itinerant wrote:One thing I don't understand is, putting aside whether or not we want it to happen, why would it take 4 years to implement the 2nd delivery for larger packets proposal (Colleague Update says to be fully operational by 2023)? Seems very slow rate of change to me.
It will take four years because the RM has an agreement with the CWU to not do forced redundancies or just get rid of staff without good reason. 8000 staff is a lot of people for them to wait to leave of their own accord. Not an easy task.
Any posties who thinks this will not affect them has not thought about it. Most DOMs didn't know about the changes until fairly recently. When I explained it to our DOM they immediately could see their job was under threat by it.
Just visualize for a moment the York's of mail arriving into your DO in the morning. How many of them contain large parcels and tracked items ? It could be up to or even over 50% of the York's of mail. That is half of your workload going elsewhere that you will never see again. In addition the wording in the announcement wasn't completely clear on whether SDs would be diverted to the LAT hubs as well.
As a direct result of all this mail being diverted to the LAT hubs most offices will be deemed to be uneconomic by both RM and/or Ofcom. This will lead to most DOs being amalgamated into nearby DOs or sites that can accommodate them. This will be an inconvenience for everyone - posties & 'customers' alike. It will also result in a lot of DOMs and managerial staff no longer being required which isn't good for them either.
Forget about the idea of this proposal being to assist customers to get parcels delivered faster - this is purely a MASSIVE cost cutting exercise to surpass all previous cost cutting.
On a separate note I wish everyone would stop refering to this proposal as the return of the second delivery. It is not a second delivery. At best it is an attempt to salvage the LAT hubs idea which fell on its face because there wasn't enough business to make it viable.
The views I express here are mine alone and do not represent the views of Royal Mail Group.
Well I know a couple of "Early Birds" that are not going to be Happy Teddies at that news. They consider the early Packet Prep as their own personal "Special Overtime", that's Overtime that you get paid Before everyone else starts (and you can throw of your duty at the same time) 
. They have to get their Overtime in early because they always finish their Delivery an Hour Early. I must remember to let them know about this. 
I personally wouldn't be too affected by the removal of Large Packets as the vast majority of mine are shoe book and smaller. I can't see me making up much time as RM would like. 
Unless we get the LAT duties I can see us using that system again. After all the OT rate is so crap it'll probably have no effect on RMs falling profits. 
