Petition to get Royal Mail to reinstate Sunday Collections

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Try to get Royal Mail to reinstate Sunday Collections from post boxes across the United Kingdom a Valuable service to all the Community. More details

Submitted by F.E.Sharpe of indevidual (sic)– Deadline to sign up by: 08 July 2008 – Signatures: 2

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/communityhelp/

Royal Mail ceased Sunday Collections from post boxes across the United Kingdom. If you beleive (sic) they should be reinstated please vote on this petition. Please mention this petition to others.

[catshole]

why ?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I am not advocating it, but some on here do feel strongly about Sunday collections so I thought they might like the opportunity to put their name to a petition. I am yet to make my mind up whether or not to sign it.

[saru]

I don't see what good it will do. Without having people in the MC's to sort the mail, it's a waste of time & money.
However, in the run up to Christmas I think it's a different matter.

[Lounge Lizard]

Saturday collections will be the next to go, mark my words.
Saturday collections here, and presumably elsewhere, have been brought forward from around noon to about 9am and so they now miss practically all of the mail posted on Saturday mornings. Very little collected early Saturday mornings will mean thise collections will be axed, and anything posted first class late Friday afternoon will have no chance of delivery before Tuesday.

[plodsie]

I think this petition will be rejected soon because RM is no longer ran by the state, and just like at the strikes they will be unwilling to interfere in what is now a plc. The decision to stop Sunday collections was agreed between Postcon and Royal Mail because it was not cost effective. The Government themselves had no say in stopping Sunday collections, the same goes for deciding if they should return.

[F0zziebear]

There was absolutely no justification for keeping sunday collections going. As stated last year if you had kept sunday collections cost would have had to come out elsewhere. Virtually no-one used sunday collections, and on top of that as someone mentioned most mail centres were not gearewd up for it either.

Saturday collections could well disappear in the future. Again the volume of mail posted on a saturday is quite small. Deliveries is a different matter. I would argue that weekend deliveries if anything should expand. The reason for this is that people have more time to read post at the weekend and are more likely to read through 'direct' mail that lands on their doormat. This applies even more on a sunday. I do not expect sunday deliveries to go ahead as the cost of emplopying someone on a sunday is so expensive. So unless a different renumeration model is created this won't happen for a long time.

There is nothing to stop a competitor for offering a service like this. However, specialising in weekend deliveries is a non-starter. Having depots empty the rest of the week will prove to be un-economical (huge capital investment not being used).

I would also like to see RM increase 1st class stamp cost considerably and drop the price of 2nd class. THis would be the most effective way of competing agaisnt TNT etc... TNT and the others cannot hope to offer next day delivery. The staff costs and transportation are too high, and if they rely on RM to deliver simply cannot get it to the inward mail centres quickly enough. So they are offering a sort of 2nd class service for bulk mail cheaper than Royal Mail. RM essentially has a monopoly over 1st class, but not on 2nd class.

Wonder what people think of that idea?

[BELIAL]

Good point about expanding weekend deliveries. Even the most junior marketing bod is aware that the commercial imperative is market penetration and retention and that the key tool for this is "relatioship building".There are the golden time slots for this when spend maximises return; weekends ,holidays,times when people will take five minutes to read your pitch.
Relationship building is also the reason why E communication will not in the foreseeable future erode hard copy,it is simply too instant and ignorable. Witness the plummeting advertising revenue of the commercial TV stations that followed the introduction of the remote control and vcr's that chopped the ad's
True the internet is fine for raising awareness but if you are selling you need to close the deal and achieve commitment ,and something deleted at the touch of a button does not fit the bill.

Also agree with your point about postage rates. If the regulator is keen to promote market liberalisation and true competition then the logic of their stated philosophy should dictate that postage rates be allowed to rise to a point where it becomes commercially viable for E2E competitors to enter the market.
The position we have now is that in effect the regulator is saying that RM is so dominant and therefore cost efficient that competitors are unable to compete on price and RM must subsidise their operations.
So we need liberalisation to improve efficiency and drive down costs, but we cannot achieve liberalisation without subsidies because RM is too efficient.
Does'nt make sense
Perhaps the hidden agendas make more sense

[dave7634]

There was absolutely no justification for keeping sunday collections going. As stated last year if you had kept sunday collections cost would have had to come out elsewhere. Virtually no-one used sunday collections, and on top of that as someone mentioned most mail centres were not gearewd up for it either.

I would have thought that in todays' competitive market instead of having some chubby geezer ranting on about Post Office services and employing overpaid actresses and crappy boy band peeps we could have actually advertised the fact and reminded some members of the public that we actually DID Sundays collections in the first place. The amount of public which I heard saying, "I didn't even know you DID Sunday collections let alone stop them!" was unbelievable. We had a niche there which we could have exploited. People selling stuff on EBay and small enough to go through the post box aperture could have been posted and then they could have got their item Monday morning! Imagine that for a first class service!! Just to kill off something because it didn't allegedly pay isn't a good enough reason without first trying (at least) to see if it's wanted.
The boxes are instead now being cleared still in some areas according to this site anyway, on a Sunday and in others first thing Monday (relief collections). If it were the case that this was not being used then why do this?

