
- Gender: Male
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
RM seems to be obsessed with DPD/Amazon. Split the business, have a courier arm, and we`ll deliver the rest of it. I do n`t see as much off a drop off in flats as RM would like to think there is.
-
- Posts: 1222
- Joined: 27 Dec 2007, 18:17
- Gender: Female
- Location: New York
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
More bollocks and spin, letters are not down 60%, utter shite! but tell the lie long enough and everyone starts to believe.
CUT OFF!!!
-
- Posts: 1489
- Joined: 13 Feb 2021, 22:46
- Gender: Male
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
Was this article ghost written by Simon? How can you digitise mail, surely somebody has got to deliver the letters every day, savings in staffing numbers may be possible in sorting parcels before they reach the DO's, but once they arrive it's always going to take more or less the same number of posties to deliver them.
- tomtallis
- EX ROYAL MAIL
- Posts: 265
- Joined: 28 Oct 2020, 09:18
- Gender: Male
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
And the author had the gall to accept money for writing that?
-
- Posts: 1858
- Joined: 19 Aug 2013, 14:33
- Gender: Female
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
Will never believe a word from them now , never really did but the past cpl of years , dont trust any of em.
-
- MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
- Posts: 913
- Joined: 22 Apr 2007, 15:12
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
I always love hearing from the newspaper industry about how our company should be run.
The Daily Mail and General Trust - which owns this paper - made £50 million in profit last year. Or - correct me if my math is wrong - less than 10 percent of what we made this tine around.
The Daily Mail and General Trust - which owns this paper - made £50 million in profit last year. Or - correct me if my math is wrong - less than 10 percent of what we made this tine around.
-
- Posts: 494
- Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 08:12
- Gender: Male
-
- Posts: 1335
- Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 14:27
- Gender: Male
Re: Royal Mail needs to reinvent itself to compete with DPD and Amazon, with or without its postal workers
There aren't many journalists left to go out and report on reality so press releases become their window to the world, which they duly publish after a quick rewording.
Any Questions?
Yeah, how do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?
Yeah, how do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot] and 8 guests