Why equalising new contracts makes business sense

[tramssirhc]

The postal industry is an oligopoly of a handful of large businesses. The bosses meet regularly and agree what they will do not to drive each other out of business. In a real market of competition there would be no rigging of the market and they would drive each other out of business. In place of that they seek profit by exploiting everything else that they can without completely undermining each other. In this current phase of capitalism there is no real competition which is why regulators exist, to create the illusion of a market.

The UK parcel delivery market does have a few large dominant players like RM, Evri and Amazon so this does resemble something of an oligopoly but competition absolutely exists. RM itself lost significant market share in parcels over the last decade - are you telling me that this was deliberate? That this was due to the bosses of rival companies meeting regularly and agreeing on what they will do and not do. And regulators creating the illusion of a market? It's ideological rather than factual. Even in concentrated industries, companies still compete for contracts and customers.

But regardless of Marxist ideology, the truth is that RM's operating model relies heavily on experience and stability and if that weakens due to staff leaving and a lower morale then that becomes a real operational and business issue.

They really don't compete and the market is illusory. A real market with real competition would not see the tinkering you describe. Contracts come and go but at no point do they result in the complete destruction of any of the oligopoly. Greater illustrations of the illusory market are seen in the railway and water industries. At no point was there any competition between the oligopoly of companies.

The business model of every company in the postal industry is maximal profit extraction in whichever way is possible without launching an all out war against each other. The CWU thinks that the way to maximise profit is through experience, stability and diversification and the failure to do this has put Royal Mail at risk.

Nowhere in the maximalisation of profit model does experience, stability or diversification figure. It was made clear in the evidence to parliament that the data proves that what the CWU claim is untrue. The data currently shows that the targets are being met and that there is sufficient surplus capacity to maximise profit through a rationalisation of the method of delivery.

At this point you would think the CWU would change its strategy and stop colluding with the oligopoly. A real rank and file led industrial and political independent trade union would start fighting back. Until that happens what you describe as the failures which are putting the business model at risk will continue.

[hewittinspain]

For new entrants it's a low paid job but for legacy contracts the pay for delivery is fair at over £15 an hour. I never had an issue with the rate I was getting for actually being outdoors but as we were getting crap and lies from the managers it sometimes didn't feel enough especially in the winter months towards Xmas.
The overtime rate is poor though.

[Mr Rush]

The overtime rate is poor though.

I usually describe it as eight-tenths-of-time, or whatever the fraction is. Or think of it this way: you pay the company to stay out to complete

[TopperGas]

For new entrants it's a low paid job but for legacy contracts the pay for delivery is fair at over £15 an hour. I never had an issue with the rate I was getting for actually being outdoors but as we were getting crap and lies from the managers it sometimes didn't feel enough especially in the winter months towards Xmas.
The overtime rate is poor though.

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

It'll be interesting to see how equalisation works, will legacy employees ever get 1¼(?) like new contract starters?

[clashcityrocker]

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

Up until about 2000 (Way Forward?) it was a seriously crap wage.
That is why people used to do about 30 hours overtime every week.

[TopperGas]

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

Up until about 2000 (Way Forward?) it was a seriously crap wage.
That is why people used to do about 30 hours overtime every week.

The year 2000 was a ¼ of a decade ago!!

[hewittinspain]

For new entrants it's a low paid job but for legacy contracts the pay for delivery is fair at over £15 an hour. I never had an issue with the rate I was getting for actually being outdoors but as we were getting crap and lies from the managers it sometimes didn't feel enough especially in the winter months towards Xmas.
The overtime rate is poor though.

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

It'll be interesting to see how equalisation works, will legacy employees ever get 1¼(?) like new contract starters?

It is yes, minimum wage has caught up. I still don't think £15.05 is too bad for an (in a way)unskilled job when LGV Class 2 drivers are probably on that but for me I couldn't take the crap anymore from the managers. I wasn't taking any more bullying for that money.

[clashcityrocker]

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

Up until about 2000 (Way Forward?) it was a seriously crap wage.
That is why people used to do about 30 hours overtime every week.

The year 2000 was a ¼ of a decade ago!!

So your idea of "historic" is the last 25 years?

[Whippy]

[/quote]

As well as keeping the walk info books in the DOs up to date, why doesn't RM either have an app or in-app info about the walks so that as you go around your walks, you get relevant info displayed such as directions if it's a hard place to find or things like loose dog hazards?
[/quote]

Those folders on top of the frames in my DO may aswel be binned. As a fairly new postie two-ish years one folder the last entry was 6yrs ago. Absolutely no Info where to park the HCT or how to pull the walk. Complete waste of space folder.

[Woody84]

I’d be over the moon if my contact was equalised and I was on £15 an hour.

£15 an hour for the work we all do is pretty good.

[jagger]

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

Up until about 2000 (Way Forward?) it was a seriously crap wage.
That is why people used to do about 30 hours overtime every week.

Yes. But as you well know, you could do those 30 hours of docket in your 40 hour week and still make time.

[qwerty2]

Even £15 an hour is low compared to the historic pay posties use to get?

Up until about 2000 (Way Forward?) it was a seriously crap wage.
That is why people used to do about 30 hours overtime every week.

The year 2000 was a ¼ of a decade ago!!

"a 1/4 of a decade is 2 1/2 years you mean 1/4 of a century

[clashcityrocker]

Yes. But as you well know, you could do those 30 hours of docket in your 40 hour week and still make time.

Not really.
I don't remember ghost overtime on delivery being a thing "historically".
Most offices were fully staffed. Occasionally sick absences might allow you to do a first and second on overtime but a lot of overtime back then was on the facing table or the inward and outward.
It wasn't very strenuous but it wasn't ghosting.

[DGH]

From 2004-2012 ish I probably worked 15-30 hours of overtime most weeks. About 10-20 hours of that would have been ghost overtime (more so in the summer, bit less so in the winter). I think my record was being paid 16 hours for 10 hours work but it was pretty common to be paid 10 or 11 hours for about 8 hours actual work.

Obviously not all offices would have been run like that, but there were a high proportion of people in my office making a lot in ghost overtime.

Flip side of that was walks didn't fail. Ever.

[Rick91]

On the flip side paying everybody £15+ an hour makes RM less competitive in the parcels market, where the likes of Amazon are probably paying less than the minimum wage per hour?

I have a friend who works for Amazon. It's a delivery franchise. Pay is a day rate which works out to be around £14.50 p/h for 9 hours of work. It's work till finish and some of the guys get done a couple of hours early. A van is provided too.

There are some drawbacks for him. It's all self-employed so there isn't the security of a role like RM. The hours also aren't particularly sociable in comparison. But yeah, it's not all as bad as people have been led to believe. Evri on the other hand probably ticks the below minimum wage box.