How Royal Mail fiddles the figures

[Fred B]

The bags dont lie


I started 12 years back 3-4 bags on heavy day....

Now 9-10 bags on a sky week

Anyone who has been on the same walk for a few years knows volumes are up. Crozier and his chums might argue, but there's a big difference between sitting on your backside all day and actually doing a job.

[POSTMAN]

.it had 285 letters of all thicknesses in it.thats nearly twice what its recorded at

He he... I did a count too (on thursday morning) the box I counted had 340 + items in it.

You know who will have a response to that in a min.....

[dvbuk55]

.it had 285 letters of all thicknesses in it.thats nearly twice what its recorded at

He he... I did a count too (on thursday morning) the box I counted had 340 + items in it.

You know who will have a response to that in a min.....

Tman - now send me my prize and hurry up about it

[chunk]

The bags dont lie


I started 12 years back 3-4 bags on heavy day....

Now 9-10 bags on a sky week

we are carrying more without a doubt thats because theres 60,000 less of us than 8 years ago.
revenue on the other hand may be in decline for a three reasons.
1:People are down grading from first to second class . are they starting to realize theres little difference in its processing?
2:the cost of a stamp has not risen in real terms and so is losing us a couple of pence on every delivery.
3: Down-stream access is losing us millions.
RM know all this but blaming declining volume has a double benefit as falling volumes are perceived as beyond their control and not their fault .

This slight of hand trickery (misdirection) excuses them for cutting duties and staff and avoids questions over numbers 1-3.

[bedfordrl]

Got in early yesterday as the wife was supposed to be on a duty that starts half an hour earlier and there on my frame was a tray of mech.

"Hmm" methinks "there is a good mixture of thick and thin letters ,i will count them"

Well i did and to my surprise there was 327 in there!, now that is a bit more than 208 and more than twice as much as 150.

Yeah i know an average is the middle number between the most and least but 327!, surely that would bring the average to about 270 to 280?.

[F0zziebear]

OK I am not doubting you individually counting that box and it being exactly what you say it is.

However, going to my previous post it flies in the face of the logic that I work from, which is a concern for me as it puts into doubt my approach and that which is used by those in HQ type positions, both in RM and the private sector.

Even if volumes are stable, not going down or even going up (population is increasing) revenue is down. Or revenue is the same and it is disappearing somewhere on the books.

As Tman pointed out it is not just RM that claim vols. are down, but many other countries are claiming the same. Are they all in a conspiracy against their frontline staff 'who do the real jobs?'

I have to say that just because you physically sort, prep and take mail out it does not mean that others sit on their fat (sometimes hairy) backside and do nothing. It is in my opinion quite offensive that that is the case.

What would be good is if people from other parts of RM go to as many WTLL sessions as possible to explain their role in the business. That could be from secretaries, cleaners, uniform, buyers of paper, elastic bands, fuel etc. Do you know how many millions are spent on paper and fuel each year? These are all legitimate roles that make the company work, and unsurprisingly enough someone needs to run these teams, departments, functions and businesses.

[kingtubby]

I'm interested to know the process involved in deciding the averages. Is it decided by committee, by an individual or by computer print out? I think we should be told.

[Big Daz]

Information, Information, Information

How about it Adam ?

Start with Phase 4 delay please if you will me ol mucker.

:cfo

[mandelsons_toenail]

I'm interested to know the process involved in deciding the averages. Is it decided by committee, by an individual or by computer print out? I think we should be told.

Ive found the answer



or maybe she does it

































:mfo :lfo

[OnAFlyer]

I counted a boxful of letters for IPS sorting today and it had 262 - in the interests of balance I had a look at most of the other boxes, and several barely had a dozen letters each in, this happens every day (and it can't be just our local MC that send some boxes up with hardly anything in) and obviously pulls the average per box down. There are also numerous boxes of those small saga/screwfix magazines etc that don't hold many but they are damn heavy.

