Our customers and door-to-door

[Roy Mayall]

As we all know door-to-door is one of the most contentious areas in the agreement. It is to be included in our workload, the cap to be lifted on the numbers, a door-to-door and early shift allowance supplement to be paid out to all staff in place of the current arrangements, pro-rata for part-timers. I won’t go into all of the arguments here. We all know it is a pay cut for many of us, part-timers in particular. But here is the most significant element, that I haven’t heard anyone say as yet. Our customers hate door-to-door. They loath it with a passion. We’ve all heard them complaining about it. They want it stopped, they don't want any more. So by voting for this agreement we are voting for something our customers hate.

At the moment there is still a residue of respect for what we do as posties. It’s fading fast and with the casualisation of the workforce over the last few years and the increasing workload, which means we aren’t able to do our job properly, there is a growing element amongst the public who are starting to get very vociferous about us. By voting for something we know our customers don’t want – and that isn’t even in our interests – aren’t we just inviting the public to take their frustrations out upon us even more?

Add to this the increasing damage to the environment as more forests are decimated to make more pointless reading matter that people will just throw in the bin, and the implication in the agreement that we will be delivering junk mail right up until Christmas, and the suggestion that we might be forced to take out Saturday-only junk mail (maybe even on the Saturday before Christmas) and it looks increasingly like a very, very bad deal indeed.

But here is the bit in the agreement that made me scream out with sheer exasperation when I read it:

“Managers, CWU reps and employees will all play a part in driving up the perception, awareness and importance of the door-to-door delivery.”

No I won’t. I hate it. It is sh*t. It is corporate propaganda on a grand scale. It is part of the culture of glossy diversion and distraction which is endangering our very future on this planet. It is meaningless drivel. It clogs up the mail. It flops about in my frame. It sticks to my hands. It is of poor quality. It’s embarrassing. It serves no other purpose than as recycling. What does it get recycled into, I wonder? More junk mail.

Currently, when I hand a bunch of junk to a customer and they say, “is that all there is?” I can say, “I’m sorry, it’s not my fault.”

If we accept this deal we will know that it is our fault, that it was our decision which foisted this upon them, and we can only shrug in shame.

Think about that when you cast your vote.

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[noggin1969]

Our custome

[ashadd]

As we all know door-to-door is one of the most contentious areas in the agreement. It is to be included in our workload, the cap to be lifted on the numbers, a door-to-door and early shift allowance supplement to be paid out to all staff in place of the current arrangements, pro-rata for part-timers. I won’t go into all of the arguments here. We all know it is a pay cut for many of us, part-timers in particular. But here is the most significant element, that I haven’t heard anyone say as yet. Our customers hate door-to-door. They loath it with a passion. We’ve all heard them complaining about it. They want it stopped, they don't want any more. So by voting for this agreement we are voting for something our customers hate.

At the moment there is still a residue of respect for what we do as posties. It’s fading fast and with the casualisation of the workforce over the last few years and the increasing workload, which means we aren’t able to do our job properly, there is a growing element amongst the public who are starting to get very vociferous about us. By voting for something we know our customers don’t want – and that isn’t even in our interests – aren’t we just inviting the public to take their frustrations out upon us even more?

Add to this the increasing damage to the environment as more forests are decimated to make more pointless reading matter that people will just throw in the bin, and the implication in the agreement that we will be delivering junk mail right up until Christmas, and the suggestion that we might be forced to take out Saturday-only junk mail (maybe even on the Saturday before Christmas) and it looks increasingly like a very, very bad deal indeed.

But here is the bit in the agreement that made me scream out with sheer exasperation when I read it:

“Managers, CWU reps and employees will all play a part in driving up the perception, awareness and importance of the door-to-door delivery.”

No I won’t. I hate it. It is sh*t. It is corporate propaganda on a grand scale. It is part of the culture of glossy diversion and distraction which is endangering our very future on this planet. It is meaningless drivel. It clogs up the mail. It flops about in my frame. It sticks to my hands. It is of poor quality. It’s embarrassing. It serves no other purpose than as recycling. What does it get recycled into, I wonder? More junk mail.

Currently, when I hand a bunch of junk to a customer and they say, “is that all there is?” I can say, “I’m sorry, it’s not my fault.”

If we accept this deal we will know that it is our fault, that it was our decision which foisted this upon them, and we can only shrug in shame.

Think about that when you cast your vote.

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Our customers dont want bills either,or addressed crap, or gates left open, or lawns walked over, or wet letters.........

