6 day USO

[stevejm]

Totally agree with the 4 day working week,i've seen lots of companies adopting this lately and are getting more productivity,never understood why RM didn't go for the 3 on 4 off model 3 12hr shifts,do your mail 1st return to office for an hour break then deliver your parcels no need for any agency,

Might be down to the average travel times between DOs and the start of walks. There must be loads of walks these days that are a long way from the location of the DO where DOs have been moved onto industrial estates

yep if they move our start times back we will be bang in rush hour and a normal 20 to 30 min drive to delivery will take an hour,this will cost an extra £1250 per year for man hours per delivery in my postcode only, it will cost royal mail an extra £37440 a year for our post code area not including doubling the fuel,that's roughly 7500 extra large parcels to deliver before you even start to make it viable in one postcode area,personally i can't see my customers sitting up until midnight to order for next day delivery to make it viable,maybe thats the reason to start new entrants on worse pay and conditions,i'm no economist but the figures don't add up . Surely its better to concentrate on being the best delivery company rather than the same as all the others,in my opinion we have the perfect model but what would i know im just a postman.I have an idea supply all households with a dedicated parcels bin for royal mail parcels only.

so the customer would have to stick up a different parcel bin for Amazon? another for DPD? And put a large bin on the other side of their gate for Hermes.

[Barnacle]

I would be in favour of a monthly rotation system where duty holders are moved to a different walk for a week each month.

Reason being that some have done the same walk for YEARS and YEARS and are very set in their ways and have no understanding of other walks.

Plus, learning something different is good for the brain so it’s in their best interests

Putting someone who has never done a business job, or even a particular business job out to some industrial estate to deliver that business job is idiotic, nothing else.

What on earth do you think happens when the person on the same walk for years is off? It isn’t always a case of some reserve person doing their walk every week when they’re off. People are thrown on walks with business areas they don’t know ALL the time. How do you think people learn it?

It would do people good to learn new walks instead of doing the same thing everyday and also, it would mean that people with the cushy numbers, would learn not to make sweeping statements on the assumption that everyone finishes early or that it’s really rocket science to learn an industrial estate.

[Seymour Buts]

If we stop delivering letters on a Saturday and just deliver parcels Royal Mails carbon footprint will go up

At the moment (in our office at least) most rounds have 2 in a van and each postie walks about 10miles

So that’s an area of 20miles per van covered on foot with an average of driving just 6 miles

For companies that wish to say they have reduced their carbon footprint the easiest way to do that if they rely on a delivery service is to switch to the company with the lowest carbon emissions which I could be wrong but I think that currently it is us

Companies like Amazon have launched a huge advertising campaign showing how they are lowering their carbon footprint in an attempt to appeal to the younger generation who care more about environmental issues

And don’t forget we deliver a lot of Amazon products, if they find a cheaper greener alternative that’s a lot of business lost

Also if they get rid of the Saturday mail delivery then Saturdays will be parcel only and it will only be a matter of time before all Saturday deliveries will be done by owner drivers

This sounds great not having to work weekends but if everyone is working Monday to Friday then cover duties will no longer be required

Which means redundancies or relocating some staff to the new parcel hubs

They want to reduce the USO to save money and the only way they can do that is by reducing staff costs (in other words redundancies)

So no I won’t be lobbying the government on behalf of Royal Mail to reduce the USO afraid I’ll be doing all I can to keep my job and my mates jobs

Job losses are inevitable, as the union accepts and acknowledge in the pathway to change agreement. As long as they're not compulsory it isn't an issue. Fact is whatever variant the Frence are doing, they like the vast majority of postal services are facing the fact letters are in terminal decline. It's how we manage that decline. If Monday to Friday letter deliveries mean more weekends off for staff then at least there's a benefit to us in the changes.

[Seymour Buts]

See What happens. The French love a good strike lol

I've been to France once, literally driving through it for about 30 minutes on route to Belgium and was caught up in a dispute. People were parking up on the motorway protesting against the price of fuel.

[fmrPOSTIE]

No need for a 6 day USO anymore. Most European countries don’t have this however why is Royal Mail being forced to carry this on ?

