Sheppard's Watch: The day of the community postman is over

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... z2hsoGZACB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

YOU have to feel sorry for the postmen and women who seem to have ridiculous time schedules to adhere to.
Four deliveries per minute.

That must be near impossible unless you have a row of terraced houses all fronting the street with letterboxes which behave themselves.

Years ago I delivered leaflets and it was a huge task, not helped by letterboxes at different levels, some trapping your fingers, others with dogs to contend with or long garden paths and gates with difficult catches.

The postie used to be a community person who would stop and chat and for some people may be the only person they see all day.

Now it's a quick sprint to the letterbox, pop the post through and a dash to the next house.

All this on top of the fear of redundancies. No wonder morale is low.

[SP115]

Amen.

[Brain Fury]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... z2hsoGZACB

YOU have to feel sorry for the postmen and women who seem to have ridiculous time schedules to adhere to.
Four deliveries per minute.

That must be near impossible unless you have a row of terraced houses all fronting the street with letterboxes which behave themselves.

Years ago I delivered leaflets and it was a huge task, not helped by letterboxes at different levels, some trapping your fingers, others with dogs to contend with or long garden paths and gates with difficult catches.

The postie used to be a community person who would stop and chat and for some people may be the only person they see all day.

Now it's a quick sprint to the letterbox, pop the post through and a dash to the next house.

All this on top of the fear of redundancies. No wonder morale is low.

I'd be quite happy see this rosy-hued, "all our yesterdays" Royal Mail. Of course you can't do it in a competitive market so you need to reintroduce the monopoly and almost certainly Government subsidies. Ask the people wringing their hands about the loss of a cherished national institution if they are prepared to pay more tax to have their postie stop for a chat or to have a Post Office Counter on every High Street. I suspect we know the answer.

[Burge]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... z2hsoGZACB

YOU have to feel sorry for the postmen and women who seem to have ridiculous time schedules to adhere to.
Four deliveries per minute.

That must be near impossible unless you have a row of terraced houses all fronting the street with letterboxes which behave themselves.

Years ago I delivered leaflets and it was a huge task, not helped by letterboxes at different levels, some trapping your fingers, others with dogs to contend with or long garden paths and gates with difficult catches.

The postie used to be a community person who would stop and chat and for some people may be the only person they see all day.

Now it's a quick sprint to the letterbox, pop the post through and a dash to the next house.

All this on top of the fear of redundancies. No wonder morale is low.

I'd be quite happy see this rosy-hued, "all our yesterdays" Royal Mail. Of course you can't do it in a competitive market so you need to reintroduce the monopoly and almost certainly Government subsidies. Ask the people wringing their hands about the loss of a cherished national institution if they are prepared to pay more tax to have their postie stop for a chat or to have a Post Office Counter on every High Street. I suspect we know the answer.

of course you could do it in a competitive market, we were doing it in a competitive market. But we don't need to ask those people for extra funding now do we? not now the money to improve the business will be provided by shareholders. Oh, oops, silly me, they will pay for it hand over fist. Ask them how they will feel about prices leap frogging out of their means regardless while the service plummets to feed the fat cats at the top. We all know the answer to that.

The picture painted by privatisation and the added cuts, cuts, cuts will not be a pretty one so don't underestimate the value of giving customers time of day it's all the more important the company recognises the excellence of their staff now and appreciate the brand is highly regarded because of us not in spite of us. Moya seems to have forgotten that now she's off playing FTSE and dipping into her own pension pot.

bonuses for managers for unworkable budget cuts and B&H isn't the way to develop this business. RM has to properly support and respect its staff but we all fear and know the shareholders (and I don't mean us, ours don't count until 2016 - 2018, if we're still here) will come first and last.

[PostieSP1]

The postie used to be a community person who would stop and chat and for some people may be the only person they see all day.

Aah so that's where i'm going wrong in todays job,i still act like it's the 1980's

[Brain Fury]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... z2hsoGZACB

YOU have to feel sorry for the postmen and women who seem to have ridiculous time schedules to adhere to.
Four deliveries per minute.

That must be near impossible unless you have a row of terraced houses all fronting the street with letterboxes which behave themselves.

Years ago I delivered leaflets and it was a huge task, not helped by letterboxes at different levels, some trapping your fingers, others with dogs to contend with or long garden paths and gates with difficult catches.

The postie used to be a community person who would stop and chat and for some people may be the only person they see all day.

Now it's a quick sprint to the letterbox, pop the post through and a dash to the next house.



All this on top of the fear of redundancies. No wonder morale is low.

I'd be quite happy see this rosy-hued, "all our yesterdays" Royal Mail. Of course you can't do it in a competitive market so you need to reintroduce the monopoly and almost certainly Government subsidies. Ask the people wringing their hands about the loss of a cherished national institution if they are prepared to pay more tax to have their postie stop for a chat or to have a Post Office Counter on every High Street. I suspect we know the answer.

of course you could do it in a competitive market, we were doing it in a competitive market. But we don't need to ask those people for extra funding now do we? not now the money to improve the business will be provided by shareholders. Oh, oops, silly me, they will pay for it hand over fist. Ask them how they will feel about prices leap frogging out of their means regardless while the service plummets to feed the fat cats at the top. We all know the answer to that.

