Isle of Man Saturday letter deliveries to end next month

itinerant · Post by **itinerant** » 20 Sep 2019, 06:08

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe ... 8GGRYkYUS4

Regular Saturday letter deliveries on the Isle of Man will end on 19 October, the post office has confirmed.

Deliveries are being cut from six days a week to five in a cost-saving measure approved by politicians in December last year.

A post office spokesman said the change would save £500,000 a year and help "offset the declining letter mail income".

Parcel and priority mail deliveries will continue.

The Communication Workers Union said it was a "backward step".

The volume of letters handled by the post office has almost halved over the past decade, dropping from 16 million to 30 million annually.

The organisation made a loss for the first time in its history in 2017-2018.

A union spokesman said it was "a very sad day for a great public service on the Isle of Man".

He added: "It's a backward step that people will regret."

chickenwittle · Post by **chickenwittle** » 20 Sep 2019, 10:02

I feel this is coming to us very soon.

Binsey · Post by **Binsey** » 20 Sep 2019, 10:14

chickenwittle wrote:I feel this is coming to us very soon.

Agreed 100%

Have to repeat but saddens me too the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".

Post by **POSTMAN** » 20 Sep 2019, 13:56

https://www.iompost.com/our-news/press- ... ys-a-week/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In response to reducing customer demand, Isle of Man Post Office (IOMPO) will change its standard letter mail service from six to five days a week, Monday to Friday, from Monday 21st October 2019.

While letters are in decline, parcel volumes continue to increase as a result of the sustained growth in e-commerce. To satisfy this demand, IOMPO will continue to deliver parcels and time-guaranteed services such as Special Delivery and tracked items six days a week, Monday to Saturday.

Julie Edge MHK, Chairman of IOMPO, said: "We are a supply and demand business that needs to modernise its operation to more accurately reflect the changing needs of customers in this digital era. IOMPO is currently loss making and in the last ten years, IOMPO's letter volumes have almost halved from 30 million to 16 million. Less letters means less income for the Post Office. The introduction of five-day letter deliveries will enable IOMPO to generate a saving of approximately £500k pa, which will help to offset the declining letter mail income, while supporting our strategic aim of returning the business back to profitability. All other services to customers will remain unchanged and post offices will continue to operate their normal opening hours on a Saturday."

She continued: "We have worked jointly with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) to plan the implementation of this key project of our five-year business strategy. We are grateful for the CWU's ongoing cooperation and to all our employees involved in the project, which has required a great deal of time, effort and planning."

There are also environmental advantages to be gained from the project with a reduction in the Island's greenhouse gases due to the reduced mileage of not delivering letters on a Saturday so less emissions, a decrease on the wear and tear of postal vehicles resulting in not as many old tyres, metal and plastic replacement parts to dispose of. In addition, the automated letter sortation machine will not be operated on a Saturday, therefore saving energy and electricity.

GRS · Post by **GRS** » 20 Sep 2019, 16:10

No mention of job losses. Were there any and if not how did they manage this?

chickenwittle · Post by **chickenwittle** » 20 Sep 2019, 16:30

There you go , how come they didn’t drop the Tuesday like so many on here have been saying , including the Cwu.

hero22 · Post by **hero22** » 20 Sep 2019, 17:25

is isle of man post part of royal mail ? are they under the USO ?

Binsey · Post by **Binsey** » 20 Sep 2019, 20:17

hero22 wrote:is isle of man post part of royal mail ? are they under the USO ?

They were officially until 1969 now loosely affiliated.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 22 Sep 2019, 07:28

I will put my hand up as being one of those posties who always thought Tuesday would be the day to be dropped. Looks like the recent news from the CWU that Saturday will be dropped most likely completely as an operational day is correct.
Tactically a good move for RM as they can drop a lot of the cover duties from the five day week. Also a lot of posties would like the whole weekend off as most other people already have had for generations. No doubt could weaken the strike vote in the longer term although initially we will all be voting for industrial action.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 22 Sep 2019, 07:43

Celgar wrote:I will put my hand up as being one of those posties who always thought Tuesday would be the day to be dropped. Looks like the recent news from the CWU that Saturday will be dropped most likely completely as an operational day is correct.
Tactically a good move for RM as they can drop a lot of the cover duties from the five day week. Also a lot of posties would like the whole weekend off as most other people already have had for generations. No doubt could weaken the strike vote in the longer term although initially we will all be voting for industrial action.

I think it'll only be letters and flats that won't be delivered on a Saturday

Deadly · Post by **Deadly** » 22 Sep 2019, 09:59

SpacePhoenix wrote: I think it'll only be letters and flats that won't be delivered on a Saturday

Collections will still need doing too so maybe a parcels/collections hybrid duty?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 22 Sep 2019, 10:56

If it ends up with letters and flats not being being delivered on Saturday, I wonder if it'll end up with all those in MCs whose duties are manual letters, flats or mech will end up being on 4 day weeks

Marshamp11 · Post by **Marshamp11** » 22 Sep 2019, 13:15

Celgar wrote:I will put my hand up as being one of those posties who always thought Tuesday would be the day to be dropped. Looks like the recent news from the CWU that Saturday will be dropped most likely completely as an operational day is correct.
Tactically a good move for RM as they can drop a lot of the cover duties from the five day week. Also a lot of posties would like the whole weekend off as most other people already have had for generations. No doubt could weaken the strike vote in the longer term although initially we will all be voting for industrial action.

Not going to weaken my strike vote. There are bigger issues than which day of the week we get off. Its the T&C's for the days we are working that we need to worry about as well as potentially up to 20,000 of us having every day off.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 28 Sep 2019, 18:45

Deadly wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote: I think it'll only be letters and flats that won't be delivered on a Saturday
Collections will still need doing too so maybe a parcels/collections hybrid duty?

If letters and flats delivery end it would have to be the 'small packets' as well which is anything below shoe box size. We all know how many of those we get. They could set up small collection duties for the Saturdays and still save a ton of money. Remember if this happens the RRIS payment will be withdrawn from our payslips which on mine is an £1820 pay cut per annum!! Mondays will be really busy if this comes off for those who survive the slaughter.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 28 Sep 2019, 19:45

Celgar wrote:
Deadly wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote: I think it'll only be letters and flats that won't be delivered on a Saturday
Collections will still need doing too so maybe a parcels/collections hybrid duty?
If letters and flats delivery end it would have to be the 'small packets' as well which is anything below shoe box size. We all know how many of those we get. They could set up small collection duties for the Saturdays and still save a ton of money. Remember if this happens the RRIS payment will be withdrawn from our payslips which on mine is an £1820 pay cut per annum!! Mondays will be really busy if this comes off for those who survive the slaughter.

Never heard of an RRIS payment, what's it for?