Mon / weds / Friday would actually be an improvement where I live.

I currently get 1 delivery a week.

[guardianangel]

Totally agree with the 4 day working week,i've seen lots of companies adopting this lately and are getting more productivity,never understood why RM didn't go for the 3 on 4 off model 3 12hr shifts,do your mail 1st return to office for an hour break then deliver your parcels no need for any agency,

Might be down to the average travel times between DOs and the start of walks. There must be loads of walks these days that are a long way from the location of the DO where DOs have been moved onto industrial estates

yep if they move our start times back we will be bang in rush hour and a normal 20 to 30 min drive to delivery will take an hour,this will cost an extra £1250 per year for man hours per delivery in my postcode only, it will cost royal mail an extra £37440 a year for our post code area not including doubling the fuel,that's roughly 7500 extra large parcels to deliver before you even start to make it viable in one postcode area,personally i can't see my customers sitting up until midnight to order for next day delivery to make it viable,maybe thats the reason to start new entrants on worse pay and conditions,i'm no economist but the figures don't add up . Surely its better to concentrate on being the best delivery company rather than the same as all the others,in my opinion we have the perfect model but what would i know im just a postman.I have an idea supply all households with a dedicated parcels bin for royal mail parcels only.

so the customer would have to stick up a different parcel bin for Amazon? another for DPD? And put a large bin on the other side of their gate for Hermes.

Yep but they wont they will just carry on doorstepping and using green bins

[postieblueshirt]

No need for a 6 day USO anymore. Most European countries don’t have this however why is Royal Mail being forced to carry this on ?

Mon / weds / Friday would actually be an improvement where I live.

I currently get 1 delivery a week.

Well at the moment it's keeping you in a job.

[Cedar_Room]

No need for a 6 day USO anymore. Most European countries don’t have this however why is Royal Mail being forced to carry this on ?

Mon / weds / Friday would actually be an improvement where I live.

I currently get 1 delivery a week.

Well at the moment it's keeping you in a job.

Check his username- I doubt he gives two hoots,unfortunately

[Splappy_McSplap]

It would do people good to learn new walks instead of doing the same thing everyday

Management material right here.

[postieblueshirt]

No need for a 6 day USO anymore. Most European countries don’t have this however why is Royal Mail being forced to carry this on ?

Mon / weds / Friday would actually be an improvement where I live.

I currently get 1 delivery a week.

Well at the moment it's keeping you in a job.

Check his username- I doubt he gives two hoots,unfortunately

lol never noticed that

[mattick]

Just adding my 10 cense here. Parcels nationwide are expected to
Increase 40% in the near 2 years as the high street moves more online. So there’s still loads of jobs within RM that are secure.

[Barnacle]

Just adding my 10 cense here. Parcels nationwide are expected to
Increase 40% in the near 2 years as the high street moves more online. So there’s still loads of jobs within RM that are secure.

If parcels processed by Royal Mail increase by 40% within the next 2 years I’ll change my name to Simon Thompson. Parcels decreased by 300m or so in 2022, sliding back towards pre-pandemic numbers so I’ll be amazed if they hit 2 billion parcels per year.

[pieoftheday]

So if RM were able to go to 3 letter deliveries a week what would be the reduction in delivery staff, keeping in mind a large amount of shared duties do one half one day then the other half the next day, effectively a 3 day service already?

[postieblueshirt]

So if RM were able to go to 3 letter deliveries a week what would be the reduction in delivery staff, keeping in mind a large amount of shared duties do one half one day then the other half the next day, effectively a 3 day service already?

they have been rejected to go to 5 theres no way they will get away with 3.

[DGH]

So if RM were able to go to 3 letter deliveries a week what would be the reduction in delivery staff, keeping in mind a large amount of shared duties do one half one day then the other half the next day, effectively a 3 day service already?

Well one person would effectively become a 2-walk duty holder . You'd still need holiday cover and day-off cover (but about half as much) as well as the dedicated parcel delivery people.

So about 40% redundant. Give or take. Maybe less if the walks were actually made achievable, but that seems unlikely.