It's hard to believe

[denhamhoop]

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?

Not subsidising other companies profits ie Downstream Access that is the real albatross around Royal Mail's neck yet not once in all the bumf about losing a Million a day have the management or the Union mentioned this.

[Woody Guthrie]

The weird thing was when I started my duty had around 800 calls on it but apart from when the gas/electric and phone bills came out (which were s**t days btw) you probably only hit about 30% of those doors.

By the middle of the 2000s the number of calls I had on the same duty was down to around 350 but you were hitting 90%+ on most days with all kinds of shite.

Now I'm back up to 700+ calls, still the same duty and the call rate is back down below 50%.

Everything changes and everything stays the same...

[jessicarabbit]

Or as the French say

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Vive la difference

[glass joe]

I started in 2001. lovely bikes rounds back then. be cycling back to the office at 8am, school kids going to school, now they are going home when im going home. then home as a part timer whole day to myself. Using the street lamps or security lights if you forgot your torch. shame i didnt do 2 rounds back then and clear up the over time but i was still living at home and didnt think much about the future back then, was only 18

[mjd24]

I started in 2001. lovely bikes rounds back then. be cycling back to the office at 8am, school kids going to school, now they are going home when im going home. then home as a part timer whole day to myself. Using the street lamps or security lights if you forgot your torch. shame i didnt do 2 rounds back then and clear up the over time but i was still living at home and didnt think much about the future back then, was only 18

Different world.

[justanumber]

Its hard to believe where we are now to how it was back in the day. Started in 89 as a cadet, started at 6am (due to being under 18) finished at 1130. 2 dels not a thing brought back. Great days great blokes. Were i was you had loads of families working, everyone socialised. Sports & social days out, inter office football matches. Times were good.

When i look now at how it is and how staff are treated, i feel for the recent starters. Still have mates at my old DO and the life is sucked out of them. Modernisation isn't down to the workforce, its down to the halfwits that have run this once great company into the ground. Cash is king and i suppose the writing was on the wall when we were sold on the cheap. Just a real shame it has come to this...just another courier firm.!!!

[Navalron]

Working hours 0500 to 10.10 6 days a week and ton of overtime to do 2nd delivery a handful of letters at best...

The working 6 days a week is the only thing ive heard that makes me think things werent so easy back in the day.

Yes, but your Saturday morning was only 1 delivery and if in a city DO like me most of it was firms, which you left in the office as most of your walks were all shut. We posties used to meet up in the collegiate in Glasgow about 8.20/8.30 at the pubs that opened early. I think we were paid until 10.15 on a saturday, not forgetting your Saturday premium payment. Happy days.

[mjd24]

Working hours 0500 to 10.10 6 days a week and ton of overtime to do 2nd delivery a handful of letters at best...

The working 6 days a week is the only thing ive heard that makes me think things werent so easy back in the day.

Yes, but your Saturday morning was only 1 delivery and if in a city DO like me most of it was firms, which you left in the office as most of your walks were all shut. We posties used to meet up in the collegiate in Glasgow about 8.20/8.30 at the pubs that opened early. I think we were paid until 10.15 on a saturday, not forgetting your Saturday premium payment. Happy days.

I think just the idea of having to get up at what, 4am back then? 6 days a week?! Yuck!!

[Woody Guthrie]

Working hours 0500 to 10.10 6 days a week and ton of overtime to do 2nd delivery a handful of letters at best...

The working 6 days a week is the only thing ive heard that makes me think things werent so easy back in the day.

Yes, but your Saturday morning was only 1 delivery and if in a city DO like me most of it was firms, which you left in the office as most of your walks were all shut. We posties used to meet up in the collegiate in Glasgow about 8.20/8.30 at the pubs that opened early. I think we were paid until 10.15 on a saturday, not forgetting your Saturday premium payment. Happy days.

I think just the idea of having to get up at what, 4am back then? 6 days a week?! Yuck!!

Most of the time I didn't get up I stayed up.
Friday night in the club till 3am back home for loads of strong coffee, change into uniform then off to work, back home by 9am then straight to bed, up at 12, back in the pub for 1pm.

I'm often surprised I'm still alive.

[Aitorave]

Everythink changes! How many certificates do you now have on average per day? And bundles of letters? Plus many paquets I guess...

[mjd24]

Everythink changes! How many certificates do you now have on average per day? And bundles of letters? Plus many paquets I guess...

Plenty of bundles on my 3 frame job (1740 drops between 2 of us) today, especially considering most of it was 2/3 days worth. Got just under 1 frame done before having to start the daily process of zooming around to get all the other tracked packets done.

[qwerty2]

Remember Sky and cable magazines they sometimes came in on the same day
and we had to do them all

[postslippete]

Remember Sky and cable magazines they sometimes came in on the same day
and we had to do them all

Ah them bags were heavy when those sky mags came! Before the golf trolleys some posties were bent double carrying pouches that were well over 16kg

[Stav2]

I joined in 83 as a postal cadet. Things where different back then. Royal Mail made good profits and the government took a good lump of these profits. 40 years later the service has changed so much. We are a private company with shareholders who also want a share of the profits. One thing that hasn't changed in these 40 years is the publics love of their postie and the postie's love of their customers.

[Wullie10]

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be my first ever delivery we had British Gas bills and Electic Bills for every single house on the delivery. I took it all out on 2nd , trapped a nerve and was in pain for years. Small brown envelopes. With the bill and booklet inside..makes me laugh when the older people still say today , if it's a bill you can keep it. What bill ? All online now.