how long till lots of us are let go?

[HTPostman]

I don't think any of us know for certain what will happen.

For purely selfish reasons I hope it's not a last in/first out policy. I've been at Royal Mail 16 weeks so if that were the case I'd be one of the first to go. Hopefully if cuts are made those making them take into account I'm only on 25 hrs and in 16 weeks have done 9 different park+loop duties, 3 HCT duties and 1 rural duty, done my changeover etc so hopefully it shows how quickly I can adapt, which is surely important when changes are made.

Again this might come across as 'I'm alright jack' but better to offer early redundancy to those nearing retirement and then not replace them. I'll assume for legal reasons management won't target the ones who refuse to drive for Royal Mail and/or those who have a list as long as your arm of people they won't work with.

[Celgar]

I would expect it will be posties who are on reserve & cover duties would be 'let go' if it really does get that bad. It might make sense to offer redundancy to Postie's but this would cost RM money which they wouldn't like. It sounds like RM have a 'grand plan' that they going to announce in March which, going on their past grand ideas(Absorption for one!!!)could be really bad news. I would suspect it will be smaller changes such as moving all postbox collections to walks. I don't think there will be massive changes unless RM have been conducting talks with the regulators and they have managed to keep it all under wraps.

[hero22]

The reality is RM expect to make ONLY £500m - £530m profit this financial year.

I was thinking same thing too. Half a billion profit and not doing well. I know profit isn't as high as expected but there are companies talking in the same negative way as Rico Black who are actually posting millions if not billions in losses . It disgusts me when this guy makes these statements and doesn’t feel embarrassed when you consider how much money he costs along with all the other ‘essential ‘ management at the top.

[Celgar]

Some DOs apparently are not as good as others in terms of zapping all the tracked items and delivering the SDs on time. If we posties could get to pretty much 100% on the scanning & delivery and the RM sales people pursued more business RM should be able to do really well. I agree that 530 million profit doesn't sound bad at all so Mr Black should start talking up RM or resign and let someone more capable have a go.

[themailman]

.

[cpsteve]

There will be cuts there always is and us posties have been hardest hit because we are the ones who do the hard miles, banking of hours using pda data could be used to cut down on o/t . Collections look at risk of course mail centers have new tec to deal with so will always be at risk.

[Rommagic]

I don’t drive but do more then 50 per cent of large parcels no problem,if I done my loop before the driver I walk two roads down with a parcel or more then still walk back before a driver sometimes, I often finish his loops every day as I am quicker over the ground then him.

[mickeymacca]

There will be cuts there always is and us posties have been hardest hit because we are the ones who do the hard miles, banking of hours using pda data could be used to cut down on o/t . Collections look at risk of course mail centers have new tec to deal with so will always be at risk.

I think you could be on to something, not sure if the 'banking of hours' is one of the pillars of an agreement in the past, a more informed poster will correct me, but I worked for a company (Wincanton) that followed this practice and it was pretty one sided, as you'd' expect. The obvious ramifications if this led to long and shorts, for many workers with school runs and other commitments in the afternoon could be terminal, an easy cull for RM though. I think that the need for change to protect jobs could be used as leverage to convince the CWU leadership to agree to terms that many members wold see as unfavourable, 'long and shorts' and 'banking of hours' being examples of this.

Obviously this ramble is pure speculation and I have no evidence to base the contents of this post on.....

[scoobymunster]

Considering that the company can't even get traffic figures correct, I'd seriously doubt they could manage to accurately bank PDA Actuals so it was fair for both postie and the company. If cuts were made, I'd guess letters would be a monday-friday gig, and saturday/sunday would be a premium service. The company needs to expand and offer new services, yet is currently hellbent on cuts. Something has to give way.

[Navalron]

.....Collections will nearly all be done on deliveries soon, easy savings to be made there......

Have to agree with you there. I know an office with rurals - one of the rurals one box is emptied but the driver goes past a further four.
Adjoining rurals (same office) drive past a further seven but don't empty any of them. It must take the collections
driver who comes out from city office at least one hour of driving round country lanes to empty these boxes which could be emptied at about
two minutes per box max as they probably don't get a lot of mail in them anyway.

