Tom Melvin (Director of Operations) has retired

[F0zziebear]

I think this piece of news has been missed, and is possibly one of the most important ones of recent times.

Tom Melvin has been at the heart of RoyalMail letters since approx. 2003. He has overseen Single Daily Delivery, Mail Centre Review, Transport Review, one national strike, and several other unoffiical regional ones. He has also overseen the beginning of the implementation of the modernisation programme.

Some admired his leadership at a time when Downstream Access took off, and some others saw him as a power monger who ruthlessly threw aside those who were not in his 'inner circle.'

Either way, 2008 heralds a potentially new time in RoyalMail operations with significant senior positions up for grabs.

F0zz

[ade@cambs]

Where do i get an application form

[F0zziebear]

The position has been filled me thinks, but I'm sure various other roles are up for grabs.

I am sure with your 'on the ground' experience would count in favour of an application.

[lovejoy]

I think this piece of news has been missed, and is possibly one of the most important ones of recent times.

Tom Melvin has been at the heart of RoyalMail letters since approx. 2003. He has overseen Single Daily Delivery, Mail Centre Review, Transport Review, one national strike, and several other unoffiical regional ones. He has also overseen the beginning of the implementation of the modernisation programme.

Some admired his leadership at a time when Downstream Access took off, and some others saw him as a power monger who ruthlessly threw aside those who were not in his 'inner circle.'

Either way, 2008 heralds a potentially new time in RoyalMail operations with significant senior positions up for grabs.

F0zz

He went just after the strikes. Rumour has it he just had enough of the way things were going! A number os senior managers have left for this reason!!

Mind you unlike us who get nothing if we leave they walk away with millions in their pockets!!!!!!

[DirtyHarry]

I think this piece of news has been missed, and is possibly one of the most important ones of recent times.

Tom Melvin has been at the heart of RoyalMail letters since approx. 2003. He has overseen Single Daily Delivery, Mail Centre Review, Transport Review, one national strike, and several other unoffiical regional ones. He has also overseen the beginning of the implementation of the modernisation programme.

Some admired his leadership at a time when Downstream Access took off, and some others saw him as a power monger who ruthlessly threw aside those who were not in his 'inner circle.'

Either way, 2008 heralds a potentially new time in RoyalMail operations with significant senior positions up for grabs.

F0zz

*Yawn*, One tit leaves, another one soon enters, Royal Fail will go through this tedious cycle indefinately, to the detriment of all, public & employees.

[L Tommo]

You know it mate...

Said it once said it again...

The Who said it best.... WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN...


"HERE IS THE NEW BOSS. SAME AS THE OLD BOSS."


Same shite different day... :cfo :lfo

[DirtyHarry]

That's exactly it, very few of us "Won't get fooled again", not by the sort of shower that masquerades as businessmen these days, that's for sure. Latter
day robber barrons are what men like Melvin are, nothing more. Fact, my customers got their mail a helluva lot earlier than before men like Melvin
came on the scene.
Fact, my office never used to resemble a field hospital in the Crimea, until men like Melvin and their prepostorous ideas like SDD, came along.

Although another 100 carat buffoon is sure to board Leighton & Crozier's corporate gravy train, I say good riddance to Melvin and all the worst for the
future to him.

[F0zziebear]

My understanding is that Tom Melvin has been in RM most of his life. He came to the fore whilst managing in Scotland. SDD had been around in various guises before he became operations director.

My main point is that whilst Crozier and Leighton have become frontliners hate figures, Melvin was the one who really did run the operations. He surrounded himself by his own people and set the style and agenda within operations. For example if an office failed to clear he would personally be on the phone everyday.

It will be interesting to see if the style of management within operations changes with a new director and senior team. Do the changes at the top influence frontline management and the culture amongst frontline staff. I assume most will say no.

I would argue the next directors criteria for success would be to avoid a national strike and successfully implement the machine upgrades and increased automation. This will mean another 5 years of change, disruption and closures, but possibly after that RM will truly be in a position to compete directly with alternative E2E networks (if they do ever take off). This will all be on a backdrop of declines in traditional mail volumes, but the rise of 3D fulfillment, which the current network is clearly not designed to manage (at least in the current and projected volumes).

F0zz

[BELIAL]

Interesting background info Fozz.

Personally ,disagree with you about changes and management,they seem to respond like Pavlovs dogs when the boss rings the bell;ordinary employees,well they used to have a union.

Alternative E2E networks,bout as likely as a socialist labour govt.

Backdrop of decline in traditional mail volumes, well not sure how you define traditional mail but I do feel confident in challenging you to produce just one delivery person to confirm that their workload has decreased for any year on year for say the last ten years. Must be all that new fangled mail that does it?