Paint it any colour you like but Royal Mail are running the service down bit by bit. All nice for selling off to the highest bidder. "Its no good, this company needs private investment; we tried our best though..." They'll be saying. The point is....when?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This applies even more on a sunday. I do not expect sunday deliveries to go ahead as the cost of emplopying someone on a sunday is so expensive. So unless a different renumeration model is created this won't happen for a long time.

If ever, they would have to write it into the contracts of new starters and come to an agreement with existing staff so it may be too expensive just in administration to even think about going down that route.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/ ... G_10028516

Can you be made to work on Sundays?

You should check either your contract of employment or written statement of terms and conditions to see if you must work on Sundays or would have to if you were asked. If it says so, you'll have to work on Sundays. If it doesn't, then the only way of making you work on that day is by a change to your contract. This is something that must normally be agreed by both you and your employer, otherwise making you work on Sundays would amount to a breach of contract.

Working on Sundays if you're a Christian

If you're a practising Christian you may have strong feelings about working on a Sunday. Everyone has the right not to be discriminated against because of their religion or belief (or because they have no religion or belief).

Speak to your employer and explain how important it is to you to have Sundays off to practice your religion. Employers will usually try to accommodate such requests (for example, by changing a shift pattern).

How to opt out of Sunday work

You opt out by writing to your employer and giving them three months' written notice that you want to stop working on Sundays.

If you decide to take the opt-out your employer doesn't have to offer you extra work on other days instead. You are likely to lose the wages you used to earn by working on Sundays.

Don't be worried about how opting out of Sunday working will affect your job security. Your employer is not allowed to treat you unfavourably (for example, deny you overtime or promotion) and you can't be dismissed fairly for refusing to work on Sundays under this right. An Employment Tribunal (or Industrial Tribunal In Northern Ireland) can award compensation if your employer breaks the rules.

[plodsie]

I would also like to see RM increase 1st class stamp cost considerably and drop the price of 2nd class. THis would be the most effective way of competing agaisnt TNT etc... TNT and the others cannot hope to offer next day delivery. The staff costs and transportation are too high, and if they rely on RM to deliver simply cannot get it to the inward mail centres quickly enough. So they are offering a sort of 2nd class service for bulk mail cheaper than Royal Mail. RM essentially has a monopoly over 1st class, but not on 2nd class.

Wonder what people think of that idea?

PostCon would never allow such a move as it would be seen as anti-competitive behaviour. We might as well face it, at the moment they are not interested in making Royal Mail better, only in making our competitors stronger.

[dvbuk55]

I would also like to see RM increase 1st class stamp cost considerably and drop the price of 2nd class. THis would be the most effective way of competing agaisnt TNT etc... TNT and the others cannot hope to offer next day delivery. The staff costs and transportation are too high, and if they rely on RM to deliver simply cannot get it to the inward mail centres quickly enough. So they are offering a sort of 2nd class service for bulk mail cheaper than Royal Mail. RM essentially has a monopoly over 1st class, but not on 2nd class.

Wonder what people think of that idea?

Ummm - I would say it was a poorly thought out idea. As it stands at the moment we are already prioritising DSA at minimal cost. Machines do not prioritise mail, consequently 1st, 2nd and DSA would be going through the letter box at the same time on the same day so why would people want to pay more. Each DO has a clear frame and missort hub policy. If we made such a difference to 1st and 2nd class mail prices we would find that DSA users would be asking for even more discount and businesses would use 2nd class.

I wouldn't disagree that we need a new pricing policy but I don't think that's it. What has PIP brought us? - more of a headache than a profit, who's dealt with a customer coming to pick up a surcharge for a birthday card which weighs nothing, would fit through a letter box but not through the surcharge matrix because it has badge on? PIP was a table top exercise disaster. No one really understands it.

In order to make money we should dump the USO at a standard price.

[Lovin Posties]

I think it will be tough to get people to sign it as I dont think Sunday collections will not come back as it been said in many replies its to save money and Saturday will probaly go still be around for the moment plus other things but if it means things have to go to save the money and it helps the Royal Mail for the better then in a way its a good thing for the future and jobs.

[jemima]

Weekend, and evening, packet deliveries (with an appropriate surcharge to cover the extra expense), would be popular with customers and therefore with internet-order companies. RM would need more posties though...
Opening major Post Offices until 7 pm on some weekdays would encourage ebay-type packet traffic - opening on the right evenings should help to even the packet flow throughout the week. RM aren't manipulating the mail source flow at all at present, and there are lots of ways this could be done, including special offers on certain weekdays.

Increasing the price of first-class mail would only be acceptable to the general public if linked to the survival of their Post Offices. An increase would otherwise be seen as adding insult to injury.

Sunday collections - RIP - until Christmas...

[doveston]

i'm not signing it i like easy mondays