Opinions on the future of Royal Mail

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

I can't help but wonder how many OPGs will bolt from the gate, when the first wave of shares we were given (the biggest allocation batch, I believe) become ours in just over two weeks time.

Currently "planned" four and a half hour delivery spans that in reality take over five hours plus the outdoor meal relief to complete, when done something close to "properly" (eg. standing still while "filtering" mail for next address from the bundle, then walk to next address).

Some duty holders on blatantly too big walks for the amount of IPS/parcel sorting/portering they are expected to do, have not been taking any paid meal relief since our Delivery Methods revision years ago, but they have not been finishing 40mins early or accounting for these untaken paid breaks with overtime claims. making some of these crazy duties look achievable. Yet some of these same OPGs come in for overtime on their day off regularly, having given away almost half a shift's pay by never taking breaks on their scheduled five days!

The future's bleak- the future's black... To twist a well known advertising slogan.

[2pints]

We have done ok for 500 years i think we will be fine.

[taurus88]

I can't help but wonder how many OPGs will bolt from the gate, when the first wave of shares we were given (the biggest allocation batch, I believe) become ours in just over two weeks time.

Currently "planned" four and a half hour delivery spans that in reality take over five hours plus the outdoor meal relief to complete, when done something close to "properly" (eg. standing still while "filtering" mail for next address from the bundle, then walk to next address).

Some duty holders on blatantly too big walks for the amount of IPS/parcel sorting/portering they are expected to do, have not been taking any paid meal relief since our Delivery Methods revision years ago, but they have not been finishing 40mins early or accounting for these untaken paid breaks with overtime claims. making some of these crazy duties look achievable. Yet some of these same OPGs come in for overtime on their day off regularly, having given away almost half a shift's pay by never taking breaks on their scheduled five days!

The future's bleak- the future's black... To twist a well known advertising slogan.

This has always been the case ever since I started - it's not that the job is bad, it's that the people who are employed in the job consistently take the short-term view of gaining time, which ensures that every time it comes to a review of duties and a new form of planning duties, the job becomes worse. So while it may have started out as a good job, every new revision erodes that until such time as it will be just a generic delivery job, with people being pushed toward targets that may not be achievable. With the advent of these new PDAs, which will supposedly be used in duty-planning in the future, it's only going to get worse. 90% of postmen at our office do not use the proper equipment, and/or cut corners, which will be reflected in the date the PDAs are collecting. Leading to a greater imbalance in the walks when it comes round to the next revision. Ultimately, we'll be screwed by those around us. That's why I am personally looking for an alternative, because I know that I am going to be measured against idiots in the future, using idiotic date as a reference point.

[viking1488]

Opinions on the future of Royal Mail http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/com ... 66615.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chelseablue]

The deutche post takin over uk mail and weve heard amazons deliverin own parcels next month meaning a few hundred parcels a day . Worrying times i think . How many of us would take ihr now ?

[UnhappyGremlin]

Amazon have been delivering in some areas for quite a while now.
They cope to a point, but still DSA plenty to us.

In collections in my area, a high proportion of boxes are already done by deliveries, and whilst more will follow, they take the least time to do.
Most collection work is PO's and business collections, probably 90% of the workload.
Collections have gone through year on year revisions and the amount of work RM can take is very little, as most of what could be taken has long gone.

The only areas with further possible worry are big city centres.

I'm not saying RM won't come for more savings in collections, it will be very difficult for them to get it.
In the last round of revisions that put the first wave of boxes (and large proportion of boxes) onto Deliveries, planners had such high targets that they made cuts in areas that now prohibit further deep cuts.
They left little room for manoeuvre.

The real problem is planners and managers not adhering to the agreed processes, to get the savings they need.
Which is why many revisions fail and require adjustment after.

As long as there are a few senior guys close to retirement, I'm not worried for my future in RM.
But like anything, it could change quickly.

Base your decision on what you want, or what is best, because no one can predict what will happen to us, or the company.

[HarryPoorer]

it will something like "schnell schnell or fookoffensy!

[datasaint]

The future of RM is a reduced USO. If letters continue to decline how can they justify 6 day a week delivery. RM have obviously calculated this into their long term strategy.

Deliveries on a Tuesday is like throwing money away for the company. If they adopted a 3 day a week delivery, so deliver every other day efficiency would sky-rocket and would it really have that big an impact on customers? Do away with 1st/2nd class have one standard mailing type. People can pay extra for next-day services for packets.

