International Distributi... Share Discussion Threads

[31337 c0d3r] 21/12/2022 12:23

Ask for compensation

[isis] 21/12/2022 12:20

I sent a card on the 5th from London to another London Borough on the 5th December - got there yesterday! lol

[not my real name] 21/12/2022 12:02

Kretinski just made his first move from 22% to 23%. Already said he was aiming for 25% minimum. Needs to buy around another 20 million to achieve that. All positive news.

RM not delivering any letters in this area before Xmas. All priority given to small parcels. If you haven't had the card from your granny with the fiver in it by now..........the outhouse thieves and vagabonds will probably get it!

All IMHO,

NMRN

[not my real name] 19/12/2022 16:50

Hi lefrene,

They're currently off the road for 2 days a week thanks to the strikes. Every little helps in the battle against climate change! LOL.

Another couple of months and RM will probably be out of business. Just goes to show that net zero IS achievable!

NMRN

[rudder] 19/12/2022 09:03

The business has been restructured along with the change of the business name. The RM side of the business has been ring fenced enabling it to fail. The union’s are leading the postal workers to slaughter.

[nakedmolerat] 16/12/2022 11:00

most businesses cannot spread out selling during the years as Christmas is when they make profit, same goes for hospitality. the train and postal strikes are damaging small and medium businesses. no winners this winter from any of this.

[isis] 16/12/2022 10:53

The UK is a very different place from the 70's upwards. Currently I am on holiday in the Caribbean with TUI the operator. On the Plane out from Gatwick nearly everyone was Foreign ie. East European etc
Change is something we all have to accept whether we like or not.

[freedomexpress747] 15/12/2022 22:58

Hi, a long time ago I posted (!) that RM was an uninvestable business. Latest situation makes me very sad... have known 3 excellent, conscientious posties, now all delighted to be retired. All implied terrible management, difficult working environment etc. Just today got a phone call from a friend instead of a card... business walking away never to return. It doesn't need to be like this. We (citizens of the UK) need a Royal Commission to work out what services we want in an internet age, what we can afford, how partnership in a business works (ie no veto from Red Robo's) etc. Not brain surgery here, requires give and take, co-operation etc.Please...

[tuftymatt] 15/12/2022 14:38

Thank you NMRN for your post as the insight is so valuable 👍🏻

[not my real name] 15/12/2022 13:38

Yieldmonkey,

Your cynicism, while not entirely accurate, is nevertheless well founded. Every Xmas RM rent or buy empty warehouses to use as overflow facilities (known as "outhouses").

The physical space inside the sorting offices simply cannot cope with the volume of post so mail is bulk delivered to the outhouses and brought in for sorting throughout the day. This works really well during normal times. The strikes have obviously had a major impact on these volumes and with the vast majority of employees on strike for 40% of the week they are struggling. Add that to the fact that they are entirely staffed by agency workers with a skeleton RM staff brought in to oversee the operation. What exacerbates the problem further is the fact that most hard working, law abiding, diligent people are already in full-time employment so the pool of agency workers they are forced to draw on may be from the less desirable sections of society. The job centers have thousands of vacancies to fill so the temptation to threaten to sanction claimants who turn down a job could well be irresistible. The result is a poorly trained, unmotivated group of socially inept individuals will little or no money being almost forced to accept a job they don't really want in a place which is very much like you would imagine Santas factory in Lapland looks like. Millions of lovely wrapped presents paraded in front of you, every minute of the day, with promises of hidden treasure inside each one. Hundreds of empty wrappers were found in the toilet of one of our local
outhouses recently. That should not really surprise anyone and is almost certainly replicated up and down the country.

Where I work security is a lot stronger than in the outhouses so the opportunity is lessened but by no means eradicated. We do have lots and lots of ad hoc agency workers and to be honest, I think we would be better off without them. They work as if in slow motion, put stuff in the wrong lines and generally get in the way of the regulars who are trying their best to get the job done properly.

I would like to say that much of what I have written here applies to all courier companies for all the same reasons. Just look at the national press today which is full of pictures of mail dumped in the car park where they are sorted into private cars for onward delivery by un-vetted and usually uninsured temporary couriers. We all place far too much importance on Xmas day and no-one can realistically expect delivery companies to increase their capacity by a huge percentage to cope with a completely manic 5 week period that takes in black friday and Xmas day.