AYE, VERY GOOD. WE ALL KNOW THAT THERE'S JOBS THAT COULD BE DONE AWAY WITH.

[yellowbelly]

.....Collections will nearly all be done on deliveries soon, easy savings to be made there......

Have to agree with you there. I know an office with rurals - one of the rurals one box is emptied but the driver goes past a further four.
Adjoining rurals (same office) drive past a further seven but don't empty any of them. It must take the collections
driver who comes out from city office at least one hour of driving round country lanes to empty these boxes which could be emptied at about
two minutes per box max as they probably don't get a lot of mail in them anyway.

AYE, VERY GOOD. WE ALL KNOW THAT THERE'S JOBS THAT COULD BE DONE AWAY WITH.

Not sure whether you're being sarcastic or not, but surely it makes sense to make savings where they can sensibly
be achieved rather than increased harrassment and bullying to try to achieve savings through lapsing and similar crap
that everybody has to deal with. In the scenario above the collections driver from the city would still have to come out
to pick up mail from the local PO's and consolidation pick up so the job wouldn't be done away with, he/she just wouldn't
spend a pointless hour or more driving round picking up a handful of letters from countryside letter boxes.

I'm sure you're glad you're out of it......

[TheTrolleyMan]

Why is everyone believing all the negative press ? 500 million profit and we've just had '£70 share dividend . People need to stop believing bullshite headlines

[Celgar]

Why is everyone believing all the negative press ? 500 million profit and we've just had '£70 share dividend . People need to stop believing bullshite headlines

It has been pointed out in the financial press for a long time now that it is not sustainable for RM to continue paying out the percentage of dividends currently paid. They either have to follow the example of the water companies, which involves borrowing vast sums of money to enable paying out dividends, or cut the percentage paid out as dividends. I agree 500 million sounds like a decent profit but apparently it isn't enough or doesn't cover the RM business model.

[HTPostman]

Interesting point raised above re: those not able/willing to drive for RM. Surely you should be more of an 'asset'/'skilled worker'?

It's gotten to the point that drivers are effectively being discriminated against when you consider the extra responsibilities they have, and the multitude of reasons that they can fall foul of the rules vs non drivers. Everyone makes honest mistakes, but in my DO it's always the drivers who are the ones pulled in 'for a chat' when something goes wrong.
I've had my share of partners who drive and also who don't drive, but in my experience the people who also drive tend to be far more 'switched on' when it comes to sharing the workload e.g. 'Oh, you've got a lot more packets than usual plus an awkward 1pm Special that you'll need to drive out the way to get to, tell you what, give me 15 minutes of your next loop and I'll do that in the meantime'. You even dare suggest that to many people in our place who don't drive and they look at you as if you are trying to pull a fast one.

I guess there will be some drivers who don't pull their weight, some non drivers who go above and beyond, and vice versa, it's not the case that simply all non drivers are lazy (and I know you're not saying that!). When I mentioned non drivers it wasn't a dig, just surprising how many times I'm put on a new round, only to be told by my van partner I'll be driving (even though I've never done the round before) and when I say you don't drive then, he says I do but not for Royal Mail.

My hope is if/when cuts are made, they'll use a points based system that takes into account seniority, those who can or are willing to drive for Royal Mail, people who adapt well to being flexible (that old management buzzword!), those who are willing to work with anyone etc - it's like school at my office, Bob won't work with Harry, Tim refuses to work with Sarah, Joe will work with Bob but only if he knows 3 days in advance, Terry won't work with any part timers.

[wacko74]

Why is everyone believing all the negative press ? 500 million profit and we've just had '£70 share dividend . People need to stop believing bullshite headlines

It has been pointed out in the financial press for a long time now that it is not sustainable for RM to continue paying out the percentage of dividends currently paid. They either have to follow the example of the water companies, which involves borrowing vast sums of money to enable paying out dividends, or cut the percentage paid out as dividends. I agree 500 million sounds like a decent profit but apparently it isn't enough or doesn't cover the RM business model.

Can you provide some links to that? (Independent analysis, not some scaremongering rubbish from a broker with a short position)

From what I can see the current divi level is very comfortably covered.