50% parcel increase

[Rommagic]

No 2nd class on tue and sat
Decrease pension and more lapsing i bet they say no 2nd class three days a week .

[Mickeybrowneyes]

Parcel growth is important but remember under Royal Mail they have to pay National insurance , pension , paid holidays , sick leave , rates and rent for the building , purchase and maintenance of the van and the diesel for the van when bidding for parcel contracts.

Evri, yodel Amazon do not pay national insurance, do not get pay pension , do not pay leave , do not pay sick leave , do not pay for the vehicle or derv. Therefore they undercut Royal Mail in parcel growth and mean to maintain contracts Royal Mail have to reduce profit to stand still.

DHL do thinks in the UK which are illegal in Germany to get parcel volume.

This is why it is important to have a level playing field.

That is the worry surely Martin, if we the company can't turn over a profit now when everyone is flat out worked to the bone what is the viable solution.
By labour introducing the national insurance hike on employers it has directly affected the USO in a roundabout way has it not.
Letters are still being sacrificed for parcels and the offices are not resourcing properly because of costs.
Maybe the government should subsidise that payment if royal mail have to adhere to the new tax regulations.
All these factors are just being translated into pressure on the staff in offices and reality our working days have never been so taxing on the body.
Is there really a realistic chance legislation will be brought in to level the playing field.

[SpacePhoenix]

No 2nd class on tue and sat
Decrease pension and more lapsing i bet they say no 2nd class three days a week .

The pipeline is already partly set up for that. All mail and flats go into separate 1C and 2C trays from the Outward MCs to the Inward MCs and from the Inward MCs to the DOs. It'll be down to the DOs to only take the 2C over to the walk prep frames or IPS for those walks which are due 2C that day.

[Thommo44]

Parcel growth is important but remember under Royal Mail they have to pay National insurance , pension , paid holidays , sick leave , rates and rent for the building , purchase and maintenance of the van and the diesel for the van when bidding for parcel contracts.

Evri, yodel Amazon do not pay national insurance, do not get pay pension , do not pay leave , do not pay sick leave , do not pay for the vehicle or derv. Therefore they undercut Royal Mail in parcel growth and mean to maintain contracts Royal Mail have to reduce profit to stand still.

DHL do thinks in the UK which are illegal in Germany to get parcel volume.

This is why it is important to have a level playing field.

Good solid defence of the company Martin......
Tell me, who do you represent again and why would you defend someone who walks all over you and treats your members like something they stood in.
Not your problem, look after your members and leave the running of the company up to them.

Well said, nice to see Martin has finished his summer break

[TopperGas]

No 2nd class on tue and sat
Decrease pension and more lapsing i bet they say no 2nd class three days a week .

The pipeline is already partly set up for that. All mail and flats go into separate 1C and 2C trays from the Outward MCs to the Inward MCs and from the Inward MCs to the DOs. It'll be down to the DOs to only take the 2C over to the walk prep frames or IPS for those walks which are due 2C that day.

Now it's December how it works in our DO is the 1c is now handed to us all separately each morning and it's then sorted into the frame to just go out with the 2c post, whenever we get chance to deliver it during the week!!

[TopperGas]

Parcel growth is important but remember under Royal Mail they have to pay National insurance , pension , paid holidays , sick leave , rates and rent for the building , purchase and maintenance of the van and the diesel for the van when bidding for parcel contracts.

Evri, yodel Amazon do not pay national insurance, do not get pay pension , do not pay leave , do not pay sick leave , do not pay for the vehicle or derv. Therefore they undercut Royal Mail in parcel growth and mean to maintain contracts Royal Mail have to reduce profit to stand still.

DHL do thinks in the UK which are illegal in Germany to get parcel volume.

This is why it is important to have a level playing field.

That is the worry surely Martin, if we the company can't turn over a profit now when everyone is flat out worked to the bone what is the viable solution.
By labour introducing the national insurance hike on employers it has directly affected the USO in a roundabout way has it not.
Letters are still being sacrificed for parcels and the offices are not resourcing properly because of costs.
Maybe the government should subsidise that payment if royal mail have to adhere to the new tax regulations.
All these factors are just being translated into pressure on the staff in offices and reality our working days have never been so taxing on the body.
Is there really a realistic chance legislation will be brought in to level the playing field.

