massive failure .

Zicomurphy · Post by **Zicomurphy** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:34

My brother worked for New Zealand post as a planner. They switched to a 3 day a week delivery several years ago. I can eventually see it going the same way here. With the changes they want to introduce with separate packet duties how easy would it be to make them duties 6 days a week but have the walks delivered every other day?

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:42

Zicomurphy wrote:My brother worked for New Zealand post as a planner. They switched to a 3 day a week delivery several years ago.

Are they doing letter deliveries three days a week and packages six days a week in New Zealand, or are they doing both letters and packages three days a week there?

Edit: Never mind. It seems New Zealand Post set up a subsidiary called CourierPost which operates their large parcel division. NZ Post delivers letters and standard parcels three days a week depending on the postcode.

Zicomurphy · Post by **Zicomurphy** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:50

PostmanBitesDog wrote:
Zicomurphy wrote:My brother worked for New Zealand post as a planner. They switched to a 3 day a week delivery several years ago.
Are they doing letter deliveries three days a week and packages six days a week in New Zealand, or are they doing both letters and packages three days a week there?

Standard untracked parcels every other day. Tracked and priority every day. That’s why I wonder if the new packet duties here are being brought in with the long term plan of introducing something similar.

Post by **Munchboii** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:51

PostmanBitesDog wrote:Packages will still be delivered over the six- or seven-day per week period, but it'll be letters that'll be cut back to five or even three days a week. Five days per week for letters is already the case in other countries and territories such as the Isle of Man.

Other countries run a three-day per week letter delivery service alternating with Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for some routes while Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are for other routes. And that delivery frequency has been strongly considered by many more countries including the United States.

With Royal Mail, there needs to be a change with the USO before implementing the reduced letter delivery frequency, but it makes a lot of sense and savings to cut back on letter deliveries while the number of packages are increasing.

The letters might not go out in certain areas so if letters go 3 days a week what would happen to the packets? In my office this week the Van's are going out fully packed from front to back. It simply would not be possible to do 2 days worth of packets/letters in one day. The Van's do not have the capacity. Unless you are suggesting that one van goes with the letters and another follows with the parcels but that makes absolute no sense.

If we go 3 days a week for packets and letters well then the other factor is that the other couriers provide a service of 6 days a week so if I was running a business that send parcels why would I ever choose royal mail ? If my parcels are only going to arrive once every 2 days? My customers would not be happy at all!.

The solution for the next 20 years will be in my opinion moving to a 5 day post with saturdays cut for overtime reduction purposes. With registers and parcelforce + large tracked only on saturdays. Plus some sundays stuff too. Like you said I think Royal Mail will use the Isle of Man Post office as a case study of how to manage the decline in an acceptable way. I say move to a 5 day week as the mail keeps going down and probably hold it at that for the next 15-20 years until mail volumes stabilise. If mail never recovers, then well we are f*cked. But who knows, I am hopeful that letter writing may come back in some way similar to how record players and old school cameras are. But sadly unlikely...

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:53

Moving to every other day delivery for letters and small packets will results in tens of thousands of job losses. Not sure we really want to support that kind of future for RM.

Post by **Munchboii** » 14 Apr 2020, 22:58

Celgar wrote:Moving to every other day delivery for letters and small packets will results in tens of thousands of job losses. Not sure we really want to support that kind of future for RM.

Exactly this. If we go to 3 days a week we are f*cked. Youd be talking 20k job losses at least. If you've been in the job for even the last 10 years you're a goner due to seniority ect. The CWU would be so severely weakened I could honestly see us going on strike for weeks if this were to be Royal Mails plan. I see the 5 day week as being most likely. I hope for my jobs sake anyway

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 14 Apr 2020, 23:09

Munchboii wrote:But who knows, I am hopeful that letter writing may come back in some way similar to how record players and old school cameras are. But sadly unlikely...

Definitely unlikely. Legacy items are fun for hobbyists, but they don't have the mass appeal that new technology has - or in this case, new ways of communicating. Letters will still be around for the foreseeable future, but as we've known for a while now, they've been declining in volume.

As for the schedule of delivery for letters and small packets, I'd say five days a week will be the plan starting in a few years, and it'll stay like that for a while before it becomes three days a week. For the larger packages, they may be added to ParcelForce's service, who will expand their fleet to include them with their extra large package deliveries.

So yes, Royal Mail will lose jobs over time (especially with walkers only), but look for opportunities with ParcelForce (or other courier firms).

This is how the USPS has been eyeing the change to a five-day delivery service for the future: Mail Volume Deliveries No Longer Cover the Costs of a Six-Day Delivery Schedule

Post by **Munchboii** » 14 Apr 2020, 23:18

PostmanBitesDog wrote: As for the schedule of delivery for letters and small packets, I'd say five days a week will be the plan starting in a few years, and it'll stay like that for a while before it becomes three days a week. For the larger packages, they may be added to ParcelForce's service, who will expand their fleet to include them with their extra large package deliveries.

So yes, Royal Mail will lose jobs over time (especially with walkers only), but look for opportunities with ParcelForce (or other courier firms).

This is how the USPS has been eyeing the change to a five-day delivery service for the future: Mail Volume Deliveries No Longer Cover the Costs of a Six-Day Delivery Schedule

Yes but I know this might sound sad, but I am very loyal to this job and being a postman. I didnt go 7 months as a casual and 1 year as a PPT just to get a sniff at temporary full time. If I wanted I could have joined one of the other couriers like DPD and been permanent full time from day one. But I didn't because I want to be apart of a unionized workforce with good conditions, which all of our competitors are not. So quite frankly for me its royal mail or bust. I would be happy with parcelforce, but not any of the others.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 14 Apr 2020, 23:44

Munchboii wrote:The solution for the next 20 years will be in my opinion moving to a 5 day post with saturdays cut for overtime reduction purposes. With registers and parcelforce + large tracked only on saturdays. Plus some sundays stuff too.

That would lose RM too many contracts. Not every company sends their packets out as Tracked, SD or PF. I think long term RM will loo towards getting 2D barcodes on all packets, which would probably make it easier for the PSMs