RMTV propaganda "mail traffic is low"

lightningpostman · Post by **lightningpostman** » 04 Apr 2017, 20:43

so me and a few chaps got yo watch a fantastic 10 minute video spouting

"mail volumes are down and packets cant make up the difference"

why the hell are these figures always centralized.

i live and work in london population in london has been on the increase year after year , theres no way in hell mail is down in a increasingly growing city such as london , the amount of money the d2d's alone earn rm per household £????????, sinced we got shafted regarding d2d'd and earning per piece we get lumbered everyweek with 3-6 pieces a week unfrikinbelievable.

now why dont moya or the other hot shots really breakdown this bullcrap and start targeting THE area's that are losing money and fix things where the problems are instead we get this constant bombardment of mail volumes are down.

Its demoralizing and unhealthy to a work worce that works very hard to earn there paycheck.

datasaint · Post by **datasaint** » 04 Apr 2017, 20:50

You have to view it as a whole.

London may be busy, but the profitable work you do there subsidises all the quiet non-profitable sides of the business like little rural deliveries to a farm in the middle of a field where all you've got is some mailsort catalogue. Once the non-profitable side outweighs the profitable side you've got real problems.

From my own perspective 2017 has been the quietest I've seen mail/packets so far, so places are getting hit, especially with Amazon gone.

DB1100 · Post by **DB1100** » 04 Apr 2017, 20:58

What with the new "houses" and flats being built we now have more delivery points,d2d's are still busy but very poorly targeted,i.e low employment areas being hit with double glazing,old folk's housing with fast food sh1te so there is still cutoff's from Wednesday on,morale at our office is rock bottom,overtime being cut,all the usual stuff.

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 04 Apr 2017, 21:05

We are in the middle of negotiations over pay, pensions and conditions.
Did you really think they would put a positive spin on anything?

Ozzvaldo · Post by **Ozzvaldo** » 04 Apr 2017, 21:34

norm wrote:especially with Amazon gone.

Not in the town I work. We still deliver Amazon Tracked and Delivered Scanned items and they've barely reduced since Christmas. We regularly have a dozen Amazon large parcels (on top of the other ones) on van shares in my office, plus all of the smaller ones, many of which don't fit through letterboxes. Personally, my van share hardly ever has less than 25 large parcels, even on a Tuesday, and more usually has 30-35. They'll pay somebody 2 hours overtime to deliver this amount of parcels without the added inconvenience of going door to door with those pesky letters.

Attendance calls have never been higher where I work and more than offsets (in my opinion) any drop in letter/catalogues numbers. Plenty of houses that used to receive several items of mail still have to be visited if they only receive one or two letters.

TheTrolleyMan · Post by **TheTrolleyMan** » 04 Apr 2017, 21:36

Honestly I don't give a stuff about mail volumes when all we see is managers getting nice little bonuses

ScousePostie · Post by **ScousePostie** » 04 Apr 2017, 21:56

Unfortunately we have DOMs who are blinkered. They only see full office figures. If 45 walks have lower call rate than usual Wednesday/Thursday and two walks that are overloaded with work when you approach and tell DOM we'll be cutting off at finish time. WHY!? The figures for the office show blah blah blah. They don't look at walks as a case by case.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 05 Apr 2017, 13:35

Traffic decline and OPGs handling more traffic than before are often a reality. In 2007 Royal Mail 23 billion letters in in 2016 this had reduced to 13 billion. Staff numbers have reduced in that time , sickness has increased and part timers have increased so it is very feasible that fewer OPGs are handling more work individually but overall traffic is down.

In terms of London I can clearly state that traffic is down on the same period as last year. Advertising mail and parcel traffic due to the current uncertainty has declined. Parcels in SW London are down significantly , with all other areas down on parcels by 5%.

Tracked has increased. Manual Flat traffic is significantly down due to the upgrade in Tops 2000 and the buddying system. These are audited figures.

However there are offices with no indoor plans or with too many off work which result in cut offs and people earning protracted overtime. The key is this is traffic maybe down but there is no plan to deliver the mail without increasing variable spend through overtime.

What does this say ? It says that senior manager have not a clue on how to run a delivery office and sadly a lot of DOMs don't either.

