Later Starts

[postslippete]

It would make more sense to go back to the way it used to be with drivers who take the medium and larger parcels in a large van and have posties on foot taking the mail. But the reason Royal Mail did away with it during 'modernisation' was to cut back on staff numbers, so we are pretty much doing everything - parcels, mail, flyers, collections….

The other key reason why Royal Mail want later starts is not to capture late parcels - which I think is a red herring - it is mainly because RM plans to spend millions of pounds on automation (£850 million is the figure I think that Nick Landon quoted on RMTV) which will take away all this indoor sorting that we do in the morning, so basically we will come in at 9am and there will be no sorting…at all. Therefore, what we are left with is a larger delivery outdoor span whereby we are all delivering later. Now if I'm on a 39 hour contract, that would basically mean that the company would expect its staff to be doing at least something of a 6 and a half hour to 7 hour delivery span 5 days a week.

The Royal Mail don't want to communicate this to its employees - they are just telling staff that we are the best paid and have the best jobs, but that we need to change. Royal Mail's profits leapt 25% because of the growth in parcel deliveries and the operating profit before transformation costs earlier this year was £712 million, with a pre tax profit of £335 million. So Royal Mail as an operational business is quite healthy. Now can you understand the implications of later starts and bigger deliveries?? Think about it. For a start they wouldn't need as many staff as they do now because the duties will go as rounds get bigger. In all my years of working for the Royal Mail, they have always altered and made the duties bigger, for bigger profits. And they are doing it again by telling staff that mail is dwindling and that the increase in parcels is not really making up the shortfall. Its all a load of b*ll*cks!!

[BeamishStout]

could do something similar to the Christmas arrangements.....have part time staff delivering parcels from 1pm-8pm. advertise the roles in each depot as just a parcel duty and then people know what they are signing up for, it may actually suit people. posties can just concentrate on letters and the usual amount of parcels that are built into the walk. I've always to said there should be at least one part time parcel driver in each office (that's busy enough) to deal with all the excess parcels, regs etc they end up paying out on overtime anyway..

It appears that RM might be considering this because of what they stated in the latest letter re improved pay (in the Operations section of the 'Great offer on the table')

....New shift patterns for new starters

Of course this section could mean something different altogether.

[seaside]

When I started we said good morning to everyone, on delivery , taken a while to get used to saying afternoon to everyone, now they want us to start getting used to say good evening, well that's goodnight from me.

[wacko74]

It takes at least twice as long to deliver in the dark (I know, I've done it) so duty times will have to be reduced accordingly for the winter months.

[Lounge Lizard]

It takes at least twice as long to deliver in the dark (I know, I've done it) so duty times will have to be reduced accordingly for the winter months.

But management will not accept that it takes at least twice as long to deliver in the dark so duty times will NOT be reduced accordingly for the winter months.

[scirocco'r']

". Our competitors are seriously cheaper in the parcel market, so either the new parcel division is going to have to have similar terms and conditions to them or they won't actually capture any of the work."

If this is the case why do we have 50% of the parcels market by number but only 40% by value?

[Cedar_Room]

I simply cannot stomach the prospect of working until 5pm or later on a Saturday. Our weekends are already virtually non-existent,these proposals will make it 100 times worse. I hate working Saturdays anyway but accept it was part of the job I signed up for,the thing is,when I started I used to be hone by 9am & that was on one of heavier days

[Acca Dacca]

Doesn't the regulator set latest MAIL delivery times?

[slinder123]

moan moan moan when royal mail let the cwu sort out our pensions and this is the main sticking point what do you think we have to give in return you know how it works bargaining we give they give we give they give so we are in for the rollercoaster ride with no seatbelts wheeeeeeeeeee

[cloherty1976]

I simply cannot stomach the prospect of working until 5pm or later on a Saturday. Our weekends are already virtually non-existent,these proposals will make it 100 times worse. I hate working Saturdays anyway but accept it was part of the job I signed up for,the thing is,when I started I used to be hone by 9am & that was on one of heavier days

Try working till 6am Sunday morning. That's how things have changed. When I first started on delivery it was a 6 week delivery then a 6 day late shift and followed by nights and back to the early

[Lounge Lizard]

I simply cannot stomach the prospect of working until 5pm or later on a Saturday. Our weekends are already virtually non-existent,these proposals will make it 100 times worse. I hate working Saturdays anyway but accept it was part of the job I signed up for,the thing is,when I started I used to be hone by 9am & that was on one of heavier days

Try working till 6am Sunday morning. That's how things have changed. When I first started on delivery it was a 6 week delivery then a 6 day late shift and followed by nights and back to the early

"When I first started on delivery it was a 6 week delivery" and I thought my delivery of up to six hours was bad !

[cloherty1976]

I simply cannot stomach the prospect of working until 5pm or later on a Saturday. Our weekends are already virtually non-existent,these proposals will make it 100 times worse. I hate working Saturdays anyway but accept it was part of the job I signed up for,the thing is,when I started I used to be hone by 9am & that was on one of heavier days

Try working till 6am Sunday morning. That's how things have changed. When I first started on delivery it was a 6 week delivery then a 6 day late shift and followed by nights and back to the early

"When I first started on delivery it was a 6 week delivery" and I thought my delivery of up to six hours was bad !

Did you get a break

[Acca Dacca]

Doesn't the regulator set latest MAIL delivery times?

Anyone able to confirm?

Isn't it 3pm town an 4pm rural or something?

[datasaint]

There's no point having two shifts, one for mail, one for parcels.

The mail/parcels all has to be processed and trunked to site together. You start splitting things up it'll cost even more than it does now.

[wacko74]

It takes at least twice as long to deliver in the dark (I know, I've done it) so duty times will have to be reduced accordingly for the winter months.

But management will not accept that it takes at least twice as long to deliver in the dark so duty times will NOT be reduced accordingly for the winter months.

I was actually being sarcastic... it's laughable to even think that management would recognise the problem of delivering in the dark and reduce duty times accordingly, in fact its laughable to think that management would be aware (or care about) any of the day to day realities of doing the job.