Will Royal Mail Be Privatised?

[johno47]

Any privatisation will only be a part one, they will sell 49% of RM with the goverment keeping 51% and staying as the primary shareholder, that way it allows a cash strapped goverment to raise billions but not upset the public or the CWUs confidence.
But i am not sure that will happen, the conservatives and the lib dems would privatise us, but we are being privatised through the back door now so the only reason would be if the goverment wanted to raise some cash...UNITY IS STRENGTH.

[F0zziebear]

I think you are missing something there:

All of the parties agree that privatisation of some form will take place.
The 51% majority shareholder thing will probably remain.
I expect at some stage a BT/John Lewis Partnership model where employees do get ownership of a share of the company. Leighton has been trying to implement this, and whilst you call him a fat cat etc... his approach in my opinion is reasonably good in the medium/long-term

The main asset of RoyalMail is the delivery office postman. This may sound like madness, but everything else can be replicated more efficiently and cheaply by others. For example mail centre machinery can be highly automated now, transportation is a privatised business and alternatives could be provided. However, local knowledge of a delivery round and how best to do it remains in a posties head.

Remember this as that is your competitive advantage in this industry

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The main asset of RoyalMail is the delivery office postman. This may sound like madness, but everything else can be replicated more efficiently and cheaply by others. For example mail centre machinery can be highly automated now, transportation is a privatised business and alternatives could be provided. However, local knowledge of a delivery round and how best to do it remains in a posties head.

I accept this is true but as a delivery postie I am biased, however why do AL and AC seem to be continually undermining the status and morale of the front end of the service. Last year there was a trickle of long time posties leaving, but I firmly believe that the new year could bring a flood of retirements and other voluntary terminations. The problems is if too many long serving posties leave then the service will suffer, and profits will rise only in the short term. Long term its looking bleak.

[Homer]

Fozzie, Johno is not missing anything, there is nothing to stop the goverment keeping a 51% majority share and selling the rest Leighton can still give the workforce the shares out of the 49%, theres nothing stopping him keeping 10% back to give to workers, and as for breaking up the business and allowing private companies to cherry pick the best bits, it will be another huge cock up the same as all the other hair brained schemes RM have come up with, all the problems that RM now face are because they are trying to fix something that isnt broke, the business is heading for meltdown, and when these 2 flyboys have bogged off with their fat wedges in their back pockets it will be us and the public who will suffer, there is no privatised industry that is any better now than before, NONE.

[k979aaa]

The main asset of RoyalMail is the delivery office postman. This may sound like madness, but everything else can be replicated more efficiently and cheaply by others. For example mail centre machinery can be highly automated now, transportation is a privatised business and alternatives could be provided. However, local knowledge of a delivery round and how best to do it remains in a posties head.

I accept this is true but as a delivery postie I am biased, however why do AL and AC seem to be continually undermining the status and morale of the front end of the service. Last year there was a trickle of long time posties leaving, but I firmly believe that the new year could bring a flood of retirements and other voluntary terminations. The problems is if too many long serving posties leave then the service will suffer, and profits will rise only in the short term. Long term its looking bleak.

For you T.B.T are right but we are in post they royalmail we try dam hard to get rid of us but we do not have to make it easey for them do we and we now have the money in the bag!. (all though i still think we could have got a better deal 35 hour's £350 and mon to friday but that's life/democracy.) Now is the time to stand firm and weather the storm for the period of calm has passed and now the phony war has begun it is to us one and all to prepair ourself's to total WAR.

[greynut]

Fozzie, Johno is not missing anything, there is nothing to stop the goverment keeping a 51% majority share and selling the rest Leighton can still give the workforce the shares out of the 49%, theres nothing stopping him keeping 10% back to give to workers, and as for breaking up the business and allowing private companies to cherry pick the best bits, it will be another huge cock up the same as all the other hair brained schemes RM have come up with, all the problems that RM now face are because they are trying to fix something that isnt broke, the business is heading for meltdown, and when these 2 flyboys have bogged off with their fat wedges in their back pockets it will be us and the public who will suffer, there is no privatised industry that is any better now than before, NONE.

We made 230million last year with unfair competition. When we are on a level playing field and pissing on the opposition, Leighton :lfo and
Crozier :cfo will jack it in with about 5 milion in their pockets saying. "Its a much better business than when we joined."

[weetrogg]

Everybody must have realised that they would be after us big time after xmas, but all you have to do is remember you only work 8 hours as for flexibilty well they cant even cover the walks and packets during the summer as it is in the DOs. I work in an MC and im sure we will be covering are local DOs summer leave period but what the hell after ive been down there once, weighed my bags, organised my drop off points, ask for the correct training and equipment, take my meal relief and refuse to work a minute over my time ive got a peculiar feeling they wont be inviting me back if they can help it.