Mr Incognito · Post by **Mr Incognito** » 05 Apr 2017, 16:17

Regarding the decline in packets I have this little anecdote. I used to be a regular seller on Ebay and always sent goods by signed for or SD for my own peace of mind. Unfortunately the recent spate of postage price hikes has meant that buyers are unwilling to bid much on the actual goods. A recent example would be a Nike running jacket which I listed at a starting bid for 99p + £3.95 2nd class signed for postage. The jacket was sold for 99p in the end and, to add insult to injury, Ebay charge commission on the postage cost too - leaving me with a profit of @50p. Needless to say I don't bother selling anymore.

Chitchat · Post by **Chitchat** » 05 Apr 2017, 16:30

If packets are really dropping then its only down to royal mails short term approach to running its business. Yearly price hikes is madness. All the savings Royal Mail makes should be put back into the business in the form of cheaper more competitive pricing in the parcel and packets market. We are one of the best delivery companies out there, but we are not one of the cheapest.

BeamishStout · Post by **BeamishStout** » 05 Apr 2017, 16:59

lightningpostman wrote:
"mail volumes are down and packets cant make up the difference"

Monday this week packets above average - went about 20 mins our normal Monday span times.

Wednesday this week was ballistic (on a par with November packets) - this time 40 mins above our normal Wednesday span times. 30 oversize packets compared to 5 on Tuesday. Using LWT ain't going to make a difference with these boys IMHO.

Maybe a fluke but I don't see the stagnation in packets at all - letter yes but they are not the things that hold you up. The bean counters in local and regional management just seem to concentrate on the stats that suit them. Starting to get ragged off with these selective RM statistics spouted forth at almost all our WTL sessions

ScousePostie · Post by **ScousePostie** » 05 Apr 2017, 17:11

Monday, finish 13:30. 12 oversize, 2 specials.
Tuesday, finish, 12:15. 2 oversize, 13 specials.
Wednesday (today), finish 13:00. 8 oversize, 8 specials.

There is something strange going on with traffic, especially on packets at the moment. Especially, finishing earlier on a Wednesday than on a Monday. DOM spotted me prepping D2D on Tuesday afternoon, tried to send me back out with lapsing. I told him I wouldn't be going back out with more lapsing as I had six sets of D2D and was going to spend time prepping them. Nothing more was said. As far as I see it, if I finish at 12:15 and don't try and dart out the door as fast as I possibly can (like most) and instead spend time prepping D2D for following days why should I be punished with extra lapsing. Others who were finishing early where caught at the door and sent back out.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 05 Apr 2017, 17:12

When I first started working for Royal Mail my working day consisted of delivering roughly 3 pouches, 6 days a week = 18 pouches

Now we are all delivering at least from at least 7 pouches, 5 days a week = 35 pouches

And considering, we are also delivering specials, tracked and large packets as well then I would suggest that dingo is quite correct. In spite of falling traffic volumes, our individual workload has almost doubled!!

Post by **eastie** » 05 Apr 2017, 17:31

ScousePostie wrote:Monday, finish 13:30. 12 oversize, 2 specials.
Tuesday, finish, 12:15. 2 oversize, 13 specials.
Wednesday (today), finish 13:00. 8 oversize, 8 specials.

There is something strange going on with traffic, especially on packets at the moment. Especially, finishing earlier on a Wednesday than on a Monday. DOM spotted me prepping D2D on Tuesday afternoon, tried to send me back out with lapsing. I told him I wouldn't be going back out with more lapsing as I had six sets of D2D and was going to spend time prepping them. Nothing more was said. As far as I see it, if I finish at 12:15 and don't try and dart out the door as fast as I possibly can (like most) and instead spend time prepping D2D for following days why should I be punished with extra lapsing. Others who were finishing early where caught at the door and sent back out.

Can I have your round
regularly get 40 oversize and double figure specials 6 post boxes to empty, 3 schools and 8 loops and they want us to lapse as well.
Had our walk tested as we are always over and the lino went back to the office after 3 loops as he was tired.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 05 Apr 2017, 17:46

how come the ''billion'' quid they make from D2Ds is never mentioned when they keep prattling on about losses.