Delivery staff leaving royal mail.

[Mr Rush]

A whole lot of company talking points there. Won't be long till someone slings the M-word.

[enskied]

I think

New staff on shitey contracts are what the company is all about.
It's a race to the bottom Lou, are you blind?

Think you need a reality check, bruv. Although it is inferior to your terms and conditions of employment, it isn’t at all “shitey” when compared to other jobs elsewhere in industry - over £30k just for five days, holiday pay, life insurance, productivitt bonuses, overtime at enhanced rates... in actual fact it is head and shoulders above comparable jobs.

Go and do a few months on the DPD or Amazon vans, with no holiday pay, no sick pay, exorbitant van and running costs, unpaid days off imposed at whim, no union to whip up unnecessary petty squabbles with management, massive workload - far bigger than yours, trust me, I’ve done both jobs - and you’ll be regretting ever leaving your cushty RM job and its security and benefits. You’ve had it too easy for too long, and now that RM is trying to bring itself into the real, modern world, and you along with it, you are hard done by.

Against that backdrop, that is why many of us on “shitey contracts” are enthusiastic, happy to go the extra mile - and even get on with the managers.

I’ve spent a year in Royal Mail now, finally going permanent in September. I’ve worked for varying lengths in at least 12 different DOs during that time. The culture is like something stuck in the ‘70s. In no other job in industry can you get away with being subordinate, rude and workshy – except RM, that is. The managers I’ve encountered have nearly always been on the defensive, expecting you to kick up a fuss about anything and everything – because, of course, that is what they get from a small but sizeable minority of the existing longstanding staff.

And no, I’m not a troll!

Ah, I see.
Because you have worked for worse employers on worse terms and conditions, we should all be grateful for not having done so.
Congratulations on your permanent contract and elevated working conditions, let's hope the last and are not eroded as ours have been.
The logic of what you are telling us is that when RM have completed their modernization process, and you find yourself
Working again under the industry standard terms, that you will be happy.
Don't know why you bothered changing employer really.

[Wat69]

Enhanced overtime rates? The overtime rate is actually 75% of your normal rate .Productivity bonus ? Only if you're a Manager Yes it is well paid in comparison to the rest of the Gig Economy of Delivery Drivers but then again they get paid per item delivered and aren't delivering to 700 to 1000 homes and being expected to walk 10 plus miles day in day out.

Enhanced overtime rate is actually 125% of your normal rate (1.25 hourly rate).

Productivity bonus? Wasn’t one announced by RM last week, potentially worth £500, for peak period? Isn’t that on top

DPD drivers might be paid on a per-drop basis, but not Amazon drivers (unless on “rescue” or other exceptional but very rare circumstances). Amazon drivers are paid a flat daily rate, sometimes with a measly daily peak supplement bonus if certain criteria are met.

An Amazon driver easily averages >25k steps daily, which equates to roughly 12 miles of walking. Unlike RM, however, you’re on the road delivering for up to nine hours, often in the dark, and with none of the respect from customers that the friendly postman is afforded.

New staff get 1.25% overtime rate but staff on older contracts are on 22 pence an hour less than their standard hourly rate for the first 10 hours of overtime and after 10 hours it drops even more , that’s not a good rate at all!

[TopperGas]

Enhanced overtime rates? The overtime rate is actually 75% of your normal rate .Productivity bonus ? Only if you're a Manager Yes it is well paid in comparison to the rest of the Gig Economy of Delivery Drivers but then again they get paid per item delivered and aren't delivering to 700 to 1000 homes and being expected to walk 10 plus miles day in day out.

Enhanced overtime rate is actually 125% of your normal rate (1.25 hourly rate).

Productivity bonus? Wasn’t one announced by RM last week, potentially worth £500, for peak period? Isn’t that on top

DPD drivers might be paid on a per-drop basis, but not Amazon drivers (unless on “rescue” or other exceptional but very rare circumstances). Amazon drivers are paid a flat daily rate, sometimes with a measly daily peak supplement bonus if certain criteria are met.

An Amazon driver easily averages >25k steps daily, which equates to roughly 12 miles of walking. Unlike RM, however, you’re on the road delivering for up to nine hours, often in the dark, and with none of the respect from customers that the friendly postman is afforded.

New staff get 1.25% overtime rate but staff on older contracts are on 22 pence an hour less than their standard hourly rate for the first 10 hours of overtime and after 10 hours it drops even more , that’s not a good rate at all!

But what's the old rate v new rates per hour? The old is around £13 per hour, I doubt even with 25% mark up it's any greater?

Where else can somebody with zero qualifications get £13 p/h for basically folding bits of paper up and pushing it though letterboxes? With all the bonuses etc on offer this year it's over £14 p/h plus decent pension.

[postieblueshirt]

An Amazon driver easily averages >25k steps daily, which equates to roughly 12 miles of walking.

Sorry but I just don't believe that; twenty-five thousand steps per day? Nope. I cannot see that. It's more driving than walking.

