The Telegraph: Royal Mail suitor to spend £800m and take on Amazon

[Smoothbackground]

Good to hear. So which year is that figure from? Do you have a weblink to the source?

Its in the last financial results

https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/fu ... GC7426ISA6


53 weeks March 2024
Volume (m units)
Royal Mail

Total Parcels 1,295
Domestic Parcels (excluding
international) 1,120
International Parcels 175
Addressed letters (excluding elections). 6,736


Total letter revenue also grew by 4.4% due to the price rises. Whilst I agree that our future is in parcels, we are usually the cheapest couriers when it comes to delivering parcels under 1kg. Surely, it makes sense to continue delivering letters in the usual way with these smaller parcels?

Thanks for the link.

So those figures refer to total letter and parcel volumes rather than individual recipient “receiving habits”. That 6,736 figure includes mail going to bulk customers — HMRC, HMCTS, large business customers etc.

Unless my maths is failing me, the stats don’t support Barnacle’s claim that “customers receive 6x more letters than parcels per year”.

And yes, I completely agree with you, Pete, that it makes sense to continue delivering letters in the usual way with smaller parcels. My view is that anything non-postable should be given to a DPR driver, as well as customer collections and postboxes, leaving posties to deliver just mail, postable tracked items plus special deliveries.

I can understand your obsession with DPR and belief that it is the dog wagging the tail, because it’s what you do and all you see are parcels.

However, you and your fellow DPR drivers are not delivering extra parcels, you are delivering the same parcels which used to be delivered by posties during their walks.

DPR has been developed using mail infrastructure and vans etc. it hasn’t been developed as a stand alone unit. This means that the true costs of DPR are hidden within the costs of mail delivery. The only time costs are revealed even slightly, is in staffing costs which have ballooned and all to deliver the same volume of parcels.

So I can understand your personal obsession with DPR, but I look at the business as a whole and thus far DPR has been a monumental cost which has not increased parcel volumes to a level which would justify its existence.

Barnacle, I do a walk twice a week at the minute so speak with a tiny bit of knowledge. Just how do you fit two Yorks of large in a Peugeot Partner then?

[scotchy1962]

I would have thought the CWU would be on a big push for doing the job as per the book - just that. Do your job exactly as described and that's it. If there is one thing the union could bang the drum about it is probably that you must do the job to the letter and not a bit more. Work your hours, following the rules, dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

Work to rule is industrial action. For real. You can bet it would be challenged in court by the end of the first delivery*.

*I love seeing that on union ballots. Have they not updated their stationary in twenty years?

Not work to rule, simply doing the job as instructed by the company to the letter is just that........ nothing to do with the union just common sense and what we are meant to be doing anyway

[LouBarlow]

People still obsessing over letters? I can go weeks without delivering to some of my customers. I have to manually number and deliver D2Ds to a good percentage of my round just to get rid of them. And the reason why is obvious - newer estates with young families, receive hardly any letters nowadays. But parcels, by the shedload. It is a dying market. I don’t see how people can still be arguing otherwise.

[postslippete]

People still obsessing over letters? I can go weeks without delivering to some of my customers. I have to manually number and deliver D2Ds to a good percentage of my round just to get rid of them. And the reason why is obvious - newer estates with young families, receive hardly any letters nowadays. But parcels, by the shedload. It is a dying market. I don’t see how people can still be arguing otherwise.

Letters volumes might have fallen but they still account for just under half of our revenue and we still have a USO on them. Whilst your round might be clearing, the performance results last year show that none of the 120 postal areas in the UK hit the target for 93% of 1st class mail to be delivered within one working day. That is why they were fined by Ofcom. Parcels should not be prioritised over letters but unfortunately they are.

[SpacePhoenix]

A good few "parcels" are technically "large letters"

[Barnacle]

A good few "parcels" are technically "large letters"

That’s been something that irks me for some time. What they are counting as this or that, really matters when they are trying to boost one and drain another.

[LouBarlow]

People still obsessing over letters? I can go weeks without delivering to some of my customers. I have to manually number and deliver D2Ds to a good percentage of my round just to get rid of them. And the reason why is obvious - newer estates with young families, receive hardly any letters nowadays. But parcels, by the shedload. It is a dying market. I don’t see how people can still be arguing otherwise.

What a wonderful delivery office!

It sure is CarryingMGMT

[TopperGas]

People still obsessing over letters? I can go weeks without delivering to some of my customers. I have to manually number and deliver D2Ds to a good percentage of my round just to get rid of them. And the reason why is obvious - newer estates with young families, receive hardly any letters nowadays. But parcels, by the shedload. It is a dying market. I don’t see how people can still be arguing otherwise.

I don't think hardly anybody receives addresses letters it's mostly junk mail, if customers ever got the option of opting out on a national database, like they can with phone calls, mail would drop off a cliff overnight. Surprised somebody hasn't already suggested it as part of a Green agenda!!

[Barnacle]

People still obsessing over letters? I can go weeks without delivering to some of my customers. I have to manually number and deliver D2Ds to a good percentage of my round just to get rid of them. And the reason why is obvious - newer estates with young families, receive hardly any letters nowadays. But parcels, by the shedload. It is a dying market. I don’t see how people can still be arguing otherwise.

I don't think hardly anybody receives addresses letters it's mostly junk mail, if customers ever got the option of opting out on a national database, like they can with phone calls, mail would drop off a cliff overnight. Surprised somebody hasn't already suggested it as part of a Green agenda!!

One person’s junk is another’s treasure.

[kazardaimenu]

We already take on Amazon, take on all their parcels.

[LouBarlow]

We already take on Amazon, take on all their parcels.

I think this depends on location. They still have their own couriers round here, though we do tend to still deliver their smaller items. Also new estates. Until their system recognises new addresses we tend to do those too. Which can be significant.

[claretandblue]

We already take on Amazon, take on all their parcels.

I think this depends on location. They still have their own couriers round here, though we do tend to still deliver their smaller items. Also new estates. Until their system recognises new addresses we tend to do those too. Which can be significant.

It's the other way round here, we deliver their massive, badly packed boxes.

[Mr Rush]

It's the other way round here, we deliver their massive, badly packed boxes.

Yep, had to put more than one Prime Day box in a damage bag. I assume these large ones are dumped on us as a preventative measure because Amazon know their drivers [have to] doorstep everything.

[Barnacle]

It's the other way round here, we deliver their massive, badly packed boxes.

Yep, had to put more than one Prime Day box in a damage bag. I assume these large ones are dumped on us as a preventative measure because Amazon know their drivers [have to] doorstep everything.

Oddly, we were not inundated with Amazon Prime Day deliveries. I don’t know why because we do get the usual raft of Amazon stuff but we actually had an excess of DPR drivers with absolutely nothing to do and so they have been tasked with putting in D2Ds.

There’s an obvious way that this company could instantly cut costs but they’re refusing to see it.

[Smoothbackground]

[Parcels]… earned the company more than half of its £7.8bn in revenues last year. That trend shows no signs of slowing, with parcel volumes up 11pc in the three months to the end of June.

According to The Telegraph.