[flaminmoses]

what happens if you have a door that has a clear message "NO JUNK MAIL"

[Eric]

Spot on, as always, Roy. If Royal Mail had any vision they would target the premium end of the market. They could insist that anything we deliver is enclosed in a standard size envelope and charge accordingly. We should not be competing with the leaflet companies paying the minimum wage, or less, to schoolkids and illegal immigrants.

Charge a sensible price for DSA and the need to chase the relatively small return on delivering awkward scraps of paper disappears.

[shaunman]

Our customers are the 1s who send the items, not the people who receive them. Its not that big of a deal to move the junk from your letter box to the bin.

[pop it in pete]

“Managers, CWU reps and employees will all play a part in driving up the perception, awareness and importance of the door-to-door delivery.”
I quite agree with Roy.
Who the hell thought up this line of the agreement? What we ought to be doing is upgrading our service to our customers we should aim to be the B.B.C. of the mail industry not the Fox News. Dumb down at what cost? We will be chasing the £ all the way to the recycle bin. Once the bubble has burst in the D2D market then what? Try and reclaim our place at the top of the industry.

With no mail and all D2D would the Royal aspect of Royal Mail still be legitamate? Take that away and we are "Mail"!!! Oh but isnt that what we tries with consignia but our customers didnt want it did they. Just like D2D they DONT WANT IT.

Oh dear what is happening to this once great instiution???????????????

[viking]

is it true that the D2Ds will all be in one envelope for delivery. Cant understand this as one of the things always mentioned was to ensure that in the past the companies wanted to be sure that when the leaflets were pushed through the door that they separated when laying on the customers floors so it was easily seen and selected by the customer as to which they read or binned. The envelope idea is cr... Customers are now just going to bin the one envelope without taking the time to look through it. Do the clients of royal mail know that this is the service which they will be paying for?

[Pat Ostman]

what happens if you have a door that has a clear message "NO JUNK MAIL"

You have to (technically) deliver the Door2Door items. Only if the customer has opted-out officially are they spared half a tree posted through their letter box. Again, technically if you do not deliver the items to this house, you can be sacked.

As much as it pains me to say, each single Door2Door leaflet should be treated the same as live addressed mail. It's how Royal Mail view it and it's how the police view it.

[k979aaa]

what happens if you have a door that has a clear message "NO JUNK MAIL"

You have to (technically) deliver the Door2Door items. Only if the customer has opted-out officially are they spared half a tree posted through their letter box. Again, technically if you do not deliver the items to this house, you can be sacked.

Correct good answer.

[clashcityrocker]

But here is the most significant element, that I haven’t heard anyone say as yet. Our customers hate door-to-door. They loath it with a passion. We’ve all heard them complaining about it. They want it stopped, they don't want any more. So by voting for this agreement we are voting for something our customers hate.

If they all hate it so much why do they keep responding to it?
If nobody responded to unaddressed mail then the companies would stop sending it out. No business would waste money on advertising that wasn't effective.
They always have the option of opting out. Why don't they exercise that right?
Unfortunately D2D means jobs and wages for CWU members, not only in the D2D themselves but in the transactions that follow.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

But here is the most significant element, that I haven’t heard anyone say as yet. Our customers hate door-to-door. They loath it with a passion. We’ve all heard them complaining about it. They want it stopped, they don't want any more. So by voting for this agreement we are voting for something our customers hate.

If they all hate it so much why do they keep responding to it?
If nobody responded to unaddressed mail then the companies would stop sending it out. No business would waste money on advertising that wasn't effective.
They always have the option of opting out. Why don't they exercise that right?
Unfortunately D2D means jobs and wages for CWU members, not only in the D2D themselves but in the transactions that follow.

Actually most companies believe that a 3 to 5% response rate is a very successful campaign. In the Catalogue call centre I worked at they used targeted D2Ds and usually had a hit rate of 7% but they dealt with councils initiatives so the local effect was stronger.

Even at the 3% shot on an duty of 400 households that means at least 12 households responding and with an average sales of rate of £30 = £360 for just that duty even if there were just 50,000 walks targeted that means £18,000,000 in projected sales. That is the reason why businesses see them as a good thing.

BTW even on a response rate of 0.5% (2 in 400 households) the projected sales on the figures above is £3 million. Its big money

[NWpostie]

Our customers are the 1s who send the items, not the people who receive them. Its not that big of a deal to move the junk from your letter box to the bin.

Correct, the Granny that lives down the lane and posted one letter a year will not add much to RM's profits, direct mail companies pays our wages, we offer a free delivery service paid for by the sender, this was established during the Penny post reform by Rowland Hill.

[Lounge Lizard]

And an inevitable consequence of more Door To Doors and later deliveries is fewer and smaller tips at Christmas, and that's just nine months away now.

[NWpostie]

we fvcked either way.