Current Industrial Action

[giveemenoughrope]

Look I'm getting a bit sick of this. I do work 12-14 hour days. Look at the time of my posts. Right now I have just finished packing 1165 orders to go out tomorrow. Orders which I started packing at 10am this morning. What have YOU been doing today. Oh that's RIGHT it's probably your DAY OFF!!! So while I have forgotten what that means and I am sat panicking about how many of those 1165 orders will get there on time or at all, I hope you enjoyed your day.

Seeing as I have already said I rely solely on RM it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out I must own a mail order business and it's hardly a giant leap from that to figure out that I have to spend time using the internet so it's not really a big push to think I can spend 3 minutes at the end of my day posting here is it.

Oh wait... apparently it is because I've just had to spell it out.

WILL YOU GIVE ME YOUR GOODS/SERVICES FOR FREE IF I BUY FROM YOU? THOUGHT NOT WHY SHOULD WE AND YOUR EMPLOYEES WORK FOR FREE THEN?

When RM have recently been "losing" between 3-5% of everything I post (yes 3-5%) I claim for the loss from RM but those customers will probably never come back because as most mail order companies will know, buyers tend to blame the company not the courier so unknown future profits are lost for something which is not my fault.

It also takes about 20 minutes per lost item to fill out the forms. 20 minutes for which I AM NOT PAID it is just to claim back what I am rightfully owed from RM because THEY "lost" the item. Time is money and it's just the same as you. Putting unpaid time into something which you just should not have to do.

So don't lecture me about how working 10 minutes over your hours unpaid is unfair. After spending the last 10 years getting paid full hours and then going home early with full pay you can't work all the hours you are paid and give just a little back here and there to a company that has given you such a cushy option for the last 10 years while losing money hand over fist!

10 years ago I used to work for Sky installing systems and I had the same deal. I got paid for 8 hours but often only worked 5 and went home. But when I was asked later to go back out or give a little bit back by working over on different days I wouldn't moan. You've had 10 years of being paid over your hours. Crozier brought the hammer down on this (and quite right to) and you dont' like it.

I'm afraid these people lay it on a touch too thick and some of these posts are just a tad too well written .

Why thank you. I take that as a compliment. I acknowledge your underlying suspicion but I'll gloss over it quickly because that's all the response it deserves. I lay it on thick because having a succesful and reliable delivery service is the most fundamental part of how I earn my living and because we don't have a fair competion for delivery of items of my size and weight I am held hostage by RM. In tough economic conditions I have enough on my plate already without this.

Break the whole bloody company and infrastructure up and flog it off to DHL, Fedex and the rest. Yes prices will rise but maybe we'll have a reliable service. And if you think you have a hard life now, do you think a private company wouldn't have hard targets, want you to be fast, efficient, work every minute of your paid hours. Do you think they would even bother to keep half of you on.

You don't know you're born.

[Si67]

Sooo.... Can we count on your support???

[coxie]

Thats the trouble mate when you have a business that relys on another business to do your work for you while you sit at home on your harris and make money. You try doing our job for just 1 day and then come back here and give your opinion again and I bet its a complete contrast. Fact is we are striking and with good reason, if you have a business where you need to get items to people then you will either just have to wait or put your hand in your pocket and use another courier to do the work for you. Only us postmen know what we are going through so we wont be made to feel guilty by people who only have their own interests at heart and do not know what we go through day in day out, I bet your sat in your warm office or at home at christmas while we are out in the freezing cold ice deliverying your parcels.

[clashcityrocker]

You don't know you're born.

I am a bit upset that you have chosen the name of a Clash album as your user name.Joe will be turning in his grave.
We are going on strike because we do not have any confidence in the management to give the public a decent service.We have seen many changes over the last few years and none of them have improved the service to the public.We have seen more proposals and none of them will improve the service to the public.If your business relies on Royal Mail you too must want a reliable service.We are therefore on the same side .So can we expect to see you on a picket line?

[bitchface]

not all of us have been here ten years or more. I've been here 2 years and haven't gotten finished before my time more than 10 times.yet day in and day out im coerced with threats to my job if i don't stay out till its all gone,then they added more when they sacked 3 posties for dubious reasons. (not all at the same time)and i am a part time worker.i agreed to do 6 hours a day for a reason, if i wanted 7 or 8 i wouldn't have taken the job.i would agree full timers have had it good but us part timers never have.and we are soon to be all part timers .

and how stupid can you be split up the mail service to different companies mean you'll pay more but get a better service...
yeah just look at the train service now,case proved
or the bus service.
ok utility companies
water companies.

no they are all worse..

but feel free to split it up,

[maleorder]

Thats the trouble mate when you have a business that relys on another business to do your work for you

I'm afraid you need to think about that statement? Virtually all businesses rely on others to do work for them - its called the economy. Those businesses who do work for others are called suppliers and those for whom the work is done are called customers - if customers don't get the service they need they normally go elsewhere. At this rate we will have alternatives to go to.