[rambo1]

The future of RM is a reduced USO. If letters continue to decline how can they justify 6 day a week delivery. RM have obviously calculated this into their long term strategy.

Deliveries on a Tuesday is like throwing money away for the company. If they adopted a 3 day a week delivery, so deliver every other day efficiency would sky-rocket and would it really have that big an impact on customers? Do away with 1st/2nd class have one standard mailing type. People can pay extra for next-day services for packets.

Why is delivery on a Tues throwing money away. Do you not have short Tuesdays to fill your hrs. I even run over most Tuesdays now we have hrs tailored to workload.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Deliveries on a Tuesday is like throwing money away for the company.

Part of the reason why Tuesdays' letter quantity and call rate are so low is because all 2nd Class mail picked up on Saturday is treated the same as 1st Class, getting all delivered on Mondays. 2nd Class picked up on Monday won't arrive at depots for delivery until at least Wednesday.

A big inefficiency, especially on Tuesdays when often more are thrown is, is taking all D2Ds regardless of whether there are any letters or parcels for those addresses. Most duties have twice as many boxes of D2D prepped on Tuesdays, compared to any other day of the week. So on top of extra indoor work, a typical duty is bulking out the outdoor work by ~30+ minutes of outdoor work on Tuesdays.

And then you get the OPGs who prep and deliver all D2D by the end of Friday, saving them ~15+ minutes of indoor prep and ~15+ minutes of "D2D cold calling" on Saturdays. But instead of asking these individuals to do extra IPS/parcel sorting/portering, these individuals typically finish ~30 minutes earlier using "Saturday legs."

[SpacePhoenix]

I wouldn't be surprised to see letters and flats to ALL be made 3 day delivery spans, then RM would possibly look into having machines in that can sequence them together during the daytime of day B. Anything that isn't a letter or a flat will eventually have a barcode on with Tracked ceasing to be a separate product so that there would be:

* Normal
* Normal Signed For
* Special Delivery (9AM, 1PM with various options of compensation level)

With the size of some of the items that come through as Tracked now it wouldn't surprise me to see Parcel Force merged back into RM

[rambo1]

Deliveries on a Tuesday is like throwing money away for the company.

Part of the reason why Tuesdays' letter quantity and call rate are so low is because all 2nd Class mail picked up on Saturday is treated the same as 1st Class, getting all delivered on Mondays. 2nd Class picked up on Monday won't arrive at depots for delivery until at least Wednesday.

A big inefficiency, especially on Tuesdays when often more are thrown is, is taking all D2Ds regardless of whether there are any letters or parcels for those addresses. Most duties have twice as many boxes of D2D prepped on Tuesdays, compared to any other day of the week. So on top of extra indoor work, a typical duty is bulking out the outdoor work by ~30+ minutes of outdoor work on Tuesdays.

And then you get the OPGs who prep and deliver all D2D by the end of Friday, saving them ~15+ minutes of indoor prep and ~15+ minutes of "D2D cold calling" on Saturdays. But instead of asking these individuals to do extra IPS/parcel sorting/portering, these individuals typically finish ~30 minutes earlier using "Saturday legs."

That's where managers should earn their money but there's none around when I get back on Saturday bang on time (if it's not been too busy). No body should be claiming during the week and going home early on Saturday, it's a waste of money. If it's half an hr they should be flexing against Wednesday or something really. It's all in our own interests to save the business money now we are shareholders.

[rubberbond]

As I have actually done the desptacher job, I feel able to comment. First of all, all this bollocks about deciding who lives or dies ,is exactly that, bollocks, the job is mainly computer led and predicted, it's not that difficult, believe me this job is worse , sometimes. Don't listen to the myths and rumour mangers, grey don't know what they are talking about. The ambulance service is over stretched,because 99% of emergency calls are not emergencies, most of them are just routine, blue light taxis as they say. . I know I've been there.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

That's where managers should earn their money but there's none around when I get back on Saturday bang on time (if it's not been too busy). No body should be claiming during the week and going home early on Saturday, it's a waste of money. If it's half an hr they should be flexing against Wednesday or something really. It's all in our own interests to save the business money now we are shareholders.

Apart from the fact that retrospective flexing, banking and forced flexing is all against current agreements. I think you are about 30 years late for Shareholders rights over contractual and workers rights.