Is Royal Mail 'fit for purpose'?

[nightcrawler]

I don’t think it is. I’ve done 30+ years and have never seen it as bad as it is now. We are regularly failing on letters, parcels, and sometimes tracked. Yes, Omicron has played a big part as the number of test kits we’re getting has skyrocketed. Nevertheless, why did RM accept the contract if we can’t cope with the workloads?

[Munchboii]

30 years ago we were a communications service. How the world changes.

I think most issues could be solved by making all the part timers up to 40 hour per week immediately and employing an extra 10% staff on full time as permanent full time reserves.

So if a delivery office had 40 full time duties, there will be 4 new full time reserves [on top of the current existing reserves and floaters] taken on. Therefore if an office has a bad bout of sickness, it can be covered. If someone goes sick the new one reserves will starburst the round.

I think this is one thing that could solve current issues.

[deltaforce]

Still too much manual handling at the inward Sorting . Surely packets could be automated more than they are?

[zombiepostman]

not everybody wants to do fulltime hours

[clashcityrocker]

Still too much manual handling at the inward Sorting . Surely packets could be automated more than they are?

The vast bulk of our parcels for our van share come off the lorry in a red sleeve or two. However there is nowhere really to put those yorks at the frame. The layout of the office needs to be changed. The york has parcels for both duties which need to be segregated and scanned as appropriate. There isn't really enough space at the frame to do this. Sometimes when the parcel sorting is finished I take the york (or yorks) back to the parcel sorting area and scan and segregate them there.
It is easier.
In theory it is a good thing but it needs a bit of planning to make it efficient.

[Phantom]

The company as a whole is fine. The leadership on the other hand are a different story, Thompson has been brought in to please shareholders and find peace with the CWU which at the moment he his doing but this has come at cost and that cost is the deterioration of the service.

The CWU should be all over this like a rash, we need balloting as the working conditions now are totally unacceptable.

[Chelseablue]

Part of the 4 pillocks agreement was a Culture change lol

[broughts]

I’ve done 30 + as well and agree it’s a shambles Xmas planning used to start in August and we used to laugh now it starts well into November and they wonder why it’s failing everyday I was delivering cards dated the 10 th today there’s probably even worse stories out there

[Kenfandango]

As a parcel delivery service it isn't fit for purpose due to a lack of infrastructure and investment, and trying to treat packets as letters (none of the actual parcel companies expect their staff to walk door to door carrying everything, after manually loading it into a 13 year old van that's too small to fit everything into without it all being mixed up)

As a letter delivery service it isn't fit for purpose due to trying to be a parcel delivery service at the same time.

Royal Mail is one of those British institutions like the NHS, that people only actually notice when it goes wrong or stops.

[EdRush]

The sole topic of interaction I've had with customers the past ... months

Customer: 'have you got a parcel for me'
Opg: 'is it Tracked® or Special Delivery®?'
Customer: 'No'
Opg: 'No'

[twoloops]

Not your problem, turn up, do your hours, go home & forget about it

[chickenwittle]

Not your problem, turn up, do your hours, go home & forget about it

Bit of a nonsense reply , what’s the point of this forum if we can’t discuss what is going on in the workplace.That could be the reply to virtually every point that’s raised.

[pieoftheday]

30 years ago we were a communications service. How the world changes.

I think most issues could be solved by making all the part timers up to 40 hour per week immediately and employing an extra 10% staff on full time as permanent full time reserves.

So if a delivery office had 40 full time duties, there will be 4 new full time reserves [on top of the current existing reserves and floaters] taken on. Therefore if an office has a bad bout of sickness, it can be covered. If someone goes sick the new one reserves will starburst the round.

I think this is one thing that could solve current issues.

Back to 40hrs a week and star bursting again? Bollox to that

[Munchboii]

Well fine then 35 hours with a hours meal relief each day then if you like, and the starbursting, this is happening now to cover the sickness. Why not do it offically on paper?

[Mick100]

I think the trouble now days is most people think turn up do your hours go home they have made most rounds impossible to finish
And if you can't finish why bring 2 bags back if you can bring 4