Report from the London Divisional Reps meeting and their take on Royal Mail's capital markets day announcement.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 26 May 2019, 21:12

chickenwittle · Post by **chickenwittle** » 27 May 2019, 11:44

Yet again we are told everything rm put forward is wrong but no plan from the union as to what should be done . The Cwu is going to get the same treatment as the main parties in the eu elections where people just get fed up and switch off.Royal Mail needs to move with the times and remodernise like other couriers , this is what the public demand .Start putting forward your own solutions rather than slaughtering everything rm put forward.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 27 May 2019, 14:53

The CWU have put forward their ideas which is that the 1400 Delivery Offices should continue delivering all parcels and letters for their catchment areas.

The issues with the larger parcels is that Royal Mail do not believe that the larger parcels which will continue to grow will fit in the current 37 mail centres. Additionally they want to automate larger parcels and there are no parcels machines with 1400 selections. Hence why they want to buy machines which automate larger parcels to circa 300 offices and the parcel automation they are looking to buy is a 400 selection machine.

The CWU believe that having to deliver 18 larger parcels per hour to an LAT catchment area will simply not work. We have said if the issues are upstream, why cant the existing 1400 delivery offices have these larger parcels run to them from the LAT units.

If the issue is that larger parcels will grow more by delivering them later then we could have different types of attendance patterns including 3 or 4 days weeks. Additionally we could rotates which were very popular years ago and allow part times
To increase their contract hours.

Royal Mail have proven time and time again most of their ideas simply do not work :

Royal Mail changed their brand to consignia

Royal Mail took a loan from the government to buy letter sequencing machines knowing that letter traffic was in decline

Royal Mail spent millions on introducing backless frames and porter and sorting and who now uses them ?

Royal Mail thought they could introduce bench merging and do away with frames !

Royal Mail’s track record is flawed they continue to look for a silver bullet to save money instead of making the sensible decision.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 27 May 2019, 15:53

Martin - it was a little unclear on the announcement but can you clarify if RM want to move just the large Tracked parcels to the LAT hubs or ALL the Tracked items ???

chickenwittle · Post by **chickenwittle** » 27 May 2019, 16:31

I think the Cwu are struggling here , Royal Mail are looking to make savings which is understandable. They are not taking work out of the business and they are not looking for compulsory job losses.With this in mind I would say a comprise would be found , I would be more concerned that Royal Mail and the Cwu work together to deliver the shorter working week we were promised as that seems to have gone quiet for now.

Newbie001 · Post by **Newbie001** » 27 May 2019, 17:45

Always find it weird a company like RM is looking to grow into certain areas ie later next day deliveries for larger items. Without a thought on whether this is what customers want or how they are going to grow this market in future. I mean your average customer has no idea the difference between tracked, signed for SD, most don't even know price of stamps. Contacting RM for anything is pretty awful. Even the website is pretty poor. Seems like management, CWU and posties all have own agendas. Customers way down all of them.
Just my opinion.

The Postman · Post by **The Postman** » 27 May 2019, 18:35

I don’t see how separating parcels from mail delivery is going to create such a large number of job losses. Surely it’s going to take the same amount if not more time to deliver x amount of parcels. Wouldn’t we just see people redeployed from mail delivery to parcel delivery roles?

Gasman11 · Post by **Gasman11** » 27 May 2019, 19:23

When will the employer formally notify us of its proposed new strategy? Don't think there's that many posties in our DO who peruse this site or Royal Mails own and so there's loads in the dark who are not in the slightest bit aware of the direction the company wants to head in. I've spoke to a few to give them a heads up but its difficult, as a part timer as by the time i get in half of the office has usually cleared out or well on their way to finish prepping anyway.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 28 May 2019, 08:04

chickenwittle wrote:I think the Cwu are struggling here , Royal Mail are looking to make savings which is understandable. They are not taking work out of the business and they are not looking for compulsory job losses.With this in mind I would say a comprise would be found , I would be more concerned that Royal Mail and the Cwu work together to deliver the shorter working week we were promised as that seems to have gone quiet for now.

The actual strategy is that Royal Mail are not willing to guarantee that the 3 new parcel centres which are central to this strategy will be staffed by Royal Mail OPG staff.

Additionally saying the work staying in Royal Mail is only part of the story.

All 37 mail centres will no longer have this traffic.

Area Distribution and logistics will be impacted due to this.

One thousand delivery offices will no longer received these parcels and their productivity will drop and more jobs cuts.

Royal Mail are not offering no compulsory redundancies, they are simply abiding by an agreement with the CWU.

Last year 9000 people left the company 67% of those were on voluntary terms.

Royal Mail therefore believe that these retention numbers will allow them to stop the need for compulsory redundancies.

However let’s be clear this strategy will reduce jobs , lengthen deliveries and reduce full time jobs and part timers opportunities.

In terms of the shorter working week , whilst I fully support the direction to 35 hours at no loss of pay , I believe that Royal Mail strategy which includes parcel strategy , new use of linking pay and resourcing to new digital technology and their stated ambition to increase productivity by 15% over 3 years will have more damaging consequences than a shorter working week will save.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 28 May 2019, 08:51

@Martin or @Dingo, can we get a clarification that we can be 100% certain is correct as to if it's all Tracked that will be going to the LAT hubs or just formats 3 & 4 Tracked (as well as all the formats 3 & 4 normal packets)????

leolion855 · Post by **leolion855** » 28 May 2019, 09:06

Also how can you have longer deliveries maned by part time staff? Surely the maths dont work there?

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 28 May 2019, 11:54

leolion855 wrote:Also how can you have longer deliveries maned by part time staff? Surely the maths dont work there?

Longer in distance, not in time.

leolion855 · Post by **leolion855** » 28 May 2019, 12:03

TrueBlueTerrier wrote:
leolion855 wrote:Also how can you have longer deliveries maned by part time staff? Surely the maths dont work there?

Longer in distance, not in time.

longer distance takes more time to travel, still doesn't work.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 28 May 2019, 12:52

leolion855 wrote:
TrueBlueTerrier wrote:
leolion855 wrote:Also how can you have longer deliveries maned by part time staff? Surely the maths dont work there?

Longer in distance, not in time.
longer distance takes more time to travel, still doesn't work.

I don't agree with it but the theory is as you'll be making fewer attendance calls, you'll have more time available to walk a further distance.

Newbie001 · Post by **Newbie001** » 28 May 2019, 14:48

Yeah you won't have maybe a few oversize calls, because I bet you'll still have 2 go to same address and deliver the small packets. So now you'll have time to drive 10 mins and do an extra 100+ calls. Sometimes I wonder if I'm on same planet as RM management.

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