Damned Statistics

[the deliverer]

Just got my courier. Front page story a bit misleading. "Tough year ahead for letters - £6.8 billion of revenues translated to profit of only 1% last year". "Royal Mail Group 2008/09 annual results show that while the group made a profit of £321m for the year, the contribution made by letters was just £58m. This is small when you look at our size and scale and revenues of £6.8 billion".

Just £58m from letters! That was 18% of the total profit made - a profit for the first for many years. Not bad as published and bad as they want you to believe.

[SW17]

I very rarely pay any attention to the courier now as they seem to use it as a tool for there own needs, we all know what we take out on delivery and we are working harder than we ever have done before, I asked my mannager why (without any packets) I am now taking out 3 bundles of letters for a section of my walk now compared to 1-2 bundles for that same section 2-3 years ago - as you would expect he was unable to answer this.

[tragictramp]

it is total propoganda crap, im sure the so called workers they picture in it are actually hired actors, like the van share schemers, "i finish my round 15 mins l8r now but i carry less and feel better and i know that things have got to change for the future of royal mail - , ha. nice to see that it dont say nothing about the ballots or results in london. lies lies and more lies

[k979aaa]

If they are that intent on saving money why do they pay this buffon :cfo one £ million pounds a year!.££££££££ :cfo :cfo :cfo :cfo

[General Mannerheim]

I think it`s a right riveting read!!
Shame on you lot moaning about Georoute and van sharing!
I only wish that I could one day aspire to appear in such a distinguished `paper` and look like my kids are being held hostage just out of shot.

[islfor]

I send mine back, with the message = REFUSED.......NOT INTERESTED IN RM PROPAGANDA UNTIL YOU START PRINTING THE TRUTH !!!
:cfo :mfo

[Phantom]

Delivery staff will except change when mail volumes go down and until then its all bullshit!

Packets have remained the same for me on foot, i get one full packet bag a day and have done for the last 16yrs when i first started, the only real large increase is mail volume!

[DGP1]

I think it`s a right riveting read!!
Shame on you lot moaning about Georoute and van sharing!
I only wish that I could one day aspire to appear in such a distinguished `paper` and look like my kids are being held hostage just out of shot.

[randompostman]

Just a quick question how much have royalmail put aside from the profits to pay for modernisatition eva change and all the rest before they came out with the sh1t figure of 58 million profit i only ask because they did the same with postoffice counters and within months after there cuts and paying out compo in multi millions were in profit although the pensions thing they are still shafted like us. We all no you can make numbers read the way you want and this is more of the same and i call it LIES but maybe someone can help explain.

[BELIAL]

Just a guess but that stuff probably all comes under the conveniently vague 19% other costs.
£1.3 billion is quite a big chunk of money to be not quite certain of what you are spending it on,
or maybe they just don't want to say

[Carnoustie]

Right, I'll probably get attacked for saying this, because I am normally the first to dismiss what I read in the Courier as pure propaganda.

But, remember back when :lfo reckoned RM was losing £1m a day ? And how they miraculously turned it around so we were suddenly showing a healthy profit a couple of years later ?

Well, it doesn't take a genius to work out that if RM reduced the wage bill substantially over that same timeframe, by a combination of EVR's and natural wastage, and their revenue remained about the same or better (due to price increases), it's not difficult to see how the financial position can easily be transformed from a heavy loss to a good profit.

If, however, we believe the above to be the real explanation for the 'miraculous' turnaround, we have cause to worry.

Because although a profit of £58m seems like a good result, if the letters business had revenues of £6.8bn last year, it again doesn't take a genius to work out that as little as a 1% decline in traffic would result in revenues falling by £68m. Then we'd be looking at a LOSS of £10m next year. A prolonged recession and a bigger % decline would only produce a much much bigger loss. So, loathe as I am to agree with the Courier, profits of £58m are, in a purely financial sense, dangerously low in comparison to the revenue generated.

In any normal business, there are two main ways to get out of being in such a knife-edge financial state:
1.increase revenue (usually by raising the price of your products)
2. reduce your costs (usually by shedding staff)
3. or a combination of 1 & 2

(Of course, raising the price of your products can actually result in less revenue, if some of your customers decide to take their business elsewhere).

The reason I say Royal Mail Letters' financial position is perilous is because the regulator won't even let us raise prices, strangling any possibility of raising revenues by that method. Which leaves cutting costs as RM's only option to offset falling revenues and maintain profits at current levels.

The worst of it is that the only way we're going to get the regulator removed, and our pensions protected, is if we swallow the other one of the three Hooper Report recommendations, and let Liebour and Mandelson sell us down the river

We're all doomed, Capt Mainwaring

[BELIAL]

You certainly are doomed brother Carnoustie if you start getting taken in by RM hogwash. Management have never been honest with us before, I don't see why they would start telling the truth now. In fact if memory serves me well, now is the time ,when faced with an overwhelming vote for Strikes,that the propaganda blizzard goes into overdrive.
Easiest thing in the world to move numbers around on a balance sheet to show exactly the picture you want, take a look at Gldman Sachs; Enron; Lehmans;RBS;AIG;bored now

[dvbuk55]

I think it`s a right riveting read!!
Shame on you lot moaning about Georoute and van sharing!
I only wish that I could one day aspire to appear in such a distinguished `paper` and look like my kids are being held hostage just out of shot.

Is there perhaps a Freudian message in your picture of someone shooting a "rabbit" perhaps a little bit of insecurity perhaps?

[k979aaa]

You certainly are doomed brother Carnoustie if you start getting taken in by RM hogwash. Management have never been honest with us before, I don't see why they would start telling the truth now. In fact if memory serves me well, now is the time ,when faced with an overwhelming vote for Strikes,that the propaganda blizzard goes into overdrive.
Easiest thing in the world to move numbers around on a balance sheet to show exactly the picture you want, take a look at Gldman Sachs; Enron; Lehmans;RBS;AIG;bored now

Exactly!.

[Carnoustie]

You certainly are doomed brother Carnoustie if you start getting taken in by RM hogwash

The 'we're all doomed' thing was my attempt at irony, Belial. I haven't been taken in, I was just typing my random musings on the subject of the level of profit vs the turnover it was derived from.

Easiest thing in the world to move numbers around on a balance sheet to show exactly the picture you want, take a look at Gldman Sachs; Enron; Lehmans;RBS;AIG;bored now

I know. I have friends who work in the finance industry.

But the figures quoted must be the same ones that RM presented to the CWU, to attempt to justify the decision to implement a pay freeze. If the union believes the true financial position of the group is nowhere near as black as it's being painted, why haven't we been balloted for strike action on the issue of pay ? We should be DEMANDING a pay rise but I haven't heard anything from the CWU on that score, and it's been weeks since RM set out their position

Is it a possibility that the CWU realise the financial outlook is actually pretty bad, then ?

Or is all debate to be stifled on this forum and all posters must desist from having an alternative viewpoint ?