All the parcels (packets) will have bar code

[Gold Fox]

How is going to work? Will the delivery officer has time to scan ALL bar coded items? Private companies do it because they deliver nothing else but the packets .... and they have 8 - 10 hours delivery time.

[arnold cheshire]

How is going to work? Will the delivery officer has time to scan ALL bar coded items? Private companies do it because they deliver nothing else but the packets .... and they have 8 - 10 hours delivery time.

yes look how the tracked volumes have risen dramatically and ive always said were the only company doing letters parcels and door to doors all in one

[wannabeek]

It wouldn't be a major hassle if the PDAs weren't naff.

Every basic scan currently requires for me to unlock the screen, usually enter pin, switch to 'delivery' mode, scan item, click 'delivered', then wait for it to unfreeze the screen so that I can go out of delivery mode to be able to lock the screen before I pop it back into the holster.

I've tried doing without the whole locking/unlocking screen malarkey but it keeps trying to make silly phone calls.

All that's required is the unlock screen, zap the barcode, delivered yes/no, then lock screen again. The extra unnecessary steps make it take more than 3 times as long!

[chrisj]

Bar Codes have to be printed or incorporated into the packaging or envelope...

Will that mean a person cannot send a package without a bar-coded packaging (so cannot just put stamps on) or customers have to take parcels to have a bar-coded imprint/sticker/stamp?

This will have a negative impact on ordinary punters and ebayers sending small low value items or any items that one can easily use a stamps and any old envelope or packaging for.

* This is some sort of notion that all items called Parcels are somewhat largish and of any reasonable value... Royal does carry a lot more of those low value small items including those that are Signed For - how much do we make out of those compared to the big stuff?

[5plusbonusball]

Exactly why we're losing business , with parcel2go you print your own label which includes payment and a barcode , and its collected , much better then our company . If we cause any more hassle for ebayers we'll lose the lot of them , imagine work without all those secondhand wellies and shoes !

[chrisj]

Exactly why we're losing business , with parcel2go you print your own label which includes payment and a barcode , and its collected , much better then our company . If we cause any more hassle for ebayers we'll lose the lot of them , imagine work without all those secondhand wellies and shoes !

Is this a rebuttal to my post?

I just said, it might to be hassle for people that want to stick to the old ways of just sticking a stamp and writing the address...

Not all ebayers print out labels. And how many ordinary people want to be waiting around for a parcel to be collected at some unspecified time when for example, I can just pop a DVD/Video Game or whatever (a plug) in an envelope, add a stamp and put in a letter box or take to post office.

There you go comparing all of Royal Mail to the Parcel Couriers - a better comparison is Parcel Force - they do prints of labels and collection; I have used that service. You can print labels and whatever with Royal Mail Letters/Parcel also; you can even design your own stamp... but no collection of parcels from any old punter - it is not worth it!

[Lounge Lizard]

It wouldn't be a major hassle if the PDAs weren't naff.

Every basic scan currently requires for me to unlock the screen, usually enter pin, switch to 'delivery' mode, scan item, click 'delivered', then wait for it to unfreeze the screen so that I can go out of delivery mode to be able to lock the screen before I pop it back into the holster.

I've tried doing without the whole locking/unlocking screen malarkey but it keeps trying to make silly phone calls.

All that's required is the unlock screen, zap the barcode, delivered yes/no, then lock screen again. The extra unnecessary steps make it take more than 3 times as long!

And the new PDAs will be small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and will have batteries that last all day. It'll almost be a pleasure coming to work.

[chrisj]

I have just checked Parcel2go as some sort of research:

Lets say, I have just sold my old Xbox game on ebay... I will have to print an address label - I really do not have a printer (I do but ink has dried up from lack of use). So I trudge off to my local library to print out the label - just 20p; no biggy.

Package, and stick label on Reused envelope and then walk about 0.5miles to a nearby drop off point (a local convenience store) - I am too busy/have a job to wait for Parcel2go to collect a DVD as the time is never specified.

All good so far but the Xbox DVD will not be popped through the buyers letter box but delivered to another drop off point for the buyer to collect.

