Where can our customers go?

[POSTMAN]

Just a thought,bit of RM propaganda with the 'we're gonna lose business' malarkey,just curious where the f**k are they going to go?
I mean,we're the only lot doing E2E,TNT wont be able to sort anything out within the next few years.
Customers have only gone to others because we can't compete (because of regulations) on price,i'm presuming they know
we deliver the darned stuff.
So in my book,they can't go elsewhere to get it delivered.

Over to you FOzz.

[DirtyHarry]

Very good point, POSTMAN. Perhaps , Leighton's got a direct hotline to
Santa Claus , and with a little bit of begging , a little bit of pleading , and a little bit of grovelling , he
hopes to get Santa to get the sleigh out of the garage , the rheindeer out of mothballs , and BINGO !
Big Al and little Adam have saved the day once again.

[F0zziebear]

Postman, your comment is completely right in the current situation. However, it is widely known (in the press) that TNT have done some trials around the country and it would come as no surprise if DHL had also been doing some work as well. Now neither company can go out and deliver their mail tomorrow, but they have a licence to collect, sort and deliver mail, but currently choose to go Downstream Access.

If as I said in another post you all went out on a prolonged strike then TNT/DHL would probably mobilise a workforce to go and deliver mail to certain places. They have been using improved technology (better than Pegasus) to map delivery routes. What both companies need is critical mass of mail to make a delivery financially viable. I wouldn't be surprised if Postcomm en-acted some type of emergency powers to help both companies achieve this. Postwatch would welcome it, customers would as well.

This is why I don't think a national all out strike around the bonfire solidarity shite from the 80s will work to your advantage. Once these boys have got their foot in the door there won't be any turning back as demonstrated in prevous liberalisations of public sector businesses.

I don't mean to unduly scare you lot. Please also note that if any of these companies did start to deliver it would only be in a few places, but mainly highly concentrated urban areas, which would capture media attention even though they managed to deliver only a tiny fraction of the mail.

Let me know what you think

F0zz

[DirtyHarry]

Fozzie mate , I hate to rain on your parade and all that , but do you really believe
that TNT et al, could simply pick up , sort , and deliver the millions and millions of letters , parcels , packets , and not
forgetting JUNK MAIL , not just on one strike day, but EVERY DAY ? ............... If so , why don't they do that now ???
I believe they simply do not have the infrastructure needed to carry out successfully such an operation.. Royal Mail,
despite their pathetic poverty pleas, still retain the Lion's share of the postal market and , and I greatly suspect
always will, do so.

A strike would do less harm than the continued decline that Leighton & Crozier are currently masterminding.

The simple fact is , the day I see a postie , other than a Royal Mail one , down my street pushing a trolley packed to
capacity , with a full pouch on his back , and 3 or 4 drop bags to pick up , I'll eat this computer I'm on !!!!

Anyway, when all's said and done , we just can't sit back and allow our jobs , our terms & conditions , and our self respect , to be
simply walked all over. These things aren't given to us , they were hard fought for and hard won , I for one will never ,
never , allow anybody for whatever reason, to drive down my standard of living which , Christ knows , isn't that great as it is.

Back your union , your union backs you , vote "YES" to industrial action in the upcoming ballot.

[F0zziebear]

Apart from personally building a rival E2E company to rival Royalmail I don't actually know what I'm talking about! To put it simply both TNT & DHL are weighing up the economics and possibly the business model to approach doing this. TNT are much closer to being able to offer an E2E service but there's a couple of things in the way:

1. The quality risk, and how customers will respond
2. The required investment and cashflow upfront prior to making a profit

The zonal tariff's make it much harder to offer a cherry-picking approach. You should thank RM for at least having the intelligence to put that in place.

Please remember that in Holland and in parts of Germany rival posties are out there delivering, so don't keep your head in the sand over this one.

Let's also remember that it's 4 years since the last major change, and in many cases the levels of savings were not achieved, but in many cases fudged to save face. Further operational change has been o the cards for ages.

I recommend you go to a TNT/Uk Mail or DHL mail processing facility to see what's going on. Brand new machines that sort much faster than RM's with fewer people. Don't be surprised when they finally open their delivery units that they are also much leaner than RM's this is just reality.

The best thing to do in my opinion is to fight over what is most important. Accept that another 30-40,000 jobs overall including managerial will have to go over 3 years. It will mean better job security for those who stay. That is not an easy pill to swallow, and I'm not expecting anyone to want to lie down and feel steamrolled.

The wind of change will continue solwly or quickly depending on who is farting the loudest

F0zz

[L Tommo]

Simple!!! ACT OUT OF STRENGTH NOT WEAKNESS.... and u advise RM to do the same with Postcomm and all the TNT's of thsi world!!!

It a game of chess and we hold the best most movable universable pieces with strength!!! USE THEM WISELY... Enter stage left Mr Dave Ward!!! Billy Hayes CWU..... RM get your own chess pieces to fight your battle, WE WOULD HELP BUT YOU DONT LISTEN TO US!!!!

OUT


YOU SHUN OUR. CWU help so f**k you!!!! sorry but we fight our corner now!!!!