Royal Mail"s have not formally changed their position of wanting a 17:00 last letter finish time 6 days per week. With deliveries only being allowed out from mid-day. There is no prospect of Royal Mail not delivering on Saturdays as the peak ordering day on the internet is Friday.
This policy of Royal Mail is not really linked to later acceptance times. This policy would allow Royal Mail to have a bigger processing window which will allow them to have the multi bundle option. Read Mike Newby"s proposal on pay and your see the strings behind the pay offer.
Remember if you move the final dispatch in the mail centres you do not need the amount of hours on the late shift between 17 00 and 22 00 where a significant amount of part timers are employed and SA is performed.
This will allow Royal Mail to wait until between 90 and 95% of the work is available to sequence. For the majority of mail centres this is circa 02 00 in the morning. This will mean that work will come into delivery offices much later than the 2 hours which Royal Mail have predicted at moving start times.
It would also move area distribution from nights to early shifts and depending on the batch plan will mean bigger vehicles being used.
Royal Mail have suggested they might move from 17:00 to 16; 00 but they would want any new staff and any part time staff either made up to full time to automatically to go to 17:00 but based on 16:00 last letter deliveries would not go out until 11:00 or later depending on the multi bundles plan.