Postcomm agrees to Royal Mail stopping Sunday collections

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://postwatchuk.blogspot.com/2007/08 ... pping.html

Postcomm has published its agreement to Royal Mail’s request to stop collecting post from post boxes and businesses on Sundays and Bank Holidays. The document is available here.

The agreement is subject to several customer safeguards which Postwatch suggested, and which have been agreed by Royal Mail:

- Royal Mail will communicate the changes to customers, through placing notices on postboxes and at Crown post offices where Sunday/bank holidays collections take place, as well as contacting the 50 businesses that currently receive a tailored Sunday collection service.

- Collection plate information will be amended.

- Post boxes in areas of high usage will be monitored and emptied if there is a risk of overflowing.

Postwatch accepts that some customers will be inconvenienced by the change. However, given the low volumes of Sunday collections and the relatively high cost of the service, on balance, we believe this move is justified, insofar as it will help reduce Royal Mail’s costs and ensure the universal service continues to be delivered at an affordable price.

To inform our position, Postwatch commissioned research to investigate the customer need for Sunday collections. 68 percent of respondents said they used the service either ‘very seldom’ or ‘never’. Our research is available here.

posted by Postwatch at 9:34 AM

[F0zziebear]

I think we would generally agree that sunday/BH collections are a waste. If any postboxes do overflow I think it would be a tiny fraction.

What does this mean for staff? It will be interesting to see whether RM are able to extract the potential savings from removing sunday collections.

F0zz

[TrueBlueTerrier]

But it does mean no collections from some postboxes between Saturday 1230 and Monday 1200 - nearly 48 hours.

[ROCKY]

yes but remember most boxes actually hold very little mail these days so sun collections will not be missed that much, and of course they are expensive,will be interesing to see the knock on effect at m/c and those offices who have weekend staff,could be another small nail in a larger coffin for some offices

[F0zziebear]

Things like this can save serious money. However, more drastic changes will still be needed. Closure of probably 1/3 of mail centres still on the cards I think, we re-location of others towards road hubs with larger sorting machines.

Postcomm are a weird bunch. Sometimes seem to be helping RM and at others making their life difficult.

Hmmmm

[deadbox]

Surely with closed session talk underway at this very moment, the issue of whether Sunday collections are to be stopped or not, should have been contained within the CWU / RM joint agreement statement agreement NOT to let any part of the talks be communicated to the public / employee's

By stating that this IS going to happen ( and members are going to lose wages because of this decission ) , this is another case of RM breaking that statement

They have already anounced to staff that later starts are comming in on 17th Sept......Briefed to staff after the talks had begun

The CWU are sticking to their part of the bargin by NOT saying anything......PITY R.M. COULDN'T DO THE SAME !

Showing patience is one thing....BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE IS ANOTHER

[Big Daz]

Postwatch and postcomm are under no such restriction.

We would do well to remember that!

[dvbuk55]

Postwatch and postcomm are under no such restriction.

We would do well to remember that!

This change had already been notified prior to the agreement as we needed permission to drop the service - however it shows a certain insensitivity to the negotiators at what is a critical point.

[smartie]

I usually work sunday nights, and the mail we sort is from sat colections and sundays, very quiet on a sunday and monday night. I can see that they will be taking out these sunday nights, did hear rumours.

Just one more thing I had my passport hand delivered the other day by a courier, and on bank holiday monday i had a letter through my door from the council ( the electoral roll registration.) These companies are saving money on not letting royal mail deliver these items. We always use to do these. More business lost.
Plus on our local news TNT were taking over the postal service for the NHS in South Wales. OH MY WORD!!!

[DGP1]

I usually work sunday nights, and the mail we sort is from sat colections and sundays, very quiet on a sunday and monday night. I can see that they will be taking out these sunday nights, did hear rumours.

Just one more thing I had my passport hand delivered the other day by a courier, and on bank holiday monday i had a letter through my door from the council ( the electoral roll registration.) These companies are saving money on not letting royal mail deliver these items. We always use to do these. More business lost.
Plus on our local news TNT were taking over the postal service for the NHS in South Wales. OH MY WORD!!!

Passports have been delivered by couriers for a while now (I believe it was about criminal stealing them from RM) and TNT will be putting the NHS contract through DSA so we will still have to deliver it

[dvbuk55]

I usually work sunday nights, and the mail we sort is from sat colections and sundays, very quiet on a sunday and monday night. I can see that they will be taking out these sunday nights, did hear rumours.

Just one more thing I had my passport hand delivered the other day by a courier, and on bank holiday monday i had a letter through my door from the council ( the electoral roll registration.) These companies are saving money on not letting royal mail deliver these items. We always use to do these. More business lost.
Plus on our local news TNT were taking over the postal service for the NHS in South Wales. OH MY WORD!!!

Passports have been delivered by couriers for a while now (I believe it was about criminal stealing them from RM) and TNT will be putting the NHS contract through DSA so we will still have to deliver it

Couriers then must employ more honest people than we do and of course good old TNT can get them delivered just as fast as WE put them through the door. I just wonder what the cost of a courier is to the cost of Specials.

[DGP1]

I usually work sunday nights, and the mail we sort is from sat colections and sundays, very quiet on a sunday and monday night. I can see that they will be taking out these sunday nights, did hear rumours.

Just one more thing I had my passport hand delivered the other day by a courier, and on bank holiday monday i had a letter through my door from the council ( the electoral roll registration.) These companies are saving money on not letting royal mail deliver these items. We always use to do these. More business lost.
Plus on our local news TNT were taking over the postal service for the NHS in South Wales. OH MY WORD!!!

Passports have been delivered by couriers for a while now (I believe it was about criminal stealing them from RM) and TNT will be putting the NHS contract through DSA so we will still have to deliver it

Couriers then must employ more honest people than we do and of course good old TNT can get them delivered just as fast as WE put them through the door. I just wonder what the cost of a courier is to the cost of Specials.

I heard the cost of delivering passports is 20-25pounds (the guy who delivered mine a few years ago was in his car!!)