DirtyHarry wrote:Anyone would think we didn't exist before the slave-drivers of Amazon came on the scene.
Truth is, Royal Mail are on a never-ending cost-cutting exercise, and any old excuse, no matter how dubious, will be trotted out to try and justify harming our health.
I say that, because if there's one very obvious outcome to all of Royal Mail's cost-cutting these last 12 years or more, it's the high levels of sickness amongst delivery staff these days.
Cost-cutting produces wonderful profits when you're the dominant company or one of a handful of dominant companies in a sector. But when you're in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - it results in mediocre service and drives customers away.
DirtyHarry wrote:Anyone would think we didn't exist before the slave-drivers of Amazon came on the scene.
Truth is, Royal Mail are on a never-ending cost-cutting exercise, and any old excuse, no matter how dubious, will be trotted out to try and justify harming our health.
I say that, because if there's one very obvious outcome to all of Royal Mail's cost-cutting these last 12 years or more, it's the high levels of sickness amongst delivery staff these days.
Cost-cutting produces wonderful profits when you're the dominant company or one of a handful of dominant companies in a sector. But when you're in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - it results in mediocre service and drives customers away.
Only if it is not done right. On the other hand a failure to control costs when you are in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - drives you out of business.
We can only deliver the service that our customers will pay for and our costs support. We have pretty much exhausted the option of increasing prices so how are we supposed to compete if we don't control costs to a level we can afford?
DirtyHarry wrote:Anyone would think we didn't exist before the slave-drivers of Amazon came on the scene.
Truth is, Royal Mail are on a never-ending cost-cutting exercise, and any old excuse, no matter how dubious, will be trotted out to try and justify harming our health.
I say that, because if there's one very obvious outcome to all of Royal Mail's cost-cutting these last 12 years or more, it's the high levels of sickness amongst delivery staff these days.
Cost-cutting produces wonderful profits when you're the dominant company or one of a handful of dominant companies in a sector. But when you're in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - it results in mediocre service and drives customers away.
Only if it is not done right. On the other hand a failure to control costs when you are in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - drives you out of business.
We can only deliver the service that our customers will pay for and our costs support. We have pretty much exhausted the option of increasing prices so how are we supposed to compete if we don't control costs to a level we can afford?
Well it's between a rock and a hard place Brain. How do you control costs without denigrating terms and conditions and producing a worse service for the customer which in turn means they can choose a cheaper option? The problem is our main rivals have by far a better tracking system at a cheaper price and RM have failed to invest, pretty much like they did 15 years or so ago when they failed to invest because they thought privatisation was round the corner. There needs to be a long hard look at how the business is organised and as unpalatable as it may be shedding parts of it to outside contractors.
Changes are coming we all know that, where I work we are still working in the past, we are too rigid and unwilling to be flexible and help each other. As I have said before I have seen a similar situation before when I worked for BRS part of NFC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_F ... orporation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Hopefully I am totally wrong and history is not repeating its self.
DirtyHarry wrote:Anyone would think we didn't exist before the slave-drivers of Amazon came on the scene.
Truth is, Royal Mail are on a never-ending cost-cutting exercise, and any old excuse, no matter how dubious, will be trotted out to try and justify harming our health.
I say that, because if there's one very obvious outcome to all of Royal Mail's cost-cutting these last 12 years or more, it's the high levels of sickness amongst delivery staff these days.
Cost-cutting produces wonderful profits when you're the dominant company or one of a handful of dominant companies in a sector. But when you're in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - it results in mediocre service and drives customers away.
Only if it is not done right. On the other hand a failure to control costs when you are in a fiercely competitive market - like we are - drives you out of business.
We can only deliver the service that our customers will pay for and our costs support. We have pretty much exhausted the option of increasing prices so how are we supposed to compete if we don't control costs to a level we can afford?
Well it's between a rock and a hard place Brain. How do you control costs without denigrating terms and conditions and producing a worse service for the customer which in turn means they can choose a cheaper option? The problem is our main rivals have by far a better tracking system at a cheaper price and RM have failed to invest, pretty much like they did 15 years or so ago when they failed to invest because they thought privatisation was round the corner. There needs to be a long hard look at how the business is organised and as unpalatable as it may be shedding parts of it to outside contractors.
I wouldn't say there's been no investment; walk sequencing and delivery methods was a major investment and there is £70 million going into tracking as well as planned investment in parcel sortation. The problem is we are playing catch up from the years when we had no money and the years before that when we had plenty but had to hand it all over the the Government. Also our competitors are building their business to suit the new markets whereas we have to adapt an existing business to meet changing requirements and that is always more expensive.
It is possible to cut costs without impacting t&Cs or producing a worse service but it generally has to be lots of small initiatives. That said, the £50 million a year that will come from the 1300 job cuts is going to help.
Brain Fury wrote:I wouldn't say there's been no investment; walk sequencing and delivery methods was a major investment and there is £70 million going into tracking as well as planned investment in parcel sortation. The problem is we are playing catch up from the years when we had no money and the years before that when we had plenty but had to hand it all over the the Government. Also our competitors are building their business to suit the new markets whereas we have to adapt an existing business to meet changing requirements and that is always more expensive.
It is possible to cut costs without impacting t&Cs or producing a worse service but it generally has to be lots of small initiatives. That said, the £50 million a year that will come from the 1300 job cuts is going to help.
Well the investment hasn't been placed effectively really - CSS machines by the score when the mail volume and revenue is falling, LWTs that are languishing on the shop floor or take up space in yorks. Vehicles that have been purchased which are not fit for purpose and then we come to the PDAs which are either under utilised or not suitable for purpose. Clearly the delivery methods revision hasn't been the raging success it was meant to be, probably because only 50% of the workforce employed it. The real saving grace for RM - the 50,000 job losses in the last ten years, every contract now a part time contract, pay rises under inflation in the main and a work load that is far too big to keep the staff on board and that is what I would call a denigration of T&Cs.
Brain Fury wrote:I wouldn't say there's been no investment; walk sequencing and delivery methods was a major investment and there is £70 million going into tracking as well as planned investment in parcel sortation. The problem is we are playing catch up from the years when we had no money and the years before that when we had plenty but had to hand it all over the the Government. Also our competitors are building their business to suit the new markets whereas we have to adapt an existing business to meet changing requirements and that is always more expensive.
It is possible to cut costs without impacting t&Cs or producing a worse service but it generally has to be lots of small initiatives. That said, the £50 million a year that will come from the 1300 job cuts is going to help.
Well the investment hasn't been placed effectively really - CSS machines by the score when the mail volume and revenue is falling, LWTs that are languishing on the shop floor or take up space in yorks. Vehicles that have been purchased which are not fit for purpose and then we come to the PDAs which are either under utilised or not suitable for purpose. Clearly the delivery methods revision hasn't been the raging success it was meant to be, probably because only 50% of the workforce employed it. The real saving grace for RM - the 50,000 job losses in the last ten years, every contract now a part time contract, pay rises under inflation in the main and a work load that is far too big to keep the staff on board and that is what I would call a denigration of T&Cs.
But we have a far better Union now, fighting our corner, things can only get better and better from now on, especially that deal of the century we all voted for.
