Change to come

[Martin Walsh]

All Delivery Directors and the Delivery Divisonal Reps along with Bob Gibson and 3 PEC members met this Monday and Tuesday to discuss the Delivery Section of the agreement and how this would be moved on including dates for the site visits and the roll out of the Dignity Fairness and Respect agreement in all work places.

The intial presentation was from Stephen Agar in charge of the Letter strategy and trying to reduce the pace that this market is declining.

Letter traffic is now at 1991 levels. But every is relative in 1991 my office had 150 nights it now as 12 nights we had 150 first deliveries and 100 second deliveries now there are 88 deliveries. So whilst traffic may be declining producitivity has increased hugely due to automation , method change and increased producitivity.

Bank statements is declineing at 9% faster as banks move to automated statements , text statements or 3 monthly statements like bank of Scotland.

It traditionally costs a bank which some pass on to customers cost of printing , envelopes , manpower stationary etc to do statements which generally cost anything from 40 pence to 50 pence to then send by post. By a PDF it can cost about 10 pence and by text from £1. This is why bills and statements from all companies are in decline.

Downstrseam access now makes up 50% of the average Mail bag and that means 50% of that work is avalble for bypass delivery as it already goes to a competitor first.

TNT is Royal Mails biggest customer by a distant. 80% of TNTs expenditure goes to Royal Mail.

The price rise from the company 2 years ago to ensure that DSA became profitable has worked in some ways but at a cost as some DSA customers passed it onto their customer and this has quicker some banks going to more automated statements and therefore we no longer delivery the item.

The other thing which the price rise did was provide the headroom for TNT to set up an end to end delivery service. They down have a joint venture which has given them 70 millions pounds or set up a delivery service across the 40% of addresses in the UK ( not 40% of urban areas ).

Their model is clear that they go to the council and set up a partnership which delivers jobs but what they don't tell you that they are low paid jobs and will cut Royal Mail well paid jobs? Thus far Westminster council , Earling Council , Liverpool council and Manchester council have signed sweetheart deals with TNT to support their delivery rights. Other cities will also follow. Remember TNT only provide a 3 day serivce and they can choose when to opt for Royal Mail delivery or when to deliver themselves, Our licence means we have to deliver their Mail.

TNT are challenging Royal Mail vat exemption which allows banks to reclaim vat if they use Royal Mail and it is expected that some stage the European Commision will declare the VAT exemption anti competitive as it is an old public serivce thing. The loss of the VAT which TNT are pushing through the courts will allow TNT more of an opportunity to undercut Royal Mail.

On unaddressed items d2d this is now growing and in some areas in particular the South East is huge. However it is a competitive market and the margins of profit are not necessary hugue unless you capture a lot. The D2D trial on automating the items will protentially shape this even further.

TNT have reacted angrily to the price changes made on Friday last week and are considering their options.

off comm are still Royal Mail are still too inefficient and they will not stop allowing the cherry picking until their is a risk to the USO in their eyes or Royal Mail is more efficient.

The 6 days service is safe in law and the company with parcels growing believe that declaring Saturday a non service day would be sucidal. When pressed he said if they had to have just a 5 day service it would be the Monday which would be the most likely day but that is years away.

New Zealand has just gone to 3 day delivery service.

In terms of other European countries , the countries who rely most on letters like Spain are in trouble , Royal Mail still receive almost half their revenue from parcels.

The other threat has been amazon have started t deliver in some localities and in particular on a Sunday and that is a huge concern as amazon provided 80% of their work to Royal Mail in the lead up to Christmas and clearly any loss to that is a loss to revenue.

John Maher explain the strategy for growth in parcels.

Parcels are the most competitive market and customers change providers for pennies.

The aim is for all parcels to be barcoded by 2015.

The systems which will allow the recording of all number of parcels within the network , numbers and location and walk will be in within the next 2 years. it is expected automation will be in within 5 years.

The barcode will allow the customer to track their parcel on route. The drive will be to ensure parcels are delivered 1st time to the same level as DPD , UPS, DHL and Parcelforce. This means Royal Mail will want to increase delivery to neighbour.

They want to introduce predict so a customer chooses the hour of delivery and even a 15 minute window.

Now the key to all this is the PDA and the data that provides. Every PDA sends a ping every 90 seconds which sends out the longitude and latitude of where the individual who has the PDA is.

