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!


It's hard to believe

Reminisce about days gone by in the job.How it used to be what you miss and how things have changed.This is an open forum.
pieoftheday
Posts: 1666
Joined: 11 Mar 2010, 16:43
Gender: Male

It's hard to believe

Post by pieoftheday »

It's hard to believe we used be able to deliver our whole delivery walking nice and steady, barely a packet in your pouch ,5 or 6 bundles of letters and just a handful of a4 sized letters, then back to the office for 10.am ish for breakfast and then out with 10 to 20 letters on your 2nd delivery, and the business was making money :shock: what the fook apnd :hmmmm

mjd24
Posts: 1000
Joined: 11 May 2008, 18:48

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by mjd24 »

pieoftheday wrote:
13 Oct 2021, 19:29
It's hard to believe we used be able to deliver our whole delivery walking nice and steady, barely a packet in your pouch ,5 or 6 bundles of letters and just a handful of a4 sized letters, then back to the office for 10.am ish for breakfast and then out with 10 to 20 letters on your 2nd delivery, and the business was making money :shock: what the fook apnd :hmmmm
I joined in 2007 when things were easier than today but nothing like as you describe, i missed out on that by a few years i think.

Ive heard lots of stories from colleagues of how easy things used to be and it really blows my mind - just how can it be that we’re essentially doing the same job for same pay but the deliveries are SO much longer/harder.

Im sure there are reasons/answers to this- used to work 6 days a week etc, but still . . .
User avatar
POSTMAN
SITE ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 31356
Joined: 07 Aug 2006, 03:19
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by POSTMAN »

While it was lovely 'back in the day' and weirdly we made money, it couldn't last.
But the problem is while sorting it out, pardon the pun, they got silly.
I Wrote
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
pieoftheday
Posts: 1666
Joined: 11 Mar 2010, 16:43
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by pieoftheday »

mjd24 wrote:
13 Oct 2021, 21:13
pieoftheday wrote:
13 Oct 2021, 19:29
It's hard to believe we used be able to deliver our whole delivery walking nice and steady, barely a packet in your pouch ,5 or 6 bundles of letters and just a handful of a4 sized letters, then back to the office for 10.am ish for breakfast and then out with 10 to 20 letters on your 2nd delivery, and the business was making money :shock: what the fook apnd :hmmmm
I joined in 2007 when things were easier than today but nothing like as you describe, i missed out on that by a few years i think.

Ive heard lots of stories from colleagues of how easy things used to be and it really blows my mind - just how can it be that we’re essentially doing the same job for same pay but the deliveries are SO much longer/harder.

Im sure there are reasons/answers to this- used to work 6 days a week etc, but still . . .
I started in 1986 so obviously no internet and when folk ordered from home it was from a big fat catalogue and they often delivered their own stuff or used White Arrow, are they still going?
TrueBlueTerrier
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 69390
Joined: 30 Dec 2006, 10:29
Gender: Male
Location: Proud to be part of the Union

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by TrueBlueTerrier »

White arrow went into liquidation this year https://find-and-update.company-informa ... insolvency

But stopped delivering as far back as 2007 when they were declared a Dormant Company https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ory?page=2
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."
postieblueshirt
Posts: 1229
Joined: 01 Oct 2019, 22:05
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by postieblueshirt »

1995 for me was still old school older guys in flat caps and you were scared of your manager now we have no respect for them
postslippete
Posts: 3173
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 16:27
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by postslippete »

Ah the days of going out on a pushbike and having a 2 bag round!

I suppose in real wages we are slightly better off now than we were back then but we are certainly doing helluva lot more now.
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
User avatar
POSTMAN
SITE ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 31356
Joined: 07 Aug 2006, 03:19
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by POSTMAN »

97 I started, the 2 deliveries.
Lump everything on the 1st and yes back for the 10s and brekkie.
The pay was seriously crap although later SDD changed that.

No way in the world could we keep that up tho.
Weirdly the firm made a ton of money then, and everything went out, none of this cutting off bollox.
Like everything that needed to change, they wanted too much and screwed it up.
I Wrote
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
mjd24
Posts: 1000
Joined: 11 May 2008, 18:48

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by mjd24 »

POSTMAN wrote:
08 Nov 2021, 11:23
97 I started, the 2 deliveries.
Lump everything on the 1st and yes back for the 10s and brekkie.
The pay was seriously crap although later SDD changed that.

No way in the world could we keep that up tho.
Weirdly the firm made a ton of money then, and everything went out, none of this cutting off bollox.
Like everything that needed to change, they wanted too much and screwed it up.

