moya and her team silent, until after xmas..

[Tman]

Maybe I'm just being sceptical but i just don't see this technology workable.

After extensive testing PostNL have ordered a batch of XMS machines, so perhaps you should give them the benefit of your knowledge re the viability before they hand over the cheque?

[britwrit]

Sorry to be a downer but with mail volumes dropping, what's the point in making such a huge investment in automation?

[wannabeek]

I stand corrected, there's some interesting info about them and what they can do here:

http://www.solystic.com/medias/fichiers/top_2000.pdf

http://www.solystic.com/medias/fichiers/xms7.pdf

Seems to be an inevitable evolution of the postal system wordwide maybe?

[P739]

09-11-2015 10:21






The future of the parcel and logistics business will rely heavily on investment in innovation, according to Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene.
Speaking at Confederation of British Industry's annual conference in London, Greene said, "Our parcels business is the biggest in the British market. But we have had to learn and adapt."

"Being a 500 year-old treasured institution in the UK that's close to people's hearts, won't guarantee our survival and relevance for the next 500 years. Innovation and investment would.

"We have had to invest in technology to make the transition from 'state of the arc to state of the art' for the long haul."

"We have built a place for ourselves in an evolving landscape and have a clear understanding that the market is fundamentally different from what it was a mere ten years ago. Over 30% of revenue from our parcels business is driven by internet retail, that's saying something about an evolving landscape," the former Canadian civil servant turned Royal Mail boss added.

Greene also said being a legacy crown corporation did not imply that Royal Mail cannot keep up with the pace of change. "While we're not an Amazon or Uber, we are looking at all technological advancements in the parcel, postage and logistics world including drones with interest, but bearing our corporate objectives in mind."

[DB1100]

If I was younger I would reenlist the Army look's like it's going to have plenty of work in the future unlike royal mail.

[franco1]

Lets look at the facts.

1. Letters volume is declining.
2. Parcel volume is increasing.

RM possible solutions in order to make profit (and keep us in jobs).

1. Longer walks for mainly full time staff to compensate letter volume decrease.
As RM have an obligation to continue delivering letters (im sure they dont want to) they must increase walks otherwise we would finish too early and have a nice easy day for 8hrs pay. (cant have that now can we).
RM would jump at the chance to forget about delivering letters and just concentrate on parcels as thats where the money is and growth. (maybe they will have that chance one day)
For now they must, so deliveries will be longer and involve more parcels, eventually HTC's will go and job will be van based only. (definately so when RM no longer delivers letters, or letter deliveries will be part-time work, parcels full time work.)

All mail will be ready sorted for delivery so maximum 1hr indoor work to prep work in HTC/van for delivery.
Redirections, dead letters will already have been processed so no need for that.
All parcels will need scanning and possibly all mail too.

2. Shorter walks for only part time staff.
All of the above will also apply.

RM need to adapt to the changing mail volumes and its up to our union to try to negotiate what in the long term will be best for us.

1. Less full time staff with longer walks.
2. Or more part time staff with shorter walks?

Ideally they should have us as part time staff on shorter walks but with full time pay but i cant see that happening.

Either way change will come.

[Chelseablue]

We Have the power, no overtime, no working day off .

[datasaint]

The USO will drop to a 5 day week before any other big changes.It's the easiest efficiency saving.

The fact new starts are being recruited on Wednesday to Saturday contracts (in this area) suggests Monday isn't an important day any more when it can still be pretty heavy anyway.

Things like tracked items & specials will still be served on Monday just no ordinary mail. I think 1st/2nd class will disappear along with it offering only a standard service, another efficiency saving not having to seg the mail.

[Surreypostie]

A simple fact as anybody in delivery knows, knocking on doors with parcels, recordeds, specials, tracked items, DTN etc, takes time, take those items away and you could fly around. If these items continue to grow in volume and we begin to scan every single packet on delivery, they will have to make walks smaller. If they do not, then you cut off, it's quite simple really, we are doing that now on a daily basis.

[daveyeff]

SpacePhoenix what exactly is an XMS machine, what's the difference between them and what does it mean in the long term? Would it impact delivery staff?

Please forgive my ignorance, I can't remember the last time I set foot in a mail centre!

XMS machines sort/sequence letters and flats together so in theory there would be little if any manual flats and letters. IPS time would be cut right down meaning either longer deliveries or later starts

and less staff in the mail centres

[k979aaa]

SpacePhoenix what exactly is an XMS machine, what's the difference between them and what does it mean in the long term? Would it impact delivery staff?

Please forgive my ignorance, I can't remember the last time I set foot in a mail centre!

XMS machines sort/sequence letters and flats together so in theory there would be little if any manual flats and letters. IPS time would be cut right down meaning either longer deliveries or later starts

and less staff in the mail centres

If any one doubts this here is what was said today by royal mail " The group - now back in private hands following the completion of its privatisation - said it had saved £200m in annual costs over the last three years and aimed to save another £500m by 2017-18." so we need a new plan when the pay settlement in April is due.

[Creditshampoo]

What about d2ds?! Will they sequence them too? And how we gunna mark up packets

[Anfloyd]

Anybody else heard the rumour that they are going to offer to buy our meal relief off us in January?

[k979aaa]

Anybody else heard the rumour that they are going to offer to buy our meal relief off us in January?

No but £50 will not cut it for me but some arseholes will go for it probably the ones who come in an hour early!

[Postie45]

buy it ? what does that mean exactly ? give us a lump sum to no longer get a paid meal break ?
We`d still have to have a break as its law, but im guessing RM want it as unpaid.
It would have to be a substantial offer for anyone who plans to stay at RM for the foreseeable future, its 200 paid minutes per week which is worth approx £35 a week (before tax) over a year thats around £1800 paid as breaks (again, before tax)
If they want to offer about £6k i may think about it, but i seriously doubt the offer would be anywhere close to that - more like a couple hundred.