Way Forward

[ar26]

Just wanted to sound out a few ideas.
Firstly I think that one price for a letter / parcel to go anywhere is nuts. I think we should charge local mail cheaper and charge extra for mail being sent say out of the postcoce area where it was sent.
Say charge 30p first class for a local letter posted glasgow postcode to Glasgow postcode, but charge 50p for an item posted glasgow to any other postcode. This would be fairer for the customer and more reflective of our costs. I would also suggest we do away with second class post, as all this does is lowers revenue. I also think generally the price of postage is too cheap, this is reflected in the amount of junk mail we deliver. When the penny black was introduced it was approx 1/240 of the average wage, so if a first class stamp was £1 that would be nearer the 1/240 in relative terms. I know that mail volumes would drop considerably if postage was more expensive but that would perhaps mean we only delivered one item of mail per house rather than 3-4 items of junk.
Secondly if as I suspect we are moving towards a possible era of strikes due to the Governments possible partial sell off, could we not rather than just walk out and lose public support, could we not refuse to deliver downstream mail which ultimatley is the cause of most of our problems. Yes I realise that Royal Mail will prob not allow us to only deliver Royal Mail items and leave the 3rd party stuff, however is we do go down the industrial action route at some point in the future, we will focus attention on the core cause of the issue, allowing other companies downstream access to our network at crazy prices we cannot compete with. If Postcom or whoever takes over looks closely at the final mile cost figure then it doesn't take a genius to work out that it's got to cost more than 17p.

[LDV 350]

Zonal pricing, now that really is music to Croziers ears and must be resisted we are after all the Royal Mail not private couriers, Not delivering the DSA say 3 days a week as a form of industrial action is interesting but i would like the union to rally the troups to a work to rule, it's much more effective than going on strike beating RM then caving into their demands

[Bouncing Souls]

A work to rule is much more devestating to RM than a strike and to me thats the way forward, no-one loses any money, the public still get a regular service/we don't lose the support...................but a lot of posties, and i can only speak for my office, are just mindset on finishing before their time.
For some reason which is beyond me, they are paid until 2pm but don't want to work until 2pm, esp when the mail is heavy and prior to the heavy day they have been finishing at 12

Anyway back on topic, a work to rule is the best way to harm RM, maybe make them see how much they take for granted from us posties..work from the inside, plus Silly Hayes is now a lame duck, corrupted by power and a yes man.
Time to take matters into our own hands, work to rule is the only way


also what happened to the last billions that we got for investment, we were promised walk sort machines and that all mail would come in ready to prep?? still waiting............ 2 years on

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Just wanted to sound out a few ideas.
Firstly I think that one price for a letter / parcel to go anywhere is nuts. I think we should charge local mail cheaper and charge extra for mail being sent say out of the postcoce area where it was sent.
Say charge 30p first class for a local letter posted glasgow postcode to Glasgow postcode, but charge 50p for an item posted glasgow to any other postcode. This would be fairer for the customer and more reflective of our costs. I would also suggest we do away with second class post, as all this does is lowers revenue.

This is what Crozier and Leighton have been pushing for but they wanted it based on mail volumes into the Zones, ie the more mail going into a particular area the cheaper the price would be. This would affect PC sectors that would be mainly rural or island based and their prices would rocket disproportionally. However, I also think that would have to change the licence conditions to allow Zonal pricing for bulk mailing, and a change in law to bring it in for stamped mail. At minimum they would have to change the USO to bring in Zonal Stamp prices.

On the postcode pricing not sure how easy this would be to implement. My DO is a hub for 3 rural or smaller DOs and 2 Medium size DOs and we have 9 postcode sectors, in London it would be even worse as they have DOs for only 1 or 2 sectors. However, there is also the problem of MCs who cover multiple Post Code areas. For instance Glasgow covers mainly Glasgow and a few outlying areas that I guess come under the same postcode, however Bradford and Leeds Mail Centres cover not only LS and BD but also YO, HG, HD, HX, yet in my area we are closer by 30 miles to WF (covered by Sheffield MC I think) than we are to any YOs or LS postcodes. It would be a very complicated system to operate I think, and the public are still having problems with PIP.

[fmrPOSTIE]

hang on I remember Crozier saying that PiP was brought in to remove the false economy that exists with mail i.e it costs more to send a large square item then it does a small heavy packet (old system based on weight). The USO is unique and should be preserved...I don't wanna hear anymore nonsense about cross-subsidisation or zonal pricing.

Work to rule is the best way to go, but will all workers fall into line?

[theflyingpostman]

Just wanted to sound out a few ideas.

........I would also suggest we do away with second class post, as all this does is lowers revenue.

I'm not sure if you're suggesting abolishing 2nd Class for just stamped mail or for all 2nd class products (including franked/PPI/mailsort 2)?

But it wouldn't surprise me if 2nd Class for stamped mail was done away with in the years ahead,especially if we are privatized. We make no money on stamped mail and let's face it the general public are a "captive market" when it comes to posting letters and small packets. No other company offers the public this service not even at 1st Class prices!

Does anyone know how many postal companies abroad offer 2nd Class mail for stamped/social mail particularly the privatized ones in Sweden & The Netherlands?

[ar26]

I was suggesting abolishing all second class items especially franked etc. I know the general public probably feels postage is dear enough at the moment but what else can you buy for 37p ( soon to be 39p). I think to send a letter possibly hundreds of miles and deliver it next day for 37p is far to cheap. Second class just seems to get there maybe a day later but even cheaper. With clear office polices it seems that the second class is shipped with the first so we don't seem to make any saving to our costs by offering the second class service.
I personally never use 1st class and with the credit crunch I think a lot of companies will switch to 2nd class which means we will have even less revenue. Remove second class, mailsort etc and I think we can also compete better with TNT etc. I have to try to explain to people that thier bank statement taking a full working week is not down to Royal Mail as we deliver the day we get it, it's TNT or however thats taken a week to pick it up from the Abbey or however & get it to us. So perhaps when companies see the real service they get from downstream access that perhaps dealing direct with us is the way to go.

Just wondering what others think

[Big Daz]

Ist class stamped mail is profit making 2nd class isnt.


The question is how much subsidy of 2nd clas stamped mail should 1st class stamped mail provide if any?

[ar26]

Totally agree with telling Europe where to go, if you go to France or anywhere in Europe whilst they are supposed to be under the same rules as us it's blatantly obvoius that they ignore the rules they don't like or aren't in thier nation interests. Unfortunatley our government bow down to these idiots at every turn. If other companies want to deliver mail by all means they can do so, but not with Royal Mail posties doing all the hard work, let them get thier own delivery staff, the argument that we have the monopoly is rubbish, most of our so called competitors have a distribution network local offices etc etc. I wonder if they had to deliver from start to finish how much they would charge and even then if they would want the hassle.
I agree that we provide a public service, unfortunatley until it's gone people won't notice and we're already on that slippery slope.

[Big Daz]

They are under the same rules, our government chose to implement the EU wide rules way ahead of the rest of europe, eventually they will have a full open market.

[fmrPOSTIE]

I believe one EU country is fighting the Postal Directive and is refusing to open up part of the market to competition....good on 'em, somebody has to stand up to these beuracratic twats.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I believe one EU country is fighting the Postal Directive and is refusing to open up part of the market to competition....good on 'em, somebody has to stand up to these beuracratic twats.

Its Slovenska Posta. The Slovakian government are currently being issued infringement procedures by the EU as they granted a monopoly to their postal service for hybrid mail. Their government are using it as a way to protect their USO I believe.

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/20 ... 63497.aspx

http://www.forexpros.com/news/financial ... mail-14708