So how were they making so much money back then?
FAB
Posts: 225
Joined: 06 May 2017, 22:57
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by FAB »

What’s SDD?
User avatar
POSTMAN
SITE ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 31356
Joined: 07 Aug 2006, 03:19
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by POSTMAN »

mjd24 wrote:
08 Nov 2021, 12:42
So how were they making so much money back then?
As far as I'm concerned they cooked to books to screw us over when Leighton came, but yeah it was hand over fist at times and then suddenly...
FAB wrote:
08 Nov 2021, 16:34
What’s SDD?
Single Day Delivery.
I Wrote
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
Dorset Plodder
Posts: 4226
Joined: 29 Apr 2009, 20:05
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by Dorset Plodder »

I suppose the BIG Change was when RM lost the Monopoly to deliver the mail. Then we had competion, admitedly mainly with parcels, we had to start actually competing for business with other companies ..... and things started getting serious. :shock:

Then we had the Privatisation Issue, when Vince Cable undersold us to his City Buddies. :speak to the hand Once we started to work for Shareholders they really started to crack the whip.

Nowadays I don't know WTF is going on. I do know that we don't actually produce anything so our biggest cost is wages. The Accountants that run this business have taken the route of having the least ammount of staff (hence wages bill) that they can get away with. So we've ended up with less Posties doing more work. :arrrghhh

I won't discuss, "Being a Postie is a Great Job" with anyone that hasn't been in the Business for the last 10 years because they don't know how much it's changed, and it bears no resembalance to job they did back in the 80s or 90s. :cuppa
Like all Wage Slaves, he had two crosses to bear: The people he worked for and the people he worked with! (Stephen Vizinczey.)
deltaforce
Posts: 773
Joined: 01 Jan 2009, 15:29
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by deltaforce »

mjd24 wrote:
08 Nov 2021, 12:42
POSTMAN wrote:
08 Nov 2021, 11:23
97 I started, the 2 deliveries.
Lump everything on the 1st and yes back for the 10s and brekkie.
The pay was seriously crap although later SDD changed that.

No way in the world could we keep that up tho.
Weirdly the firm made a ton of money then, and everything went out, none of this cutting off bollox.
Like everything that needed to change, they wanted too much and screwed it up.

So how were they making so much money back then?
We were handling 80 million letters per day, a lot of it machinable or pre sorted as per mail sort or Rebate as it was known, The profit margins were good due to the economy of scale. Then internet came in and burst the bubble. Packets and parcels are much more labour intensive and pound for pound are not so profitable
fredtheegg
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 46
Joined: 17 Nov 2011, 17:19
Gender: Male

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by fredtheegg »

Started on delivery back in 1980. It was all letters as well, Football pools to most houses every week. Phone bills, electric bills, gas bills to every single house and often at the same. Start at 5:30 and had to be ready to catch the van at 6:45 to be on the streets by 7. Always finished first delivery by 8:30 and back to the office on the bus for breakfast.

The delivery office was inside the MC and we always crossed functions. Twice a week the MC had an artic arrive straight from Dover docks (we are in the East Midlands) full of overweight bags of magazines from the USA. Which we had to unload onto hay carts ( who remembers them) and take upstairs via lift, to unload again. Very heavy work.

Then it was back out on 2nd delivery with about 3 letters at 11.30.

After all that it was back to the MC in the afternoon for 4 hours docket opening all those really heavy bags from America.

It was non stop back in the 80’s. I’m sure we were on a 43hr week with a minimum of 20 hrs overtime every week. We very rarely had a day off either
mjd24
Posts: 1000
Joined: 11 May 2008, 18:48

Re: It's hard to believe

Post by mjd24 »

fredtheegg wrote:
14 Nov 2021, 18:17
Started on delivery back in 1980. It was all letters as well, Football pools to most houses every week. Phone bills, electric bills, gas bills to every single house and often at the same. Start at 5:30 and had to be ready to catch the van at 6:45 to be on the streets by 7. Always finished first delivery by 8:30 and back to the office on the bus for breakfast.

The delivery office was inside the MC and we always crossed functions. Twice a week the MC had an artic arrive straight from Dover docks (we are in the East Midlands) full of overweight bags of magazines from the USA. Which we had to unload onto hay carts ( who remembers them) and take upstairs via lift, to unload again. Very heavy work.

Then it was back out on 2nd delivery with about 3 letters at 11.30.

After all that it was back to the MC in the afternoon for 4 hours docket opening all those really heavy bags from America.

It was non stop back in the 80’s. I’m sure we were on a 43hr week with a minimum of 20 hrs overtime every week. We very rarely had a day off either
1.5 hour deliveries- just a different world.
Post Reply