I think this is the real heart of the problem you don't think of us as customers who deserve your support.

We have seen more proposals and none of them will improve the service to the public

In all honesty we are a large user of your services and haven't seen any worsening of the service in the last 12 months - except the problems caused by ongoing strikes. That's my honest experience.

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

[BELIAL]

I think this is the real heart of the problem you don't think of us as customers who deserve your support.

In all honesty we are a large user of your services and haven't seen any worsening of the service in the last 12 months - except the problems caused by ongoing strikes. That's my honest experience.

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

You are right about the root of the problem, but you confuse the Management culture with that of the postal worker. Hand on heart , I can tell you of endless worktime learning sessions consisting of DVD presentations by an RM director hammering home the point that our customers were purely banks, financial services ,utilities and insurance companies, such was their traffic dominance all other postal users were to be disregarded : and from a purely commercial sense you can see the logic of ignoring you Granny Smiths. Hand on heart again ,I can tell you this attitude had postal workers spitting feathers because they know on a personal basis many of those Granny Smiths who they are told are' worthless and not our true customers'.
Heres another thing that may interest you as a frequent postal service user.
Assuming your traffic volume is too low to qualify for DSA do you realise that every time you pay postage on an item, a percentage of that payment in effect is used to subsidise the cost of that account charges letter your bank sent to you See, your gas bill,bank statement etc costs those firms a lot less in postage than you have to pay,we are forced to deliver at a loss so it doesn't take a genius to work out who pays . Maybe you hadn't noticed that bit of the service changing

[maleorder]

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

and I see a lot of it - packets not letters I have to say - but our post arrives every day around 10 which is fine by me.

I refer to our buyers - other than the usual CV, BR and London postcodes we have not experienced an increase in customer complaints. We only use Tracked and 1st class and more often than not we get - 'cant believe you got it to me so fast' messages.

PS please don't call me an idiot - an idiot I am not and neither do I assume others are unless of course they prove otherwise...

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

and I see a lot of it - packets not letters I have to say - but our post arrives every day around 10 which is fine by me.

Current plans to improve the system involve the introduction of Walk Sequencing machines which will speed up the sorting of letter for rounds. However, because this has been added as an extra step RM have plans to change the licence agreement on last delivery times to 3pm. Those plans means deliveries will get bigger but more importantly later- Plans are for deliveries to start at around 1130/1200 and finish around 4-4:30pm

PS please don't call me an idiot - an idiot I am not and neither do I assume others are unless of course they prove otherwise...

As a Forum administrator I have dealt with that - he was wrong to do so and I apologise.

[neilf]

Although I am not a business customer (merely a residential one!) I just wanted to highlight something said that (and you'll forgive me for paraphrasing) it's OK that deliveries turn up at 10.

I remember a time when I used to get 2 deliveries - one before I went to work (7am or so) and another at around 12 or so. Then it became one delivery at around 9 or 10.

Now I get one delivery, usually at 13:00 or so although it has been as late as 15:00.

So yes, I have seen a negative change in service over the course of the past few years.

For this, I don't blame the "rank and file" postal staff - this seems to be down to decisions taken by RM senior managers / policymakers. Whilst I appreciate the need for modernisation of the Royal Mail service, surely even the most discontented business user must have seen a gradual deterioration in the service?

I do fear that this strike may signal the end of Royal Mail as we know it, but it was (in my eyes at least) heading downhill anyway. I am quite glad that the staff seem, judging by this forum at least, to be passionate enough about what they do and the business they work for, to try and make a stand for themselves and ultimately for the customer.

Just my tuppence, for what it's worth.

[coxie]

agree with the last poster, the royal mails idea of modernization is just to cut jobs and make the service later, its not about modernizing its about saving money which means a very poor service.

[G O Root]

Look I'm getting a bit sick of this. I do work 12-14 hour days. Look at the time of my posts. Right now I have just finished packing 1165 orders to go out tomorrow. Orders which I started packing at 10am this morning. What have YOU been doing today. Oh that's RIGHT it's probably your DAY OFF!!! So while I have forgotten what that means and I am sat panicking about how many of those 1165 orders will get there on time or at all, I hope you enjoyed your day.

Seeing as I have already said I rely solely on RM it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out I must own a mail order business and it's hardly a giant leap from that to figure out that I have to spend time using the internet so it's not really a big push to think I can spend 3 minutes at the end of my day posting here is it.

Oh wait... apparently it is because I've just had to spell it out.

I don't wish to be rude, but all i've heard from a lot of customers in this current dispute is " Lazy Postmen" "Don't know your Born" etc etc. The best one of course is " if you don't like your job then leave". If your job is as hellish as you lay out in your post then why do it?. Why not get yourself a cushy little number - a postman perhaps. Just a thought.

WILL YOU GIVE ME YOUR GOODS/SERVICES FOR FREE IF I BUY FROM YOU? THOUGHT NOT WHY SHOULD WE AND YOUR EMPLOYEES WORK FOR FREE THEN?