However i'd still guess the average is more than 150 (maybe 180-200, which is 20-30% more), but as i've said before it's not the amount, it's the weight. Overall weight and bulk of a delivery is going up, not down, yet RM say less items means less delivery time - not neccessarily it doesn't.

[kingtubby]

I counted a boxful of letters for IPS sorting today and it had 262 - in the interests of balance I had a look at most of the other boxes, and several barely had a dozen letters each in, this happens every day (and it can't be just our local MC that send some boxes up with hardly anything in) and obviously pulls the average per box down. There are also numerous boxes of those small saga/screwfix magazines etc that don't hold many but they are damn heavy.

However I'd still guess the average is more than 150 (maybe 180-200, which is 20-30% more), but as I've said before it's not the amount, it's the weight. Overall weight and bulk of a delivery is going up, not down, yet RM say less items means less delivery time - not necessarily it doesn't.

Strictly speaking, any part filled containers are supposed to be recorded as such when scanned, so that should negate any need to average down on that basis. In reality though I don't think anyone bothers to record the part-fills.
In our MC, managers do a quick visual count based on 250 items per box, 20 boxes per york, therefore 5k per york. This is machinable mail though, which perhaps has a different official average. But based on my experience, a york of 20 full trays of machinables will average nearer to 6k that 5k

[kingtubby]

I'm interested to know the process involved in deciding the averages. Is it decided by committee, by an individual or by computer print out? I think we should be told.

Ive found the answer...

Thanks

[shelanda]

Another worrying factor is the mech as we get a lot of manuel bundles that are not included in the IPS, as it has come off the mech machine so measured as not needing IPS. RM have found lots of ways to be creative with their figures.

[axeman]

OK I am not doubting you individually counting that box and it being exactly what you say it is.

However, going to my previous post it flies in the face of the logic that I work from, which is a concern for me as it puts into doubt my approach and that which is used by those in HQ type positions, both in RM and the private sector.

Even if volumes are stable, not going down or even going up (population is increasing) revenue is down. Or revenue is the same and it is disappearing somewhere on the books.

As Tman pointed out it is not just RM that claim vols. are down, but many other countries are claiming the same. Are they all in a conspiracy against their frontline staff 'who do the real jobs?'

I have to say that just because you physically sort, prep and take mail out it does not mean that others sit on their fat (sometimes hairy) backside and do nothing. It is in my opinion quite offensive that that is the case.

What would be good is if people from other parts of RM go to as many WTLL sessions as possible to explain their role in the business. That could be from secretaries, cleaners, uniform, buyers of paper, elastic bands, fuel etc. Do you know how many millions are spent on paper and fuel each year? These are all legitimate roles that make the company work, and unsurprisingly enough someone needs to run these teams, departments, functions and businesses.

And just maybe royal fail have jumped on the bandwagon in an hurry as to implement the savings they crave ? to justify the jobs of the leeches up top

[chunk]

* Reply with quote

Re: How Royal Mail fiddles the figures

New postby F0zziebear » Yesterday, 13:08
"OK I am not doubting you individually counting that box and it being exactly what you say it is."

"However, going to my previous post it flies in the face of the logic that I work from, which is a concern for me as it puts into doubt my approach and that which is used by those in HQ type positions, both in RM and the private sector."

"Even if volumes are stable, not going down or even going up (population is increasing) revenue is down. Or revenue is the same and it is disappearing somewhere on the books."
I have observed that Royal Mail management have a psychotic personality when it comes to spending.
They try to save a few pounds (for example) by reducing the visits of our cycle mechanics from weekly to monthly.
now staff are complaining of gears that don't work and slow punctures etc that need attention this will result in slower deliveries and hence cost the company.
There is an unlimited amount of money for travel expenses ie millage ,overtime,& hotels to draft managers in to help out during strikes and similarly theres unlimited money fo agency /casual staff .
You may say its right the company spends this to keep the mail moving!
and i might agree if it wasn't that this dispute started with RM's cost cutting purge that increased our workload whilst reducing staff..