This data once modified will allow a customer to track the post person or driver on their route and when their parcel is likely to deliver. it also provides how many parcels been delivered to the customer , neighbour or returned. It will enable messages on hazards and dogs etc.

In addition it will identify the start and finish of deliveries on a day , week or month. It will also provide accurate information if geo route said that walk was 4 hours but the delivery was taking 4.5 hours. it will also expose if some one is continues all being forced to work beyond their time. It will confirm attendance call rates and even the % of people across the office who finishes on delivery at 1500. Of course Royal Mail will want to use the data for both resourcing and revisions.

20% of all retail spending last year was on the net this is the growth which is what is going to help provide well paid future jobs.

The above are not my opinions they are what was presented along with questions.

I will post up the other bits of relevant information on the 2 day workshop in due course.

[Himaggen]

All Delivery Directors and the Delivery Divisonal Reps along with Bob Gibson and 3 PEC members met this Monday and Tuesday to discuss the Delivery Section of the agreement and how this would be moved on including dates for the site visits and the roll out of the Dignity Fairness and Respect agreement in all work places.
<SNIP />

Why open with that sentence then not mention anything relating to that sentences content?

...and why would there be meetings around an 'agreement' for which there hasn't yet been a ballot process yet?

[worktotime]

dingo I can understand dpd etc doing the timed delivery of parcels but they don't deliver mail , d2ds and specials. but how would that work with p&l ? with 1 driver would that mean cutting of delivering mail etc to deliver parcels on your last loops , leaveing your mate delivering and what about your m/r. im not having a go at you but ive never heard anything so stupid , or do they mean put parcels drivers on to do these.

[Martin Walsh]

All Delivery Directors and the Delivery Divisonal Reps along with Bob Gibson and 3 PEC members met this Monday and Tuesday to discuss the Delivery Section of the agreement and how this would be moved on including dates for the site visits and the roll out of the Dignity Fairness and Respect agreement in all work places.
<SNIP />

Why open with that sentence then not mention anything relating to that sentences content?

...and why would there be meetings around an 'agreement' for which there hasn't yet been a ballot process yet?

The Joint Statement on Dignity , fairness and respect was agreed in March 2012. The joint statement has been in place for close on 10 months and has resolved some of the issues. However not in all places and it did say that there would be a roll out in every office of a joint work time listening session delivered by the DOM and Union with a check list to see it's been done. So it is not part of any vote.

[General Mannerheim]

what issues has the dignity,respect etc resolved???????....none in my office or any of the other ones i get to visit on numerous occasions.
And just what is the point of just going to 20 or 40 offices?
These offices will they be the ones where the most number of grievances/ET or county court cases are or will they be the ones where Utopia and Walter Mitty reside?

[fishtank]

A guy walks into a bar with a pair of jumper cables around his neck. The bartender looks at him and says , " All right,you can stay but don't start anything."

Just thought I would lighten the mood after all that doom and gloom which to be quite honest I'm not really sure what the point of is since there's not a great deal any of us can do about it except keep turning up for work.

If it's meant to be an example of the many pressures facing the business to convince us how great a deal this is and prepare us for the inevitable disappointment of the delivery reviews I think I started preparing for that last July.

[halfull]

All Delivery Directors and the Delivery Divisonal Reps along with Bob Gibson and 3 PEC members met this Monday and Tuesday to discuss the Delivery Section of the agreement and how this would be moved on including dates for the site visits and the roll out of the Dignity Fairness and Respect agreement in all work places.

The intial presentation was from Stephen Agar in charge of the Letter strategy and trying to reduce the pace that this market is declining.

Snipped for brevity

load of bollocks. nothing will stop these bullying managers from top to bottom only a big NO on the vote papers that let our weak leaders know change must come now.

[Martin Walsh]

Fish so would you rather keep this site for just people who want say how bad Royal Mail and the union are or sometimes do you want to know the strategy. Of course the union will be involved in shaping this.

I have no intention of trying to convince one on here about which way to vote. But sometimes it's worth someone understanding what is happening.

Of course by all means ignore it , and carry on that's up to everyone but those are the issues which will be the issues which will shape delivery agenda in 12 months time.

[Martin Walsh]

Hatful I really don't care whether you vote no , in the same way your not interested in what I vote? The point is will what I put happen or not. if it does it will change deliveries again but not in the way BT did.

