Solved – the mystery of the vanishing mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Vicki Woods finds out that the amount of post we receive has been magically cut at the stroke of a pen

Late on Monday night, I sat at my desk choosing 250 grams of wildflower seeds online. After gazing at dozens of romantic pictures, I went for a Traditional Mix (heavy on corncockle and chamomile), chose the standard Royal Mail delivery option, tapped in the numbers and pressed "Submit". An email receipt popped up, promising delivery within 48 hours. Very satisfying and 21st-century.

Then I remembered that Royal Mail is going through one of its 20th-century moments: wildcat strikes in Stoke, boot-faced soundbites by the Communication Workers Union, million-letter mail mountains, backlogs, national strike threatened for Christmas, all the old Spanish practices. Damn! I should have picked a site that used a more modern, whizzier carrier, like, I don't know, TNT?

So I was filled with pleased surprise on Wednesday lunchtime, when the postman walked up my path as usual with a paddy bag full of my seeds, along with the rest of the post. I started sorting it into the usual piles: a) definite junk (to chuck); b) read and reply; and c) probable junk (those letters with no stamps or recognisable franks, which annoyingly have to be torn open to check).

Does everyone else but me understand where we are at with the "modernisation" of the postal system, exactly? When the Lord High Business Secretary makes his super-smooth utterances, I'm left baffled and snarling: what's it all about, Mandy? Same with Adam Crozier, the Royal Mail CEO. I listen and think: 'Why doesn't this neat, nattily dressed little man inspire me with trust? Is it because he used to be in football? Or because he reminds me of Derek Hatton?'

There's a fascinating piece in the current London Review of Books where "A Postman Writes" (very well) about this. The author's pseudonym is "Roy Mayall" (say it out loud); it's the only piece I've ever been able to grasp about the business of attempting to turn the Royal Mail from an efficient and well-respected universal public service into a business that manifestly doesn't work and probably never can.

My lack of trust seems right on the button. Mayall says that Mandy always explains his desire to press on for part-privatisation (whatever that is) with the words "figures are down". Because we're all so modern and whizzy that we text and tweet and email rather than taking pen in hand and licking stamps.

He says that figures are not down. Despite Royal Mail publishing figures in May that showed a decline of 5.5 per cent over the preceding year; despite a predicted 10 per cent fall this year "due to the recession and the continuing growth of electronic communication". The figures are not down; he claims they are manipulated to give the appearance of being down.

He explains how mail volume is calculated by taking the average number of letters that each sorting box contains, and multiplying by the number of boxes. A national agreement between the management and the union settled on an average of 208 letters per box. "However, within the last year Royal Mail has arbitrarily, and without consultation, reduced the estimate for the number of letters in each box. It was 208: now they say it is 150. This arbitrary reduction more than accounts for the 10 per cent reduction that the Royal Mail claims is happening nationwide." Mayall can say that because the union (doubting the 10 per cent figure) ordered a random manual count over a two-week period at various sorting offices, including his. Their boxes contained an average of 267 letters. Ta-da!

He does the cui bono pretty efficiently as well. Out of 15 letters to all four living members of my scattered household (and one deceased), the "traditional" half was franked by Royal Mail: birthday cards, invitations, various horrors from HMRC. The rest (mostly utilities bills) were randomly franked by TNT, UK Mail and DHL. The ones not even franked, but printed with a weird-looking globe and the letters C9 10023, turn out to be bank statements from HSBC.

All of these, in increasing numbers, are hand-delivered by my postie, in a Royal Mail van. Mr Mayall's view: "Royal Mail does the work. TNT takes the profit."

[Eric]

Hats off to Mr Roy Mayall whoever he may be. He has already done far more for our cause than Billy Hayes ever will.

[Stormproof]

A comments page aswell Well done Roy Mayall whom ever you are

[Thunderthighs]

If this is in fact the case, then it must be a Basic and Fundamental activity to fully investigate and evaluate this Deception.
Wasn't it an MP who said "Deny, deny, deny !"
Any changes to the way mail's is calculated should be a Crucial and Vital tool to utilise for our own Real World assessment, ie Mail is NOT Falling!

Didn't the report on Weapons of Mass Destruction get "sexed up" so that Lies, Deception and BS would become FACTS?...
This was done to justify peoples roles, jobs and positions, but only for those at the TOP!. Thousands lost their life because of these lies.

We can't be similarly lied to, deceived or undermined, by people who want to stay in power for its own sake.
The Lies HAVE to be exposed and publicly announced to show how low these people will stoop to protect their jobs and huge future pensions.

Then, and only then, would the Public be able to see what low-life's do to turn our customers against us.
I would Strongly suggest that this become a priority of the highest level, and the Real Truth be told to all parties.

If RM workers lose their jobs, income and livelihood due to Managements LIES/DECEPTION, then it would truly be the end...

[woosh]

spot on m8. our office used to weigh the mail up until about 6 months ago, when 1 day our dom said we no longer weighed the mail we just had to count the trays and bags.so last week i suggested to our rep that we weighed the mail and checked the figures on the computer in the phg office back a year or 2 and see what the results were, but guess what we couldnt check the figures back because apparently the area manager came into the office 1 day when everone was on delivery and deleted all the figures. SOMETHING TO HIDE I THINK

[shelanda]

Read Roy Mayalls 'diary' today it is the most honest up to date piece of material I have read in ages he was spot on with everything.

[stokes11eg]

So glad that at long last the Press seem to be coming down on our side--she hit the nail on the head by saying this once great service is being ruined, not modernised.