RMTV propaganda "mail traffic is low"

[Ozzvaldo]

Same here. Interesting figures posted by ScousePostie. I had 28 oversize on Monday, 23 on Tuesday and 33 today, and didn't finish before 3.30 on any of these days. One or two shared vans had 40 plus oversize today.

I wonder if what some of us have experienced this week is the 'monthly paycheck splashout' effect. I've sometimes thought that the first week in a calendar month can be bad for a spike in packet traffic. Often thought this before.

[Ozzvaldo]

Same here. Interesting figures posted by ScousePostie. I had 28 oversize on Monday, 23 on Tuesday and 33 today, and didn't finish before 3.30 on any of these days. One or two shared vans had 40 plus oversize today.

I wonder if what some of us have experienced this week is the 'monthly paycheck splashout' effect. I've sometimes thought that the first week in a calendar month can be bad for a spike in packet traffic. Often thought this before.

Nope, like this every week in my office. I work in a smallish town which is over an hours drive from the nearest city, albeit not a large one, and very limited shopping of its own. Everybody uses the internet and we still deliver Amazon. On my shared duty my partner and I had 63 Tracked/Delivered Scanned Amazon items in our "small packet" selection (many of which don't fit through a letterbox) and 14 large Amazon items. I took the trouble to count 'em.

[Phantom]

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.

There is NO WAY we've lost 50% of mail, you're dreaming with that figure. I deliver to just over 360 houses 15 years ago, and I still deliver 360 houses (same walk) it is a very affluent area and 1 house = 4 terraced in the time it takes to deliver and it takes me longer now than did 15 years ago.

[Martin Walsh]

Look these are audited figures. Do you really think Royal Mail are hiding a load of money and really volumes have not letters have not declined ?

Who now gets their Bank Statements by post or their ultility bills or their phone bills ? A lot less than the number of people back in 2007. The digital revolution email , text etc has reduced letters since 2007. Equally we have a lot less hours since 2007. Additionally there are more delivery points than in 2007.

Call rates nationally are lower than in 2007. The National Average across the year is 68%.

Parcels have grown since 2007 significantly but this is open to competition unlike letters. Tracked has been introduced and has grown Year on Year.

Door Step scanning is growing and some of the companies now supplying Royal Mail are demanding a clause or no doorstep scan no payment.

Our Delivery members outdoors are more productive than ever before. However let's not hide the fact that indoor work due to automation ( bearing in mind in 2007 we did not have sequencing ) and the digital revolution is seeing indoor work reduce.

[Tman]

It's been clearly and very obviously reducing for many years.
You're wasting your time pointing this out Dingo; there's none so blind...etc etc.

[fishtank]

Mail volumes are way down on 10-15 years ago, the overall office indoor workload has declined dramatically with regards to letters and flats but...

1) indoor packet and D2D workload has increased.

2) Offices are now running with a far higher part-time ratio so there are far fewer hours available to complete the indoor workload therefore the remaining full-time staff are working just as hard if not harder, in many cases offices are backfilling hours to make it work and obviously IPS takes just as long.

3) A 50% decline in letters and flats does not in any way translate to a 50% decrease in indoor workload because some tasks are time fixed no matter how many letters you have, it takes just as long to clear boxes, set out trays, collect PDAs, specials, do van checks and all the other non prepping tasks.

4) A 50% decline in letters might only translate to a 10% reduction in delivery span.

There is no doubt some offices in some areas with a high full-time ratio are hugely inefficient but there are also many offices who have already cut to the bone are carrying vacancies and have little scope for another round of efficiency savings.

What Royal Mail should be doing is concentrating on bringing the poorest performing offices up to the level of the others NOT coming up with yet another half-assed scheme to re-invent the wheel, all this will do is put members in offices that are working efficiently under more pressure while allowing these overfunded offices to continue to bleed cash.

[Rommagic]

Some parts of the UK get lots of door2doors every week,Does Royal Mail take these figures into account ?.Takes time to prep and deliver.

[BeamishStout]

Call rates nationally are lower than in 2007. The National Average across the year is 68%.

Do you have any figures for comparison? Specifically call rates over this period. We all know that the quantity of addressed mail appears to be going down by 4% +/- seemingly year on year but what is happening to the call rates because you would expect that to be less each year than this headline figure often quoted by RM. Do RM take into account the D2D situation in these call rate figures (as mentioned by the previous poster)? as that will affect the call rate as well.

