RM is failing to keep up with its smarter competitors

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Sound the last post: Royal Mail is failing to keep up with its smarter competitors

http://theconversation.com/sound-the-la ... tors-36186" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Those of us with experience working in former state monopoly sectors such as trains, aviation and telecoms as they transition into a less regulated environment, know only too well the challenge of change, sometimes allegorically described as “possessing the turning circle of a super tanker” or being “as nimble as a dancing elephant”.

The decline of the use of posted letters has been with us for decades thanks to email and latterly social media, but has Royal Mail’s opportunity for innovation in the home delivery space been missed? As a low-volume personal customer I object to subsidising business post, sometimes known as spam – however, the foundation to my griping is not the pricing per se, but the service.

The world’s largest courier service, Deutsche Post (trading as brand DHL in UK), can get boxes to me quickly – and even when I’m not in the house. They have pioneered an innovative garage agreement (Garagenvertrag) that allows the insurance liability to transfer following delivery to a specified place such as a garage or a neighbour’s house. Yet Royal Mail insists on having me drive 13 minutes to Woking, to a tiny sorting office, they require me to show specific identification that matches the name on the package and say thank you to them for not delivering it in the first place. And then drive home again.

You see, I have a healthy online shopping habit. I spend big without the inconvenience of leaving my house. Historically, I have found it very difficult to arrange a re-delivery because, more often than not, the 17-digit package identifier on the “sorry we missed you” slip is missing. Royal Mail don’t automatically try to re-deliver the next day (like those nice DPD people do) or allow me to easily call a speaking robot (no ID, no work) to re-arrange for a time slot that suits me.

Instead, I spend 25 minutes on hold waiting to speak to a (very lovely and helpful) real person, eating up pretty much my travel time to the depot. Should it be called a partial delivery service?


Opening doors

From my home office I meet with new entrants into the delivery sphere, who have funky names such as Yodel, using employment concepts ideal for retirees and portfolio career types who usually use light vehicles to pop by in the evenings when people are often home. This helps make the roads less congested and secures first-time delivery with happy, smiling staff who might deliver ten packages each shift.

This kind of business model innovation shouldn’t be so hard, but the propaganda of the Royal Mail’s red army is intent on complaint about being cherry-picked in lucrative cities by urban efficient Whistl (formerly TNT) in a competitive market while it remains beholden to the universal delivery obligation: every household nationwide, six days a week.

The Royal Mail is in dire need of a chief innovation officer, a director for service excellence and a director of marketing – not communications propaganda, which is terribly old-fashioned. Look at how nimble, yet cash-strapped services like the Irish An Post are innovating, using generic reels of sticky stamps, the price inked on at your point of order, resulting in fast and efficient service. Gone are the cost and hassle of managing high-value stock books of paper money. Australia Post, no longer targeted for privatisation, has got a clearer idea of its role in offering essential services for more remote communities.

Like stamp collecting, letter delivery is a dying business – let us be frank about this, bye bye Penny Black. But regulator Ofcom should continue to hold its ground, deflecting the inevitable industry restructuring for as long as possible. Widespread share ownership brings an even sharper focus on the profit motive, but we shouldn’t allow excessive profiteering to take place because of poor regulatory control.

I note that while Amazon is keen to discover your delivery experience for its third-party trading associates, it does not invite the same feedback on its own service. I would have recommended quite strongly that it change its agreement with the Royal Mail, for whom Amazon represents about 6% of its packages volume, but it turns out it has cottoned on without my help. The trade-logistics super power is building its own same-day delivery service using Connect Group’s newspaper distribution network.
Safe as houses

While the Australians are getting into the idea of smart lockers to solve the fake delivery note problem, Royal Mail has no alternative and does not recommend one either. It does offer a charged-for service called SafePlace for business customers, but that smacks of gouging a delivery premium for a basic service. Even if you do have a nominated place, they will not use it if the package needs signing for. Rules are rules. And of course lots of things in the Royal Mail system need signing for.

Now, to be clear – this isn’t a rant about people in the Royal Mail (although it may be a rant). Our posties are decent people, but this is about the company. I particularly object to the complaining about the universal delivery obligation and being cherry-picked by rivals, when changes that are made focus on squeezing additional sales revenues and shoring up a limited delivery offering.

If we are being fair, Postman Pat and pals are doing the basics well. The latest impressive performance stats show Royal Mail’s next-day first-class deliveries at 93.3%, 0.3 over target and three-day second class deliveries at 99%, half a point over target. This is of course helped by a welcome move to afternoon deliveries, which makes the next-day delivery window so much easier to achieve. The next challenge, as presaged by the Amazon move mentioned above, is likely to be same-day deliveries. Can Royal Mail hope to compete here? Never mind matching the online retailer’s headline-grabbing intention to use drones.