Whats 3D fulfillment? If it's got a pen , coffee , or cat food sample in it ,I don't wan't to know

[F0zziebear]

OK

we can agree to disagree about management

Unless postcomm change the goalposts then no there won't be an alternative E2E network anytime soon

Declining mail volumes is demonstrated by every indicator. Don't forget your rounds have gradually merging and therefore it is possible you are delivering more per round, yet overall volumes are declining. Whether you look at total number of items per household, or the revenu generation it isn't good. Volumes have been propped up by public sector expansion

3D fulfillment is things like DVDs, books etc... Having said that DVDs will decline into obscurity within 10-15yrs. RoyalMail needs to recognise the rise of parcels and redesign it's depots and products to meet this need. There also needs to be a UK wide adoption of drop-off boxes or an increase in personal deliveries to where you work. This could be a future trend as more people are getting items sent to their workplace as they are not home when the postman rings. This may not be good news for the individual postie, but possibly the rise of the mailroom once again in the workplace!

Cat food, well after last nights programme on C4 who knows?

F0zz

[jemima]

Thanks for the info F0zziebear

Unless the new man at the top has a clearly defined agenda for change, and puts a lot of effort into implementing it, he won't influence frontline management. They will be too scared to change anything unless someone else is prepared to shoulder the responsibility for any difficulties or loss of revenue that may be incurred by a move to a different management style.

3d fulfillment - with a possible economic slowdown and people looking for bargains there'll be many more ebay packets too. We'll have to start delivering in the evenings when people are at home, to deal with the packets efficiently....

[BELIAL]

OK

we can agree to disagree about management

Unless postcomm change the goalposts then no there won't be an alternative E2E network anytime soon

Declining mail volumes is demonstrated by every indicator. Don't forget your rounds have gradually merging and therefore it is possible you are delivering more per round, yet overall volumes are declining. Whether you look at total number of items per household, or the revenu generation it isn't good. Volumes have been propped up by public sector expansion

3D fulfillment is things like DVDs, books etc... Having said that DVDs will decline into obscurity within 10-15yrs. RoyalMail needs to recognise the rise of parcels and redesign it's depots and products to meet this need. There also needs to be a UK wide adoption of drop-off boxes or an increase in personal deliveries to where you work. This could be a future trend as more people are getting items sent to their workplace as they are not home when the postman rings. This may not be good news for the individual postie, but possibly the rise of the mailroom once again in the workplace!

Cat food, well after last nights programme on C4 who knows?


F0zz

Ah thanks 3D's = ddd's etc. You are dead right about parcels ,pre planning is a little lacking if the xmas fiasco is anything to go by.
On the volume point, with all respect the last thing a delivery postie is going to overlook are the additions to his walk! Can only speak for my office, which is fairly typical or rather unremarkable: no notable urban development, possible increase in single occupancy,no significant influx of business or new start ups ,yet year on year for the past three years volumes up by 5% which would seem to contradict "every indicator", puzzling?
Now it could be pure coincidence , but three weeks after challenging a visiting area manager with these traffic figures, the instuction came from area to stop weighing and recording traffic.
Might it be that indicators are not all, or perhaps more than they seem? On a news thread on here some RM high up was complaining that they had no means of assessing some of the DSA input, in the audit of the regulatory accounts it was stated that apportionment of costs and traffic figures was carried out on an arbitary basis, hardly a recipe for the production of accurate statistics.

[DGP1]

On traffic figures, in my DO at SDD we had an average day of 30k but today we have an average of 38k and all we hear is mail volumes are dropping which I say is nothing but lies.

[norbet colon]

Thanks for the info F0zziebear

Unless the new man at the top has a clearly defined agenda for change, and puts a lot of effort into implementing it, he won't influence frontline management. They will be too scared to change anything unless someone else is prepared to shoulder the responsibility for any difficulties or loss of revenue that may be incurred by a move to a different management style.

3d fulfillment - with a possible economic slowdown and people looking for bargains there'll be many more ebay packets too. We'll have to start delivering in the evenings when people are at home, to deal with the packets efficiently....

Melvin's hated in Scotland for orchestrating strikes and playing the Victorian Millowner starving them back to work .

He would have to stay on to run ops for Twit & Tw*t and he'd have fed Tw*t with that obscure "Spanish Practices " as a smokescreen to divert attention from the hammering he was getting from the Tory Papers as they associate Tw*t with his "lesson in humility " when he should have been fired for fiddling sales figures for the rival Telegraph .

Plenty of figures being fiddled now -to the point of becoming a art form .

NO IMAGINATION OR VISION -JUST PANIC

[k979aaa]

On traffic figures, in my DO at SDD we had an average day of 30k but today we have an average of 38k and all we hear is mail volumes are dropping which I say is nothing but lies.

It is true royalmail volumes are droping for royalmail as TNT, DHL, UK MAIL, do not have to provide a universal service and we must do and royalmail are useing falling revenue to beat us over the head with it is royalmails lack of buisness accumen and forsight and blind ignorance.