Well great to see the north south divide alive and well.Try a shift on the west coast of Scotland.I myself and my office hit 30 to 32 thousand steps all day every day.Been in the job 30 years so I'm not saying it to impress you.There a huge marked difference between areas so if someone is hitting 25000 a day then he's telling the truth,even mail centre workers have high step counts.

[LouBarlow]

You can tell it is still a good job as those complaining still turn up every day. It isn’t the cushy number it once was but it still beats the alternatives out there.

[SMS1969]

I average 40 hours a week so getting more than £29k a year. With a good pension that’ll do for me.

[postieblueshirt]

An Amazon driver easily averages >25k steps daily, which equates to roughly 12 miles of walking.

Sorry but I just don't believe that; twenty-five thousand steps per day? Nope. I cannot see that. It's more driving than walking.

Well great to see the north south divide alive and well.Try a shift on the west coast of Scotland.I myself and my office hit 30 to 32 thousand steps all day every day.Been in the job 30 years so I'm not saying it to impress you.There a huge marked difference between areas so if someone is hitting 25000 a day then he's telling the truth,even mail centre workers have high step counts.

ha just noticed has talking about bloody amazon driver f*ck amazon...

[Smoothbackground]

But what's the old rate v new rates per hour? The old is around £13 per hour, I doubt even with 25% mark up it's any greater?

The “new” rate is £14.58 per hour, with overtime above 40 hours paid at £18.23 per hour.

[postslippete]

I think

New staff on shitey contracts are what the company is all about.
It's a race to the bottom Lou, are you blind?

Think you need a reality check, bruv. Although it is inferior to your terms and conditions of employment, it isn’t at all “shitey” when compared to other jobs elsewhere in industry -

The reality is exactly what the op originally said - Royal Mail are trying to race us to the bottom. What you're basically saying is that we should be thankful and perhaps also give up our homes and go homeless because other people are homeless too. Not kidding 'bruv'

The rest of the industry - the gig economy are global giants like Amazon etc who make huge profits on the backs of employing people on inferior contracts and pay. Whilst I'm grateful for some of our conditions surely the rest of the industry badly needs to catch up. From what I read many staff are not happy at working at Amazon, so why would any of us aspire to work like them??

[Nickvilla20]

I’m going from my own stepometer on my phone and my own experience of delivering in central London, where I would always park up and end up dragging a tote around full of parcels so you don’t sit in traffic for 20 minutes. Have you never seen Amazon and other drivers pulling the yellow and blue totes around??!

*EDIT: in interests of transparency, 25k isn’t an average, sorry — perhaps upper limit in peak! 18,000 steps is my daily average for 2022, when i was doing Amazon, with some outliers around and above 25k. Not intending to mislead so wanted to clarify.*

I’ve never seen any courier pulling totes around or carrying a bag on their shoulder maybe that’s a London or city centre problem.

A courier job isn’t comparable to being on a walking delivery that’s not to say couriers don’t work hard but the physical part of the job isn’t there for them.

If working for Royal Mail is so good then why do they fail to retain new recruits or even get them in the door in the first place?

Also remember working for companies like Amazon,Evri and Yodel offers a degree of flexibility which is why they can still attract workers. Royal Mail offers zero flexibility and can’t even tell its new recruits what thier day off is a week in advance. Royal Mail want a gig economy workforce but without the gig economy flexibility.

[enskied]

I’m going from my own stepometer on my phone and my own experience of delivering in central London, where I would always park up and end up dragging a tote around full of parcels so you don’t sit in traffic for 20 minutes. Have you never seen Amazon and other drivers pulling the yellow and blue totes around??!

*EDIT: in interests of transparency, 25k isn’t an average, sorry — perhaps upper limit in peak! 18,000 steps is my daily average for 2022, when i was doing Amazon, with some outliers around and above 25k. Not intending to mislead so wanted to clarify.*

I’ve never seen any courier pulling totes around or carrying a bag on their shoulder maybe that’s a London or city centre problem.

A courier job isn’t comparable to being on a walking delivery that’s not to say couriers don’t work hard but the physical part of the job isn’t there for them.

If working for Royal Mail is so good then why do they fail to retain new recruits or even get them in the door in the first place?

Also remember working for companies like Amazon,Evri and Yodel offers a degree of flexibility which is why they can still attract workers. Royal Mail offers zero flexibility and can’t even tell its new recruits what thier day off is a week in advance. Royal Mail want a gig economy workforce but without the gig economy flexibility.

Exactly. Plus a new starter, just 12 months in has no idea about how we longer serving POSTIES know what work is not being done or covered by management. He/She has a different reality about the work they are or not doing.

[Smoothbackground]

There are doubtless lots of reasons why they fail to retain some new recruits. Yes, a lack of flexibility with days off might be one of them. The disdain, animosity, hostility and disrespect shown by a small section of longstanding staff towards new recruits might be another big reason too. Despite the permanent job label, others may just see it as a short term job with guaranteed income for the duration and never intend to stay for anything more than a short time.

[Smoothbackground]

we longer serving POSTIES…

Methinks you have a chip on your shoulder and need to get off your high horse.

[enskied]

we longer serving POSTIES…

Methinks you have a chip on your shoulder and need to get off your high horse.

Me thinks you'll learn.