[lightningpostman]

4) A 50% decline in letters might only translate to a 10% reduction in delivery span.

There is no doubt some offices in some areas with a high full-time ratio are hugely inefficient but there are also many offices who have already cut to the bone are carrying vacancies and have little scope for another round of efficiency savings.

What Royal Mail should be doing is concentrating on bringing the poorest performing offices up to the level of the others NOT coming up with yet another half-assed scheme to re-invent the wheel, all this will do is put members in offices that are working efficiently under more pressure while allowing these overfunded offices to continue to bleed cash.

but point 4 , walks have grown sustantially over the years, duties are double/ triple what they were before

[LouBarlow]

Mail volumes are way down on 10-15 years ago, the overall office indoor workload has declined dramatically with regards to letters and flats but...

1) indoor packet and D2D workload has increased.

2) Offices are now running with a far higher part-time ratio so there are far fewer hours available to complete the indoor workload therefore the remaining full-time staff are working just as hard if not harder, in many cases offices are backfilling hours to make it work and obviously IPS takes just as long.

3) A 50% decline in letters and flats does not in any way translate to a 50% decrease in indoor workload because some tasks are time fixed no matter how many letters you have, it takes just as long to clear boxes, set out trays, collect PDAs, specials, do van checks and all the other non prepping tasks.

4) A 50% decline in letters might only translate to a 10% reduction in delivery span.

There is no doubt some offices in some areas with a high full-time ratio are hugely inefficient but there are also many offices who have already cut to the bone are carrying vacancies and have little scope for another round of efficiency savings.

What Royal Mail should be doing is concentrating on bringing the poorest performing offices up to the level of the others NOT coming up with yet another half-assed scheme to re-invent the wheel, all this will do is put members in offices that are working efficiently under more pressure while allowing these overfunded offices to continue to bleed cash.

Nail on the head (again). Dingo's posts come across as from someone who hasn't set foot in a delivery office for years and has no clue what is actually going on within. Even a percentage of the dwindling full timers in our office, have to prep rounds for absorption, so that is even less hours being put into IPS. The argument that 'you get out earlier because there is less mail to sort' is utter bullshit.

[cpsteve]

With sickness through the roof at the moment in royal mail....

As a company dont you think they be looking at why and how to reduce such high levels of sick......

Or am i missing something here..... ??????

They are looking at cutting sick pay so the six months full pay before IHR will be a thing of the past. All the add ons will go, the pension is the first blow of many, they see us as overpaid and shareholders want the wage bill cut. I can see a takeover bid as soon as the pension and any strikes that the changes cause are over.

[grandypants]

All I know regardless of figures is the same walk I have been on for the last 8 years is that 8 years ago for the whole walk I would take out 3-4 bags now I take 12!!! that's not including large packets,volume going down my arse

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

While the amount of letters we deliver may well be going down, as Fish wrote, it is barely affecting the call rate. All it is saving is the time for each letter to be sorted on IPS (which might not even count if letter was in sequenced mail), the time to put the letter in the correct duty frame slot and in theory the time to retrieve the letter from the working bundle while standing still (so maybe ~4-6 seconds per letter max).

Most 318s in our section have been a joke for the last five years, expecting far too much general indoor work (IPS, parcel sorting, portering) on top of prepping the duty and delivering it within contract hours. Some duties have averaged ~5 D2D per week (as many as 8), which take an age to prep, especially on weeks like this where we are supposed to prep extra to account for Good Friday. It meant you could pretty much guarantee that you would need at least one hour overtime before walking through the door five years ago, but with less letters and now doing postbox collections and Delivery To Neighbour and major fudging of the 318 IPS times by ~20mins to ~80mins (i.e. all IPS removed), most duties can still guarantee at least 30mins o/t if they were to deliver properly instead of delivering by pouch and filtering from the working bundle while walking.

[steve1873]

Right, wait a minute - traffic has declined by 50% in last 10 years...

Let me try and attain some clarity here. Are we talking all items (letters delivered by Royal Mail inclusive of DSA) or are we simply talking our own products? If it is all items, then nope I am sorry I am not buying that for a second.

[Tman]

Ask yourself..."who sends handwritten letters anymore to keep in touch? Who still gets bank statements, gas and electric bills, rates and other utility bills etc etc by post? Why have so many MC's shut over the last decade, and why are CSS's etc now finishing earlier and earlier?"
Here's a clue...it's SFA to do with how many call points you have.