Instead of droning on about the draining universal obligation, how about revolutionising the existing offer? Less Penny Black and more virtual-enabled instant gratification is needed if Royal Mail is to survive.

[chrisj]

I want, want want!!! D"ck!

These are the sort of commentators that RM are listening to when ot comes to things like Delivery to Neighbours.

And he wants us to do an automatic redelivery - will that be for every parcel; including DVDs that will not go through ancient letterboxes?

RM is a compromise - we deliver letters and parcels; not just parcels! And if you do not have a tracking number, that could be because there was none or because a postie has failed to do his/her job properly.

They have pioneered an innovative garage agreement (Garagenvertrag) that allows the insurance liability to transfer following delivery to a specified place such as a garage or a neighbour’s house.

. A garage? or do you mean a Safe Place - not every house has a garage and the customer still has to sign up and inform the seller/courier of their wishes...

What is that about? - if you know you are expecting a parcel that is trackable, why not specify where you want it delivered and there is now click and collectm collect at Post Office or have the item redelivered to another address but sorry mrdick, we cannot do timed delivery.

When this industry is completey ruined, people like this will then be happy - I guess.

[rubberbond]

I want, want want!!! D"ck!

These are the sort of commentators that RM are listening to when ot comes to things like Delivery to Neighbours.

And he wants us to do an automatic redelivery - will that be for every parcel; including DVDs that will not go through ancient letterboxes?

RM is a compromise - we deliver letters and parcels; not just parcels! And if you do not have a tracking number, that could be because there was none or because a postie has failed to do his/her job properly.

They have pioneered an innovative garage agreement (Garagenvertrag) that allows the insurance liability to transfer following delivery to a specified place such as a garage or a neighbour’s house.

. A garage? or do you mean a Safe Place - not every house has a garage and the customer still has to sign up and inform the seller/courier of their wishes...

What is that about? - if you know you are expecting a parcel that is trackable, why not specify where you want it delivered and there is now click and collectm collect at Post Office or have the item redelivered to another address but sorry mrdick, we cannot do timed delivery.

When this industry is completey ruined, people like this will then be happy - I guess.

Furthermore, if you read the second paragraph, he is suggesting we work like Yodel,Hermes etc. I.e for no,fixed weekly payment but payment per item.

[wabbithunta]

I deleted my original post.. I'd be done for threatening behaviour, among other things.

Suffice to say the person who wrote this needs to actually go out and do the job for at least a month, even if he saying that we posties are not to blame!
Then he'll see what Royal Mail have to do to get the job done, whereas companies like Whistl (TNT) do what they do best...! Deliver to people every other day, six days a week for next to nothing and have their workforce on zero hour contracts. Other parcel companies may like to "innovate" and have their workforce out at all hours of the day/night, no doubt on zero hour contracts delivering "ten parcels" each and getting paid a pittance to do so too, no doubt, and he wants us to do the same?
We've got a USO to abide by, they haven't. Has he taken that into account? I bet not!

[5plusbonusball]

Customer service would be better from me as well if I didnt have to cram into 4 hours, the work of 10 or more of their guys would do in a week!

[ebbzie]

I deleted my original post.. I'd be done for threatening behaviour, among other things.

Suffice to say the person who wrote this needs to actually go out and do the job for at least a month, even if he saying that we posties are not to blame!
Then he'll see what Royal Mail have to do to get the job done, whereas companies like Whistl (TNT) do what they do best...! Deliver to people every other day, six days a week for next to nothing and have their workforce on zero hour contracts. Other parcel companies may like to "innovate" and have their workforce out at all hours of the day/night, no doubt on zero hour contracts delivering "ten parcels" each and getting paid a pittance to do so too, no doubt, and he wants us to do the same?
We've got a USO to abide by, they haven't. Has he taken that into account? I bet not!

well said

[chrisj]

While the Australians are getting into the idea of smart lockers to solve the fake delivery note problem, Royal Mail has no alternative and does not recommend one either. It does offer a charged-for service called SafePlace for business customers, but that smacks of gouging a delivery premium for a basic service. Even if you do have a nominated place, they will not use it if the package needs signing for. Rules are rules. And of course lots of things in the Royal Mail system need signing for.