I've never heard it even mentioned by anybody apart from the CWU/RM that legislation is ever going to be brought in, there seems more chance of RM offloading letters the way they are showing no real interest in delivering them promptly this month, our previously well run and well staffed office is now failing complete duties on a daily basis.

[norris9]

BBC Panorama 8pm 'exposing' Evri... BBC article out today too...

Not really exposing anything we don't know.

Surprised they aren't exposing Royal Mail for delaying mail for 4+ years.

[postslippete]

Parcel growth is important but remember under Royal Mail they have to pay National insurance , pension , paid holidays , sick leave , rates and rent for the building , purchase and maintenance of the van and the diesel for the van when bidding for parcel contracts.

Evri, yodel Amazon do not pay national insurance, do not get pay pension , do not pay leave , do not pay sick leave , do not pay for the vehicle or derv. Therefore they undercut Royal Mail in parcel growth and mean to maintain contracts Royal Mail have to reduce profit to stand still.

DHL do thinks in the UK which are illegal in Germany to get parcel volume.

This is why it is important to have a level playing field.

Martin, no one disputes that RM carries costs that other's don't but RM did not accidentally end up chasing low-margin parcel volume. It chose to enter the rat race and compete head on with the gig economy couriers on price, knowing full well it can't win that race while maintaining a USO and proper employment costs. Instead of protecting its only genuine unique selling point - a national letters network - it is being sacrificed to prop up parcel growth that allegedly barely breaks even. By doing so, RM is further accelerating the decline a big part of its business that justifies its own existence! Strip away letters and the USO and what's left? Another run of the mill courier company competing with Evri and Amazon but with higher costs and NO competitive edge. Imho that's not bad luck but a bad strategy.

The level playing field issue has gone on for well over a decade and yet nothing meaningful has changed, so at what point do we admit that hoping that governments suddenly regulate the gig economy isn't a plan but wishful thinking? In the meantime, staff are at breaking point with unachievable workloads while waiting for legislation that may never come. And worse still this narrative could be used to excuse a two-tier workforce - something which damages retention, morale and service quality. Thats a decision that has been made internally, not something forced by Evri or Amazon.

The Union's job isn't to defend RM's commercial strategy or repeat verbatim what they say. It is to challenge their decisions that dump the consequences onto its staff. Right now, too much of this sounds like justification rather than any sort of opposition, and its your members who are paying the price for it.

[postslippete]

That is the worry surely Martin, if we the company can't turn over a profit now when everyone is flat out worked to the bone what is the viable solution.
By labour introducing the national insurance hike on employers it has directly affected the USO in a roundabout way has it not.
Letters are still being sacrificed for parcels and the offices are not resourcing properly because of costs.
Maybe the government should subsidise that payment if royal mail have to adhere to the new tax regulations.
All these factors are just being translated into pressure on the staff in offices and reality our working days have never been so taxing on the body.
Is there really a realistic chance legislation will be brought in to level the playing field.

Difficult one. RM are choosing to compete with Evri and Amazon by chasing low-margin parcel growth but it will never win that race when they rely on self-employed couriers with no NI, no pension, no sick pay, no holiday pay and no guaranteed hours. RM simply can’t match that model without destroying its workforce.

RM seems to be trying to be 3 things at once: matching Evri on price, DHL on reliability, and a public service on national coverage. That combination doesn’t exist in the real world. DHL and UPS don’t deliver everywhere, every day, and don’t chase volume for volume’s sake but instead tightly plan routes, offer time slots, refuse any unprofitable work and price their service properly which is why they can pay decent wages and still deliver reliably.

The crucial difference is that Royal Mail is legally bound by a Universal Service Obligation on letters, even as it increasingly treats letters as an inconvenience. And unlike DHL or UPS, RM can’t simply withdraw from unprofitable areas, limit coverage, or redesign the service around parcels alone but it is trying to run the business as if it can!! That contradiction is at the heart of the problem.

Until RM accepts that reality and designs a model that properly funds the USO instead of undermining it, the pressure won’t be fixed at the business-model level. It will continue to be pushed onto frontline staff through unachievable workloads, two-tier contracts and reliance on “goodwill” just to make the numbers stack up.

[Smoothbackground]

Difficult one. RM are choosing to compete with Evri and Amazon by chasing low-margin parcel growth but it will never win that race when they rely on self-employed couriers with no NI, no pension, no sick pay, no holiday pay and no guaranteed hours. RM simply can’t match that model without destroying its workforce.