Shops plan for Xmas from the summer onwards and supermarkets and suppliers are making and freezing from as early as January in some cases. (Think Xmas puddings etc)

If joe public wants a smooth and even delivery service year round........spread your buying and posting throughout the year.

All IMHO,

NMRN

[yieldmonkey] 14/12/2022 21:25

Aside from all our customer orders we post taking a lot longer to arrive, the last month or so has seen a huge increase in 1st class packets disappearing completely: 3+ weeks for a first class letter.

I wonder where all this mail disappears to? the cynic in me sees bags of non-tracked mail just getting binned!

Either way shockingly bad service - costing us a fortune and if we had any possible alternative we would move without hesitation!

[edmondj] 14/12/2022 15:33

Interesting read-across for CARD which has recently become quite a recovery play. Will people increasingly give up on cards though, due to delinquent post?

[isis] 14/12/2022 13:57

I hate to say but its true, the average Postie is not that bright and easily led. They make great Marxist Fodder, like The Print Unions did in the 80s.
They even started burning down Paper Mills and stuff,mostly were very overpaid and Nepotism was rife. Of course they want to protect their archaic Union Rights but its 2022 and things have moved on.

[lennonsalive] 14/12/2022 13:44

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/12/farewell-royal-mail-glorious-institution-facing-certain-death/

[this_is_me] 14/12/2022 13:35

The unions need to work with management to save their jobs.

[casholaa] 14/12/2022 13:12

They are entitled to strike and management are entitled not to give in.

[nakedmolerat] 14/12/2022 13:09

More than the demise of letter and card, but a chunk of parcel business too by businesses and also private senders.

[isis] 14/12/2022 13:00

It's very sad to see the Workers being manipulated to destroy their own jobs. This will accelerate the demise of Letter and Card sending at a time when people want to save money anyway.

[nakedmolerat] 14/12/2022 11:41

what a mess and misery this is for people who rely on the post system

[this_is_me] 14/12/2022 08:56

In 2021 the Royal Mail had 300 electric vans and during 2022 has added a further 3000 mix of medium sized and smaller e-vans. These are funded by the Ofgem - Optimum Prime Project which in turn is funded by our taxes. It intends to replace all its 41,500 vans by 2030, that is in 8 years, to achieve Net Zero emissions.
The Dorchester Delivery Office now have a mix of Peugeot e-Expert, Mercedes Benz e-Vito, and Peugeot e-Partner vans. The Mercedes vans with limited range will likely be replaced with e-Experts.

These vans replace the Fiat Doblo petrol van with a range of 300 miles and was £5,000 to £8,000 cheaper than the e-vans. Doing 100 miles a day for 300 days a year (excluding Sundays) and achieving 50 miles to the gallon costs £4,800 a year, and refuelling takes 15 minutes. Road tax is £180 per year and servicing probably £600 a year. The running cost is £5,580 per annum.

The Mercedes e-Vito can only do 80 miles maximum and less when the heater is used. Realistically the range is limited to a round trip of 60 miles. With this daily range the battery with a life of 100,000 miles will be 5 ½ years and cost about £12,000 to replace. This equates to £2,200 a year. Recharging the 50kWh battery takes 8 hours and costs 70p/kWh at the Royal Mail business electric rate. For 300 days this is £10,500 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year. The running cost is £13,300 per annum.

The Peugeot e-Expert doing 100 miles a day and a battery with a 100,000-mile lifespan will need to be replaced every 3 years at a cost of in excess of £15,000, that is £5,000 a year. Recharging the 75kWh battery takes 13 hours and for 300 days this is £15,750 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year. The running cost is £21,350 per annum.

The Peugeot e-Partner van can do up to 150 miles a day on a 50kWh battery. Doing 100 miles a day, recharging the battery will take 8 hours and for 300 days this is £10,500 a year.
The battery life of 100,000 miles will need replacing in 3 years at a cost of £12,000, that is £4,000 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year. The running cost is £20,500 per annum.

The running cost of having all Fiat Doblo’s would be £5580 x 41,500 = £231.6m a year.
With an equal mix of e-Expert & e-Partner at say £21,000 x 41,500 = £871.5m a year.

That will increase the present company loss of £1m a day to £3.1m a day.

Royal Mail will reach zero emissions by 2030 because it will go bankrupt.

Antony Nailer
UK Independence Party - Energy & Transport Spokesman

[tuftymatt] 14/12/2022 07:54

Thanks so much for that NMRN and please give us an update on the state of play on Friday after the next two strike days 👍🏻