When RM have recently been "losing" between 3-5% of everything I post (yes 3-5%) I claim for the loss from RM but those customers will probably never come back because as most mail order companies will know, buyers tend to blame the company not the courier so unknown future profits are lost for something which is not my fault.

It also takes about 20 minutes per lost item to fill out the forms. 20 minutes for which I AM NOT PAID it is just to claim back what I am rightfully owed from RM because THEY "lost" the item. Time is money and it's just the same as you. Putting unpaid time into something which you just should not have to do.

So don't lecture me about how working 10 minutes over your hours unpaid is unfair. After spending the last 10 years getting paid full hours and then going home early with full pay you can't work all the hours you are paid and give just a little back here and there to a company that has given you such a cushy option for the last 10 years while losing money hand over fist!

10 years ago I used to work for Sky installing systems and I had the same deal. I got paid for 8 hours but often only worked 5 and went home. But when I was asked later to go back out or give a little bit back by working over on different days I wouldn't moan. You've had 10 years of being paid over your hours. Crozier brought the hammer down on this (and quite right to) and you dont' like it.

I'm afraid these people lay it on a touch too thick and some of these posts are just a tad too well written .

Why thank you. I take that as a compliment. I acknowledge your underlying suspicion but I'll gloss over it quickly because that's all the response it deserves. I lay it on thick because having a succesful and reliable delivery service is the most fundamental part of how I earn my living and because we don't have a fair competion for delivery of items of my size and weight I am held hostage by RM. In tough economic conditions I have enough on my plate already without this.

Break the whole bloody company and infrastructure up and flog it off to DHL, Fedex and the rest. Yes prices will rise but maybe we'll have a reliable service. And if you think you have a hard life now, do you think a private company wouldn't have hard targets, want you to be fast, efficient, work every minute of your paid hours. Do you think they would even bother to keep half of you on.

You don't know you're born.

I don't wish to be rude, but all i've heard from a lot of customers in this current dispute is " Lazy Postmen" "Don't know your Born" etc etc. The best one of course is " if you don't like your job then leave". If your job is as hellish as you lay out in your post then why do it?. Why not get yourself a cushy little number - a postman perhaps. Just a thought

[bitchface]

PS please don't call me an idiot - an idiot I am not and neither do I assume others are unless of course they prove otherwise...

i think this may ahve been me.as i got a note from the moderator admonishing me.ofcoarse i apologise sincerly.i donot mean to say you are an idiot.far from it.i simply meant you had some very idiotic ideas and have complete tunnel vision.only thinking of yourself.
you get your mail at 10 so royal mails a ok..where as you are probably the first call on posties round and everyone else gets it later.there are many ,many more firms who do not get it till well after lunch.and royal mail tell them hard cheese,if you want it in the morning you have to pay extra for a timed delivery slot.
how is that better for them????????????

EVERYBODY used to get it before breakfast..wasnt that actually better?
and its very good that your customers say wow you got it here so fast.but that is despite royal mail "moderistion"
if us posties all did only what we are paid for(as royal mail keep saying,thats all they want)half the population wouldnt get any from one day to the next.their are now the bare minimum amount of posties.(thats guys who do the final mile)anyone going sick throws the whole system into meltdown.out comes the manager to cadjoule us all into taking out extra work,with bribes threats and if all else fails.paid overtime(which they try to weasel out of later)

but again i am sorry your arnt a complete idiot.you have your own buisness which is more than me.

[outandabout]

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

and I see a lot of it - packets not letters I have to say - but our post arrives every day around 10 which is fine by me.

Current plans to improve the system involve the introduction of Walk Sequencing machines which will speed up the sorting of letter for rounds. However, because this has been added as an extra step RM have plans to change the licence agreement on last delivery times to 3pm. Those plans means deliveries will get bigger but more importantly later- Plans are for deliveries to start at around 1130/1200 and finish around 4-4:30pm

Sounds like a good thing. For most people who are out at work, providing the mail is there by say 5.30pm, what does it matter? I cant see why most customers would really be bothered, how urgent is most post anyway? Anything urgent is sent by email, packages you expect to take longer.

[Stormproof]

Don't shoot me I'm telling it as I see it.

and I see a lot of it - packets not letters I have to say - but our post arrives every day around 10 which is fine by me.

Current plans to improve the system involve the introduction of Walk Sequencing machines which will speed up the sorting of letter for rounds. However, because this has been added as an extra step RM have plans to change the licence agreement on last delivery times to 3pm. Those plans means deliveries will get bigger but more importantly later- Plans are for deliveries to start at around 1130/1200 and finish around 4-4:30pm

Sounds like a good thing. For most people who are out at work, providing the mail is there by say 5.30pm, what does it matter? I cant see why most customers would really be bothered, how urgent is most post anyway? Anything urgent is sent by email, packages you expect to take longer.

Yeah its going to be great delivering mail in the winter , pitch black, icy and in the summer extreme heat .....mad dogs and englishmen etc