Then he said rules are rules - how about specifying to the seller that you do not want to ever sign for anything - as if it is RM dictating whether things are signed for or not... Ah hem, we do not carry tracked items and other parcels that do not need signing for

Fake Delivery note? SafePlace for Business charged at a Premium - why would a business need a safe place when most of them are opened to receive the item - some even on Saturday.

This person I think has commented on RM before and it is often negative and narrow-minded from just his personal point of view. I suppose this is from a business or financial correspondence or something but not a lot of business sense - not his personal business, I suppose.

However, to suggest that we automatically redeliver a parcel or item even though the very little chance of the customer being there to receive just goes to show the hatred some people have for Royal Mail.

[DB1100]

I understand his point,we could be the best at delivering parcels if our short sighted management didn't give us impossible targets to meet,that's where the problem lie's trying to be jack of all trades,give us the right equipment to do parcels properly and we could be number one but while we have to try and cram 6 hrs work into 4hrs we will continue to be beaten.Thing's will not get better until they accept the fact that delivery staff are over worked and unable to provide the best service because of this.

[chrisj]

I think you should try and expand on how we can deliver parcel better and what pints do you agree with. Where is the impossible targets? Some of us are still very much underutilised and some office are not efficient in terms of staffing, resource allocation, duplication of tasks, misappropriation of all sorts and poor management...

We are a Letter and Parcel company that is partly privatised and still benefit from some sort of monopoly and our size and network.

Without the letter aspect of our jobs, we would be Parcel Force; and you can just about see how well that is going. We just manage to cover our overheads and the very good terms and conditions for the employees because of the letter side of things.

RM is at the moment a compromise and we employees and the general public through USO are the primary beneficiary of that compromise. Anything else will result in more efficiency drive and cost cutting - and who is going to be the loser out that: if you think we are being overworked now, just wait for a few more years when the volumes really drop and the competition and Regulators get more fierce...

[DB1100]

I think you should try and expand on how we can deliver parcel better and what pints do you agree with. Where is the impossible targets? Some of us are still very much underutilised and some office are not efficient in terms of staffing, resource allocation, duplication of tasks, misappropriation of all sorts and poor management...

We are a Letter and Parcel company that is partly privatised and still benefit from some sort of monopoly and our size and network.

Without the letter aspect of our jobs, we would be Parcel Force; and you can just about see how well that is going. We just manage to cover our overheads and the very good terms and conditions for the employees because of the letter side of things.

RM is at the moment a compromise and we employees and the general public through USO are the primary beneficiary of that compromise. Anything else will result in more efficiency drive and cost cutting - and who is going to be the loser out that: if you think we are being overworked now, just wait for a few more years when the volumes really drop and the competition and Regulators get more fierce...

Well I will try,we are on our second revision,we failed most days in the build up to Christmas,some parcels didn't go out for nearly a week,some of that was due to the bad weather (but that didn't stop others),even now we have walks that are leaving loops and still booking over an hour O/T,the lad that preps my walk comes in an hour and a half early every day,only 1 or 2 of us use the trolleys,we have some jobs that are unable to get their entire walk in a vauxhall combo van,the transit's are given to the people on collections and the brown nose people,we have 5 people on long term sick,one of which has been off for well over a year waiting for an operation,what sort of an impression do you thing it gives to the public when you pull up in the van to start a loop and they see stuff piled high in the van with a trolley perched on top soaking wet,some of the parcels are flattened because there is so little room in the back of the van,we have no time to try deliver to neighbour,the scanners usually run out about halfway round the walk,very professional eh,I truly wish you could come and experience an office that would never feature in the courier or RMTV.

[Budfrog]

I would agree with the title if not the content of this blog particularly in the key parcel streams.

What continues to disappoint me with RM is that they have at their disposal some of the most skilled postal workers in the country the vast majority of whom are highly committed individuals who genuinely care about customer service. Add to this a senior managerial team who are more obsessed with cost cutting than developing new products and services and you have the answer to many of the problems currently faced by the business. There is money available as anyone who works in a unit where WCM is active will testify but these funds are being misdirected year after year with managers at many levels failing to prioritise their budgets effectively. What the organisation needs is leaders who are connected with the workforce and aware of the issues faced on a day to day basis, at the moment there are far too many senior staff members who are totally detached from the real world of processing mail. Unions have an important part to play and IMO the CWU needs to shoulder a proportion of the blame for the stagnation of the business in terms of innovation ... the old days are long gone and if OPGs are being paid more than the competition then they need to provide a service that is just that little bit better ... it can be done.

[chrisj]

the old days are long gone and if OPGs are being paid more than the competition then they need to provide a service that is just that little bit better ... it can be done.

We OPGS get paid more than the competition and should do better according to you? Exactly how?

