Hermes: “Nothing we could do” to help if RM strike in Dec

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Hermes: “Nothing we could do” to help if Royal Mail strike comes in December

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Britain’s second largest parcel carrier has said it will be able to help retailers cope with a strike at Royal Mail – if industrial action is called in October or November.

But Hermes said if network-wide disruption comes in December, there would be “nothing we could do” beyond its existing commitments to retail customers.

The Communication Workers Union is expected to announce the result of its strike ballot this afternoon, with its 115,000 Royal Mail members likely to vote in favour of industrial action in protest at privatisation and in the hopes of securing job protections following the company’s IPO.

Leeds-based Hermes, which handles around 187m parcels a year, said the fact the union will be planning strike action after 23rd October means it will be timed for the “worst time of the year” for the delivery industry.

Carole Woodhead said the impact of the strike will depend on whether it is an all-out strike, or if the union is planning rolling strikes that do not take out the entire Royal Mail network.

“We all know given the scale of Royal Mail that there isn’t the equivalent capacity for the whole of their parcel and letters volume to go through the rest of the parcel and letters carriers put together,” Woodhead told reporters yesterday.

“You cannot just close Royal Mail for a day in full and expect the rest just to pick up the balance. That won’t happen.”

“Huge challenge”

“You cannot close Royal Mail for a day and expect the rest to pick up the balance”
Woodhead said her company was talking to retailers about what support can be given. The company specialises in large retailers with high volumes of parcels, who invariably have multi-carrier strategies requiring use of more than one delivery company.

Hermes is planning on doubling the usual capacity of its parcel-handling network over the next two months, and to some extent the company can bring its plans forward if strike action comes earlier rather than later.

But she warned that industrial action could cause a “huge challenge” for the industry and retail customers.

“There are things that we can do if it lands through October or November,” she said. “If it hits two weeks in December, then there would be nothing we could do, because we will be at maximum capacity with the plans that we have for a normal peak.”

“And I would say that all other carriers would be in the same situation,” Woodhead added.

Hermes is anticipating year-on-year growth in parcel volumes to come in the region of 15% this year, as has been seen in recent years. The company, part of the German-owned Hermes Group which is itself owned by catalogue giant Otto Group, has grown by more than 50% in the last three years.

New infrastructure in the Hermes network includes a third hub at Tamworth, Staffordshire, and new depots in Bridgwater, Enfield and Liverpool. The Hermes last mile network has also been expanded this year from 7,500 lifestyle couriers to 9,500.

This year the company has offered its contracted retail clients a money-back guarantee to deliver their parcels for Christmas, ensuring they will not disappoint shoppers.

Strike strategy

Former Parcelforce director Gary Winter believes the CWU will take a more “surgical” approach to industrial action than calling devastating network-wide stoppages

The Hermes sales and marketing manager Gary Winter previously worked at Royal Mail Group, and said yesterday that on past record, the union is unlikely to call all-out strikes taking out the whole Royal Mail network.

“It’s been a long time since they had everybody out on the picket line,” he said. “Since then they’ve been more surgical – disruption and inconvenience rather than a complete halt to delivery.”

Winter, who was at Royal Mail Group from 2005 to October last year, including time as head of business development and latterly business transformation director at Parcelforce Worldwide, said union members will aim for maximum disruption for management with minimum impact on consumers.

“They might take mail centres out for one shift, line haul drivers out for one shift, delivery people out for another so that over the course of a week a day’s worth of mail is trapped in the system,” he said, “but eventually it all gets released.”

Winter said only if the entire workforce is out of action for a length of time would there be a “desperate rush” to cope with the delays.

However, he said that with Royal Mail holding a “significant double-digit” market share in the UK parcel market, that kind of disruption would be “impossible to soak up”.

[Burge]

we normally take on the slack they can't cope with anyway. Hermes drivers will get horribly lost without a postie around to ask for directions.

[wabbithunta]

we normally take on the slack they can't cope with anyway. Hermes drivers will get horribly lost without a postie around to ask for directions.

The Hermes guy, on our P&L delivery, doorsteps all the time all over the place. Imagine if they did our packets too.. Bloody piled up on doorsteps I bet!
He was constantly asking us for directions too.. and he drove past the road about four times as well! Don't think he even delivered down that road on that day either as we didn't see him at all.

[the deliverer]

New infrastructure in the Hermes network includes a third hub at Tamworth, Staffordshire, and new depots in Bridgwater, Enfield and Liverpool. The Hermes last mile network has also been expanded this year from 7,500 lifestyle couriers to 9,500.

Lifestyle couriers = zero contracts?

Within the UK, Hermes operates a network of over 7,500 lifestyle couriers that provides high-quality doorstep delivery. This flexible, friendly and local approach means that couriers understand the habits and preferences of individual customers, ensuring that up to 95 per cent of parcels are delivered first time.

[BernardBresslaw]

Considering a majority of postmen cut corners when it offers no financial incentive to do so, we can't knock the poor sods delivering parcels for Hermes at 50p a time for doing likewise.

[wabbithunta]

Considering a majority of postmen cut corners when it offers no financial incentive to do so, we can't knock the poor sods delivering parcels for Hermes at 50p a time for doing likewise.

Considering a majority of postmen cut corners when it offers no financial incentive to do so
What are you referring to with that comment, doorstepping? Personally I don't do that. If someone leaves a note telling me where to leave a package, and it's not safe, I leave a card, however if it's safe then I'll use their safespot or their neighbour.

we can't knock the poor sods delivering parcels for Hermes at 50p a time for doing likewise
You're forgetting that these couriers have to pay their own tax, petrol and any other vehicle costs too. So that any payment they get for delivering packages etc in their own vehicles soon gets soaked up!

[UnhappyGremlin]

I don't give directions to other couriers. They can find it themselves. I have better things to do.

I never leave anything anywhere either, if they're not in, they fetch it.