The cheapest for a 2 days service couriered by Hermes is £2.34 . Next day cheapest is £5.94 by UPS. All of course trackable.

* I could have just used an old envelope with an address sticker (no printing or going to library), add the correct postage stamps (need to make sure it is correct - can check online); then pop in Pillar Box and/or take to Post Office which is incidentally next to the Library and is also 0.5 miles away.

I have say that I do not know how much it is so send a DVD by First Class/First Class Signed For? I can find out from old envelopes or website but enough research for now.

[SpacePhoenix]

Exactly why we're losing business , with parcel2go you print your own label which includes payment and a barcode , and its collected , much better then our company . If we cause any more hassle for ebayers we'll lose the lot of them , imagine work without all those secondhand wellies and shoes !

I wouldn't be surprised if ebay is part of the reason why it's being brought in. I remember reading somewhere that you're meant to have things trackable, by introducing tracking to every parcel it should cut down on non-postage disputes as both the buyer and seller will be able to see the last RM office that an item reached. Don't forget that EVERY OTHER COURIER tracks EVERY LAST ITEM that passes through their network, some you can even see on a map where the driver with your item is.

For Horizon labels they can probably alter the software to print the barcode on the label. From what I've heard the scanner also reads the address, so it's possibly the start of the road to packet automation. Where someone on their walk might have to scan just a couple of hundred items, in a MC, especially the larger ones will be having to scan 50k plus parcels as they'll all have to be scanned in MCs as well

[5plusbonusball]

Everything has to be sent trackable due to the many scammers saying it never arrived, ebay simply freeze your paypal payment and refund the buyer.
Post offices are too anti-customer and I, like many others hate going there. They are letting us down with their out-of-date systems.

Maybe supply a bunch of barcodes to put on packets we can pop into a postbox then send us a chargeable text to deliver it, no payment through text , it get rts.

[chrisj]

That is a worrying comment about a sister company... Oh my days! Post Offices are anti-customer

You might as well get rid of stamps while you are at it... It is definitely old fashion but not everyone is online or want to constantly online to do the simplest things...

All these talk and barcodes and scanning - people just fail to factor in the cost: you will need a huge database to store the data and has to be maintained, printing of barcodes by either customers or suppliers and then couriers/posties scanning everything is extra labour and extra cost.

Such a move will get rid of a few more couriers or incur them with a huge cost in terms of infrastructures. And what about the little people that buys and sell on Ebay? I know the whole Ebay thing has moved from Auctions but people still sell personal stuff - some will be put out.

Never mind as long as the likes of Amazon and Ebay itself is satisfied!

* The only good thing about scanning every parcel is that it will give us more hours and hence keep us in the job - a bit selfish but hey ho!

[SpacePhoenix]

That is a worrying comment about a sister company... Oh my days! Post Offices are anti-customer

You might as well get rid of stamps while you are at it... It is definitely old fashion but not everyone is online or want to constantly online to do the simplest things...

Post Offices aren't part of the RM group any more, must be a few years ago now that they were split off from RM group.

I think that stamps will be axed within ten years, the amount that go through the system cancelled as no one has the time to cancel them

[datasaint]

If tracking is so important you have to ask why tracked 24/48 is not available to the public at this moment in time. Recorded Delivery is such a farce for tiny packets that fit through the letterbox anyway. It annoys the customer having to collect the packet, and the sender has no choice but to use it because there's nothing else they can use to show proof of delivery.

[chrisj]

I said the Post office is a Sister company... We might have been separated but we still work very much together: our whole operations will change drastically if the PO is some sort of alien company - we are still joined at an appendage...

It is the sentiment that you should have addressed! For a postman to make such a sweeping statement about what for some is part of the national fabric is worrying.

Perhaps this person lives in a City or uses a PO in a major town but a lot of folks in Rural areas and smaller towns and places do cherish the local PO and will go to great length to stop them closing.

Stamps might be over in 10 years but that is some way off; and most of us will probably out of job if it were the case... BTW not everyone has the Internet or of the age to use the internet for absolutely everything.

Some people still like going to the shops as well going to the POs - a lot of POs are not just POs but shops and they are run by franchises; so why would they not be customer friendly?