[fishtank]

Fish so would you rather keep this site for just people who want say how bad Royal Mail and the union are or sometimes do you want to know the strategy.

Don't you think we get enough of the management strategy from management?
It would be nice to hear the union's strategy for fighting the inevitable cuts that will follow, we do have a fighting strategy left somewhere don't we?
Not just a big sigh and a "this is how it's going have to be" but an actual fully formed,well thought out response.
What happened to the whole....

A new consensus on what constitutes a fair day’s work for a fair days pay.
We must bring to an end the aggressive managerial culture of relentless budgets
cuts, chaotic lapsing and absorption and unacceptable pressure over daily
workload.

[dvbuk55]

Oh there's a union strategy right enough. I think it consists of how far up RMs backside they can get without totally disappearing. I don't pay subs to have another tier of management consisting of the CWU yes men wanting to feel important. I say lets dump the union let RM keep the subs and just get on with whatever it is RM have in mind because there is certainly no strategy by the union to halt any of the excesses in delivery.

The union must be confident there is going to be an agreement because they are already discussing the move forward - the picture I see is RM Management laying out their plan and a group of papier mache heads blithely nodding up and down and dingo appearing in the wings screeching "Henny Penny the sky is falling".

I'd like to remind the glitterati of that old drugs advert "JUST SAY NO" even if it's just to one lump or two in their coffee.

Vote NO and pull out of the union.

[legind]

On unaddressed items d2d this is now growing and in some areas in particular the South East is huge. However it is a competitive market and the margins of profit are not necessary hugue unless you capture a lot. The D2D trial on automating the items will protentially shape this even further.

We were a trial office for d2d automation we were told it would last 12 weeks not even sure it lasted half that. We were told it was stopped by the union because it was saving us to much time and would end up with more deliveries being taken out. Is this true or are trials still taking place.

[Himaggen]

John Maher explain the strategy for growth in parcels.

Parcels are the most competitive market and customers change providers for pennies.

The aim is for all parcels to be barcoded by 2015.

The systems which will allow the recording of all number of parcels within the network , numbers and location and walk will be in within the next 2 years. it is expected automation will be in within 5 years.

The barcode will allow the customer to track their parcel on route. The drive will be to ensure parcels are delivered 1st time to the same level as DPD , UPS, DHL and Parcelforce. This means Royal Mail will want to increase delivery to neighbour.

They want to introduce predict so a customer chooses the hour of delivery and even a 15 minute window.

Now the key to all this is the PDA and the data that provides. Every PDA sends a ping every 90 seconds which sends out the longitude and latitude of where the individual who has the PDA is.

This data once modified will allow a customer to track the post person or driver on their route and when their parcel is likely to deliver. it also provides how many parcels been delivered to the customer , neighbour or returned. It will enable messages on hazards and dogs etc.

In addition it will identify the start and finish of deliveries on a day , week or month. It will also provide accurate information if geo route said that walk was 4 hours but the delivery was taking 4.5 hours. it will also expose if some one is continues all being forced to work beyond their time. It will confirm attendance call rates and even the % of people across the office who finishes on delivery at 1500.

I'm intrigued dingo!
Do you know how far on Royal Mail are with having this bespoke software designed. Is it going to be designed for the deprecated Windows Mobile OS incapable of multitasking these operations. Will it be incorporated onto the bulky non user friendly Intermec CN3 device with its superfast processor and excellent battery life. Has Mr Joyce ever updated his decision that the PDA in current use is not to be used by anyone other than drivers?

[Godric]

letters at 1991 levels

what a load of pish ... I started in 1990 and at 1991 it was common to have half a bag of mail on a Monday, Tuesday and Saturday and a busy day was a bag and a half and that is including packets in those days before Parcel Force took the readers digest contract we had to deliver them along with packets from Britannia records and books direct so we weren't running about with 2 or 3 packets .... we have way more mail letters and flats included ... it just goes to show if you spout *rap long enough it becomes the truth

[Martin Walsh]

As I said in my office in 1991 we had 150 night duties , we had 150 first de
Overlies and 100 second deliveries and 60 van duties , oh and a middle class of duties to cover failures and a late set of duties Om over items to tip and prepare the work

That same office now has 12 nights , 80 deliveries only 30 van duties , no late class and no middle. A lot has changed . We have more automation , we have just one delivery and we are a lot more productive. So people are working harder than in 1991.