Low letter/flat mail volumes - GDPR, Summertime, or both?

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 23 Jun 2018, 20:55

Mail volumes of marketing letters and particularly flats seem to be well down this RM summertime. In previous years RM have said the amount of mail coming through is well down and I have tended to disagree but it has been really quiet so far.
If this is just the summertime thing then fair enough but if its due to the GDPR then we are going to be in real trouble. The proof will be whether or not we get walled under with mail in September. RM shouldn't say too much yet otherwise the share price could plummet.

koolishy67 · Post by **koolishy67** » 23 Jun 2018, 20:57

Yep down this week.

Seymour Buts · Post by **Seymour Buts** » 23 Jun 2018, 21:34

Letters have dropped off quite drastically this year it seems to me. The same collection that 2 or 3 years ago used to fill 4 or 5 mail sacks is being done in 2 sacks, 1 on Thursday and Friday. The Tuesday just gone on my delivery I had 4 letters for a street of 45 houses, we managed to put an 8 loop walk in 3 bags and complete the entire walk in 57 minutes. I know it was a Tuesday which aint the norm, but it's never been like that in my time here summer or otherwise.

DrSatan · Post by **DrSatan** » 23 Jun 2018, 23:19

This week has been very light for us too. Might just be a random low this week, it's happened loads of times before.

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 24 Jun 2018, 02:01

Major lightness this week.. cheap eBay parcels are still there but letters in particular are waaaay down. Big gaps on the street. Same time we’ve been told our PDAs are watching...

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 24 Jun 2018, 03:08

How big a difference in terms of the number of boxes of:

* Flats
* Manual Letters
* Sequenced Letters

for this week and for a normal week?

Post by **wacko74** » 24 Jun 2018, 06:50

Junk mail well down this week (pkts and 'real' letters still the same though)

We have had random very light weeks in previous summers so it could just be one of those or it could be GDPR, too early to say yet.

Personally I don't think GDPR would have such a drastic and immediate impact that all the senders strictly adhere to it and 'marketing mail' volumes just drop off a cliff the instant it's introduced.

number one · Post by **number one** » 24 Jun 2018, 08:29

Its been so light this week and pretty much all summer. Monday and Tuesday were ridiculous. On Tuesday I had a road with 90 delivery points and I only went to 27 houses. If things carry on we will end up marking packets we have letters for.
I am on a paired walk and it’s down as a 4:45hr outdoor delivery time, me and my partner completed it in 2:25hrs

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 24 Jun 2018, 08:52

number one wrote:Its been so light this week and pretty much all summer. Monday and Tuesday were ridiculous. On Tuesday I had a road with 90 delivery points and I only went to 27 houses. If things carry on we will end up marking packets we have letters for.
I am on a paired walk and it’s down as a 4:45hr outdoor delivery time, me and my partner completed it in 2:25hrs

Wow that is serious time ‘made’, if it really is this GDPR lark then the PDAs are gonna cause a lot of lapsing going forward

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 24 Jun 2018, 09:03

LaggyBand wrote:
number one wrote:Its been so light this week and pretty much all summer. Monday and Tuesday were ridiculous. On Tuesday I had a road with 90 delivery points and I only went to 27 houses. If things carry on we will end up marking packets we have letters for.
I am on a paired walk and it’s down as a 4:45hr outdoor delivery time, me and my partner completed it in 2:25hrs
Wow that is serious time ‘made’, if it really is this GDPR lark then the PDAs are gonna cause a lot of lapsing going forward

If it is down to GDPR and letter volumes do stay really light apart from Christmas pressure, could we reach a point where sequencing isn't financially viable where by the time it's sequenced, DOs could instead have it just walk sorted and so get it a lot earlier?

Tman · Post by **Tman** » 24 Jun 2018, 10:45

The CSS project was seen to be failing in it's projections before all the machines were even installed. There's been reshuffling and machines moth-balled to minimise losses but it seems RM were taken in by the Dutch/German promotional films of p/t'er mums whacking a load of mail through in the middle of the day.

30+YEARMAN · Post by **30+YEARMAN** » 24 Jun 2018, 11:11

I can,t say I have noticed a major difference in our office,still going over and booking it

Pharox · Post by **Pharox** » 24 Jun 2018, 12:58

Our DIM, gave us a speech on Thurs stating that GDPR has affected RM business, he has been told by those above that RM will or forecast to loose £2.2m every week due to the falling mail volumes. Not sure how true this is as he is a known liar. However, to 'protect our jobs' he will laps another duty, which is Very kind of him.

Chitchat · Post by **Chitchat** » 24 Jun 2018, 17:07

To truely know if the letter volumns are down. We would need this weeks figures from last year to compare. Its easy to forget last year, but we had plenty of weeks were mail seemed low. Rm is predicting a fall off letter volumns in the top end of predictions of 6 %. What i would add is packets are through the roof! So at least rm has growth in other areas.

Post by **rambo1** » 24 Jun 2018, 18:51

number one wrote:Its been so light this week and pretty much all summer. Monday and Tuesday were ridiculous. On Tuesday I had a road with 90 delivery points and I only went to 27 houses. If things carry on we will end up marking packets we have letters for.
I am on a paired walk and it’s down as a 4:45hr outdoor delivery time, me and my partner completed it in 2:25hrs

Bloody ell, wish I could get mine done in 2.25. it'd be nice if I could get it done in less than 4.25 even on a recent Tuesday. Maybe time to look for a residential duty rather than my rural.