They ask us to deliver to neighbours, we complain and say there is not enough time... Note, there is absolutely no way anyone can judge how long a delivery will take accurately - it is guess work on the part of management and posties - a few variables to consider and all that.

You are really saying that RM has not innovated or developed new products and services - none at all. The biggest problem as was found out by City Links and others is that suppliers and customers constantly want new products and services but do not want to pay the real price that will make a company profitable and/or have enough to continue to innovate.

What you have is a price war, disloyal suppliers like Amazon and other retailers.

For example 'Click and Collect' is a new product but for some people it will probably be easier to collect their items from the Delivery Office/Local Post Office - you cannot satisfy everyone; you will only end up overextending and going bust.

Tracked Items (another new product) mostly started without signature but now you have some retailers wanting signatures - that makes delivery more complicated but is this RM's fault? However, you have the bloke commenting complaining about everything in RM wanting a signature and talking about Fake Delivery note. What?

This bloke talks about smarter competitors but then he is bringing in other countries where the situation is very different...

I just give up on our posties slagging off RM without any real basis or analysis of the whole business: just think if RM is your business, what will you do?

I thought that was the point of WCM... BTW, we do not have WCM in our DO and I do not know how many DOs have it and how much exactly is spent to make it significant. I bet it is less than some companies pay for advertisement and sponsorships especially Sport sponsorship which is very doubtful on Returns.

Anyway, how can we OPG do better in actual terms of delivery to customers; especially Parcels?

[redneck]

I think this blogger has missed the fact that we are still one of the top companies in the doorstep delivery business, parcels and post, occasional survey after occasional survey confirms that. I suppose you will never keep everyone happy, all of the time. We can do better, but we could be doing an awful lot worse. I agree that we do need to innovate more, where I work in a town office in the north of Wales the main emphasis appears to be on cutting costs to fit in with inevitable decline rather than generating more business.

[chrisj]

Cutting cost is essential for any profit making organisation as long as it is not at the detriment of good service or products.

We posties should be careful what we wish for when we talk about innovation and new products. any such innovation will cosy money and the ultimate goal will be better customer satisfaction as well reduce in costs/overhead, more efficiency and more profit. Invariably, they will need less and less posties the better the technology and/or product/services.

For example, the use of drop boxes and click and collect will lead to a reduction in parcels that come to RM. The retailers and the likes of Amazon will just transport the items straight to the drop venues. Another one is having far better PDA and software to go with it; that will eventually lead to more monitoring and requirement for more efficiency - less hiding places for some posties. More technology will eventually get rid of most Mail Centres...

There was a survey that was here a few weeks back and we are still right at the top of customer satisfaction bar one (very marginal) - and that one is a drop/click and collect type service; Collect Plus - http://www.collectplus.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (just look at the cost - minimum £4.89)

http://www.reviewcentre.com/Postal-and- ... ws_1431357" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[aiden01]

the old days are long gone and if OPGs are being paid more than the competition then they need to provide a service that is just that little bit better ... it can be done.

We OPGS get paid more than the competition and should do better according to you? Exactly how?

They ask us to deliver to neighbours, we complain and say there is not enough time... Note, there is absolutely no way anyone can judge how long a delivery will take accurately - it is guess work on the part of management and posties - a few variables to consider and all that.

You are really saying that RM has not innovated or developed new products and services - none at all. The biggest problem as was found out by City Links and others is that suppliers and customers constantly want new products and services but do not want to pay the real price that will make a company profitable and/or have enough to continue to innovate.

What you have is a price war, disloyal suppliers like Amazon and other retailers.

For example 'Click and Collect' is a new product but for some people it will probably be easier to collect their items from the Delivery Office/Local Post Office - you cannot satisfy everyone; you will only end up overextending and going bust.

Tracked Items (another new product) mostly started without signature but now you have some retailers wanting signatures - that makes delivery more complicated but is this RM's fault? However, you have the bloke commenting complaining about everything in RM wanting a signature and talking about Fake Delivery note. What?

This bloke talks about smarter competitors but then he is bringing in other countries where the situation is very different...

I just give up on our posties slagging off RM without any real basis or analysis of the whole business: just think if RM is your business, what will you do?

I thought that was the point of WCM... BTW, we do not have WCM in our DO and I do not know how many DOs have it and how much exactly is spent to make it significant. I bet it is less than some companies pay for advertisement and sponsorships especially Sport sponsorship which is very doubtful on Returns.

Anyway, how can we OPG do better in actual terms of delivery to customers; especially Parcels?

wcm has wasted millions upon millions absolute joke.