RM seems to be trying to be 3 things at once: matching Evri on price, DHL on reliability, and a public service on national coverage. That combination doesn’t exist in the real world. DHL and UPS don’t deliver everywhere, every day, and don’t chase volume for volume’s sake but instead tightly plan routes, offer time slots, refuse any unprofitable work and price their service properly which is why they can pay decent wages and still deliver reliably.

The crucial difference is that Royal Mail is legally bound by a Universal Service Obligation on letters, even as it increasingly treats letters as an inconvenience. And unlike DHL or UPS, RM can’t simply withdraw from unprofitable areas, limit coverage, or redesign the service around parcels alone but it is trying to run the business as if it can!! That contradiction is at the heart of the problem.

Until RM accepts that reality and designs a model that properly funds the USO instead of undermining it, the pressure won’t be fixed at the business-model level. It will continue to be pushed onto frontline staff through unachievable workloads, two-tier contracts and reliance on “goodwill” just to make the numbers stack up.

But therein lies both the conundrum and the solution.

[postslippete]

But therein lies both the conundrum and the solution.

Unfortunately, there are clear incentives for EP Group not to be transparent about its parcel profitability. If margins are presented as tight then it becomes far easier for RM to maintain a two-tier workforce and argue for a further watering down of the USO.

Greater transparency would raise uncomfortable questions about where the pressure is really coming from and why it continues to be passed onto staff rather than addressed at strategic level. If there is no real profit being made in parcels then why has the business literally spent billions on parcel automation, parcel hubs and parcel lockers in the first place?

[Thommo44]

our manager told us this is a huddle this week. Apparentely parcels are up 50% compared to last Xmas. i assumed he said 15%, but was corrected

I can't see parcels can be up 50% in just one DO unless you've taken work from local DO's? I reckon ours are up 20%/25%, it now seems virtually impossible to deliver any post as parcels take most of your shift to deliver but the post boxes I entered today were all rammed with Christmas cards!!

We were told around 20% up on last year

Doesn't help that the rounds are 30% bigger than they were this time last year

Parcels up 20% and labour reduced by 30% in readiness for ODM. Not enough labour for every round, so 2 days this week on packets and parcels only
And a ban in overtime after 3pm. Trays full of mech and IPS, yorks full of mail

But we’re not on the s**t list

[Smoothbackground]

But therein lies both the conundrum and the solution.

Unfortunately, there are clear incentives for EP Group not to be transparent about its parcel profitability. If margins are presented as tight then it becomes far easier for RM to maintain a two-tier workforce and argue for a further watering down of the USO.

Greater transparency would raise uncomfortable questions about where the pressure is really coming from and why it continues to be passed onto staff rather than addressed at strategic level. If there is no real profit being made in parcels then why has the business literally spent billions on parcel automation, parcel hubs and parcel lockers in the first place?

I don’t disagree that there might be strategic reasons for EP wishing to be opaque with such figures. I also think your earlier analysis was insightful and on-the-money in many respects.

As I say, I think the solution is within the conundrum you set out — a business with a big enough marketshare can make large profits even on tiny margins, especially when you have a network that is already delivering to that exact street, road or house. RM’s “reach” enables it, in theory at least, to have the tightest-density parcel routes (and thus greater driver productivity and business profitability) of any other competitor, Amazon, DPD, Evri, etc, etc. Not sure I’ve articulated that particularly well but hopefully you see what I mean.

[Mr Rush]

so at what point do we admit that hoping that governments suddenly regulate the gig economy isn't a plan but wishful thinking?

Any day now the Labour government is going to introduce its flagship workers' rights bill and all will be well! It'll be slow, perhaps even glacial. And if they water it down any more it'll be on par with meltwater.

The only way current parcel volumes can be accomodated while also fulfilling the service obligation is to take them off us entirely. Perhaps some kind of Force for Parcels could be established.

[fadetogrey63]

The only way current parcel volumes can be accomodated while also fulfilling the service obligation is to take them off us entirely. Perhaps some kind of Force for Parcels could be established.
[/quote]

Totally agree with this, the only way to complete two walks within our time is by not taking the oversize, even just doing the packets on both walks would still be a struggle, on a normal non peak day we get around 160 between us, it's easily over 200 past three weeks.. I'm worn out and just tired of the job now..