In my opinion this strike was basically about smashing the union, it didnt work so now they will try to harrass people out of the job, well they can get to fu*k, why would anybody want to leave, the alternative is go work in a warehouse on minimum wage, no sick pay, no pension or retrain and start a new career i would like to do this but cant afford to at the end of the day we get well payed for what we do and we do get benefits! So please stay because although the jobs gone to s**t at the moment if we all stand united we can see these two pair of pr**s off :cfo :lfo



WE are the union

[k979aaa]

Everybody must have realised that they would be after us big time after xmas, but all you have to do is remember you only work 8 hours as for flexibilty well they cant even cover the walks and packets during the summer as it is in the DOs. I work in an MC and im sure we will be covering are local DOs summer leave period but what the hell after ive been down there once, weighed my bags, organised my drop off points, ask for the correct training and equipment, take my meal relief and refuse to work a minute over my time ive got a peculiar feeling they wont be inviting me back if they can help it.

In my opinion this strike was basically about smashing the union, it didnt work so now they will try to harrass people out of the job, well they can get to fu*k, why would anybody want to leave, the alternative is go work in a warehouse on minimum wage, no sick pay, no pension or retrain and start a new career i would like to do this but cant afford to at the end of the day we get well payed for what we do and we do get benefits! So please stay because although the jobs gone to s**t at the moment if we all stand united we can see these two pair of pr**s off :cfo :lfo



WE are the union

Well said and for now we are above the minimum wage like you say. off with their head's :cfo & :lfo !.

[F0zziebear]

It may not look like from where you stand, but I never personally saw Crozier look to grind you all into the earth. The genuine problem is this:

1. Volumes are falling
2. Postal prices are rising at RPI-1% (going down in real terms, as imposed by Postcomm
3. The government are providing a loan to keep the company solvent and help fill the pension black-hole in excahnge for savings of about £300M a year
4. About 20% of volumes are now collected & primarily sorted by competitors, which means less revenue

These are just some of the issues. I personally wish that the union & management team up and take on the government/EU. I assume this is partly why the Postal Exec took the line they did, after seeing and negotiating on the numbers.

I have worked closely with negotiators, strategists and all the senior mgmt in RM, and never found them talking about grinding you into the ground. They can ultimately only be successful with you all on board. Strikes damage everyone in RM.

I do think that the HQ world and the operational area world are miles apart in terms of their approaches. Something seems to go wrong. I think frontline mgmt have to fire-fight most of the time and become quiet militant and defensive in their apporoach. I personally found this after wokring in Ops after a while. I didn't like what I was turning into and decided (and could) get out and do another role within the business. I was one of the lucky ones.

What annoyed me those is the pay increases for senior mgmt, which are way above inflation and only widens the gap between yourselves and them. This is poor and should be stopped, but then you may well lose the best senior mgmt to run the company (again you may think otherwise).

Anyway rant over

Santa F0zz

[Night Tonic]

Can't argue with that FB. Thats about as close as anyone could get to the real issues and how things are. Nice post,

[Stormproof]

You say volumes are falling, try telling that to someone in a DO, more & more pouches to take out and less & less staff to do the job.

[Tman]

[

The main asset of RoyalMail is the delivery office postman. This may sound like madness, but everything else can be replicated more efficiently and cheaply by others. For example mail centre machinery can be highly automated now, transportation is a privatised business and alternatives could be provided

.

Very true, although the infrastructure of RM is unbeatable too.
It would be virtually impossible for any firm to replicate the network RM have in place, or to employ the 200,000 posties RM have (with all the attendant personnel costs and staff) and expect to make a profit for the forseeable future.
Then the AI networked automation costs about £3-5,000,000 per office, multiplyed by the 70-80 MCs required, means an investment no other company could possibly make.
The reality is all the "competition" are only in it for the short-term while there's a quick profit to be made, and have no intention of setting up a network to rival RM.
It's madness though that RM, IF it's working in a so-called liberalised market, isn't given free rein to roll over all these cream-skimmers. I can't imagine the German government giving concessions to RM to dent Deusche Post's profits if positions were reversed.

[F0zziebear]

RM works out it's volumes by conducting a mail survey (costs millions by the way) each year, which monitors what people from various backgrounds get through their letter-box.

For some reason there seems to be a discrepancy between that survey and what some posties say is increasing volumes/weight of their mail bag.

I have attempted to answer this issue before.
I reckon that more of the population are living in an ever smaller part of the country (continued rural-urban migration & immigration into urban areas). I reckon that an urban postie is feeling the brunt of larger rounds and icnreased density of population, whereas the rural postie may find volumes falling.

A postman on here earlier in the week said this week was very quiet and therefore doing extra D2D wouldn't be a problem (see another thread about whether D2D at Xmas is compulsory).

It looks like the falls in volume are being felt disproportionatly across the country.

Wonder what other people think

F0zz

[Night Tonic]

That and the obvious - that a good proportion of mail is junk and not exactly as profitable as regular post. Much of what we deliver is being bolstered. Without it, we'd be in dire straights.

[Tman]

I can only judge volumes by the daily automation traffic reports, and it's definitely reduced over the last few months.
Maybe, as some have suggested, the big posters are looking at other ways to advertise rather than mail-shots?