The picture painted by privatisation and the added cuts, cuts, cuts will not be a pretty one so don't underestimate the value of giving customers time of day it's all the more important the company recognises the excellence of their staff now and appreciate the brand is highly regarded because of us not in spite of us. Moya seems to have forgotten that now she's off playing FTSE and dipping into her own pension pot.

bonuses for managers for unworkable budget cuts and B&H isn't the way to develop this business. RM has to properly support and respect its staff but we all fear and know the shareholders (and I don't mean us, ours don't count until 2016 - 2018, if we're still here) will come first and last.

What competition was there "years ago" (as referred to in the OP) - say pre-2006? I suppose we could try defining chatting with members of the public as a competitive advantage but I'm not sure it will work. Mail delivery is a commodity not a public service and the customers that send most of the mail couldn't give a damn if the postie chats with the lady on the corner or not. What they want is the mail delivered on time, accurately and at a competitive price. If our competitors can do that and we can't then no amount of community work will help us retain the business.

[aiden01]

what do you class as delivered on time before 1pm or after 7pm or anytime or just as long as it get,s there however long it takes.

[clashcityrocker]

If our competitors can do that and we can't then no amount of community work will help us retain the business.

I'm sure if you make a modicum of effort you will find stories of posties that have saved lives, prevented fires and all sorts while not carrying out any sort of community work in the communities in which they live and work.
People like us. They trust us. You can't put a value on that.
And it is a sad indictment that some people can't/won't see that and can't make that work to the advantage of the business.

[Brain Fury]

what do you class as delivered on time before 1pm or after 7pm or anytime or just as long as it get,s there however long it takes.

What point are you making? We have some services that specify a "delivered by" time and others that don't. The customer will expect what they have paid for. If it's a 1st class letter then the customer will expect it to be delivered next day. We aim at 3.00pm for urban and 4.00pm for rural deliveries but we don't guarantee it.

[Brain Fury]

If our competitors can do that and we can't then no amount of community work will help us retain the business.

I'm sure if you make a modicum of effort you will find stories of posties that have saved lives, prevented fires and all sorts while not carrying out any sort of community work in the communities in which they live and work.
People like us. They trust us. You can't put a value on that.
And it is a sad indictment that some people can't/won't see that and can't make that work to the advantage of the business.

That's great - really - but it's not a service we can sell to the people that give us most of our business. I just don't see going to a bulk mailer and saying we might deliver a bit late but we picked up Mrs Miggins prescription for her. They are paying us to deliver their mail and that's all. It goes back to my original point, if the public want RM to do community work and the Post Office to be the hub of the community then it has to be a public service and as far as I am concerned a monopoly. I'd be quite happy for us to be that kind of organisation again but you would need to undo the last 7 years changes in the market. It's not going to happen is it?

[clashcityrocker]

That's great - really - but it's not a service we can sell to the people that give us most of our business. I just don't see going to a bulk mailer and saying we might deliver a bit late but we picked up Mrs Miggins prescription for her.

But I thought we were simply managing the decline in letters while we became a parcel delivery company.
In which case having a trusted and respected frontline workforce is surely a prerequisite.
It's called a Unique Selling Point.

[Brain Fury]

That's great - really - but it's not a service we can sell to the people that give us most of our business. I just don't see going to a bulk mailer and saying we might deliver a bit late but we picked up Mrs Miggins prescription for her.

But I thought we were simply managing the decline in letters while we became a parcel delivery company.
In which case having a trusted and respected frontline workforce is surely a prerequisite.
It's called a Unique Selling Point.

The same principle applies to parcels customers. Do you think Amazon cares that posties are part of the community?

[justdeno]

That's great - really - but it's not a service we can sell to the people that give us most of our business. I just don't see going to a bulk mailer and saying we might deliver a bit late but we picked up Mrs Miggins prescription for her.

But I thought we were simply managing the decline in letters while we became a parcel delivery company.
In which case having a trusted and respected frontline workforce is surely a prerequisite.
It's called a Unique Selling Point.

The same principle applies to parcels customers. Do you think Amazon cares that posties are part of the community?

The problem is that most posties take pride in their job. Competitors mostly do not. Throwing parcels over 6 feet fencing(happens to me regularly), just one example. Management higher up have no knowledge of what a postie does. Soon we will be doorstepping just like the others and costing RM £s in compo. At the moment the public like to see their postie, but no much longer.

[Brain Fury]

That's great - really - but it's not a service we can sell to the people that give us most of our business. I just don't see going to a bulk mailer and saying we might deliver a bit late but we picked up Mrs Miggins prescription for her.

But I thought we were simply managing the decline in letters while we became a parcel delivery company.
In which case having a trusted and respected frontline workforce is surely a prerequisite.
It's called a Unique Selling Point.

The same principle applies to parcels customers. Do you think Amazon cares that posties are part of the community?

The problem is that most posties take pride in their job. Competitors mostly do not. Throwing parcels over 6 feet fencing(happens to me regularly), just one example. Management higher up have no knowledge of what a postie does. Soon we will be doorstepping just like the others and costing RM £s in compo. At the moment the public like to see their postie, but no much longer.

I think there's truth in that but the change is an inevitable result of the decision to break the monopoly. I didn't agree with it but it's gone and isn't coming back.In any case, wasn't doorstepping the biggest or second biggest source of complaints from our customers not long ago?

[justdeno]

Doorstepping is a problem, but that is the way(in my opinion)new posties are pressurised to work. They see competitors doing this and think its ok. We are the frontline staff. We have more to do with the public than any manager will ever have. We answer questions daily eg redirections, keepsafes. This is the past and I'll accept it(until I get another job)