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Postal strike: Could it kill the Royal mail? (ConDem plan sell off)

I don't think there is any realistic competition to the Royal Mail...in my opinion the RM management know this and are prepared to suffer a strike in the hope of destroying union power.
The RM management know that public opinion will be against the PO workforce if any strike lasts longer than a few days... they also know that a strike on the run up to Christmas would be a bad time for the workforce, strike = no wages.. it's sad but the RM have got the unions by the balls.
 
DownwardDog said:
It's there to provide a large tranche of low skill, low pay, unionised jobs. Which have historically been the Labour party's preferred mode of employment.
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I don't know what you do for a living, but after reading that I can't help hoping you lose your job and end up spending this Christmas in a sorting office.
 
weltweit said:
I guess I am having a bit of a problem knowing what the Royal Mail is for.
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It's a service by which letters and parcels (often collectively known as 'the post' or indeed 'the mail') can be posted anywhere within the UK and delivered anywhere else. They even send them overseas if that's where it needs to go.
 
trevhagl said:
The cheapest parcel firm is just short of £8 . Who is gonna pay £8 to send a letter?
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I'm paying £5.76 + VAT to DHL for a next day parcel delivery in the UK, including collection from my office, for a parcel up to 29Kg!

If its just a letter, send an email instead - its kinder to the environment!

Giles..
 
butchersapron said:
I take you have Frequent User Discount then? That makes a massive difference.
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Well, I'm only sending from 5 - 20 parcels a week, so not that much "volume discount" is going to apply.

DHL seem to have got a lot cheaper recently - they used to be like UPS or Fedex - good, but very expensive. Now they seem to have expanded a lot and got cheaper. They just use plain white Transit vans and stuff for deliveries and pickups - not the specialised, logo-ed up vans like UPS etc. I *think* that maybe their drivers effectively work for themselves and just get paid "per drop".

Giles..
 
weltweit said:
I don't have a problem with any of that. Except yes perhaps I do, it needs to operate efficiently and effectively where letters and packets are concerned so I don't see the problem with commercial discipline.

Also I think Royal Mail should be encouraged to keep more of its Post Offices open as they are a service to the community.

Was there not planned to be an announcement about some new banking services run from Post Offices. I could have sworn there was supposed to be something going on there ..
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i asked the local (now ex) postmaster why they were shutting all the post offices , and he said he was on 30 grand , whereas a normal desk clerk in the town centre is on less than half that and doing the same job more or less.
 
weltweit said:
Why would a private Royal mail be such a bad thing?

Why does it have to be nationalised?
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less pay for the workers
worse conditions for the workers
the profits going to rich individuals rather than the government (so taxpayer has to make up the shortfall)
a worse service
even more post offices shut down
 
weltweit said:
Forget letters, letters are history... I am talking about Parcels!

And I used to be a big user of UPS FedEx and Tuffnells, I am pretty sure the lowest charge was a lot less than £8.
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i am talking about the ordinary person, not businesses.
 
weltweit said:
I guess I am having a bit of a problem knowing what the Royal Mail is for.
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agricola said:
Delivering mail and parcels?

:rolleyes:
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If so, then why does it need to be nationalised?

embree said:
It's a service by which letters and parcels (often collectively known as 'the post' or indeed 'the mail') can be posted anywhere within the UK and delivered anywhere else. They even send them overseas if that's where it needs to go.
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So posted anywhere.. that brings in the universal service.

But the business of delivering letters is currently a monopoly, why not say, you can have that monopoly but in exchange you must provide a universal service.

So, why does it have to be nationalised.

Then there are packets and parcels. UPS, FedEx, UPS have all built massive multinational businesses from the delivery of packets and parcels. By comparison Royal Mail has stayed UK based and does not seem to compete for the same slice of business. Why not? If this business is good enough for UPS, FedEx, UPS then why is it not good enough for Royal Mail? And why has Royal Mail not expanded globally in the way that UPS, FedEx, UPS have?

And that is not to mention post offices.
 
trevhagl said:
less pay for the workers
worse conditions for the workers
the profits going to rich individuals rather than the government (so taxpayer has to make up the shortfall)
a worse service
even more post offices shut down
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So you are suggesting that employees of UPS, FedEx, UPS etc are significantly less well renumerated compared to employees of Royal Mail?
 
weltweit said:
So, why does it have to be nationalised.

Then there are packets and parcels. UPS, FedEx, UPS have all built massive multinational businesses from the delivery of packets and parcels. By comparison Royal Mail has stayed UK based and does not seem to compete for the same slice of business. Why not? If this business is good enough for UPS, FedEx, UPS then why is it not good enough for Royal Mail? And why has Royal Mail not expanded globally in the way that UPS, FedEx, UPS have?

And that is not to mention post offices.
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So what exactly is your argument? All of your points in the above post were clearly answered earlier on by various posters.
 
agricola said:
So what exactly is your argument? All of your points in the above post were clearly answered earlier on by various posters.
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As a result of your post, I read the thread again and no, I don't agree that they were clearly answered.

butchersapron said:
weltweit - do you also wonder why a house isn't a car?
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No, I don't think I wonder about that :-)

agricola said:
i think his argument is that the house is shit because it isnt a car, there are plenty of cars being cars so why shouldnt the house be one?
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Perhaps.

The letters business is indeed unique. But the parcels business of Royal Mail is similar to the parcels business of the private operators, or would you dispute even that?
 
weltweit said:
As a result of your post, I read the thread again and no, I don't agree that they were clearly answered.
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Really, so when Butchers wrote:

butchersapron said:
£150 million profit on parcels, the majority from expanding into european delivery businesses - that is rises in profits of 9% and 50% in the two involved sections of RM - sound pretty competitive. And all of that profit should be going to underwriting and expanding the USO not anywhere else.
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it wasnt clear enough? How much more clear do you want it?
 
butchersapron said:
£8 a parcel discount = your £6-7 price going up to nearer £15 for those without the discount i.e most people.
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Nope. I could send one parcel a week, and have it picked up, if I wanted. Same price would apply for the parcel. Although they do charge £1.95 extra for any pickup of less than 3 things.

So £5.76 + £1.95 = £7.71 for next day delivery on a package of up to 29Kg still not bad. Cheaper than, say, Royal Mail Special Delivery (£20.70 for up to 10Kg).

Giles..
 
Its all seems like a mini Ridley plan, there are going to be some real tensions when they recruit and use these extra staff.
 
treelover said:
Its all seems like a mini Ridley plan, there are going to be some real tensions when they recruit and use these extra staff.
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We need to find out how they're being recruited - what agencies they're going through, what job centres, if they're old workers being called etc

Why this strike is so important is clearly demonstrated in this article:

£37.80 to deliver a birthday card is not a first-class option

IT ALL seemed so simple. Popping a birthday card in the post to a friend less than 60 miles away. But take Royal Mail out of the equation, and I was left with was a bill so high I could have taken a return train there and delivered the card in person. Twice.

On Thursday afternoon I looked at a number of courier options to see if they could help me post my birthday card from Glasgow to Edinburgh for the equivalent of a Royal Mail First Class delivery service, which would cost me 39p and deliver it the next day.
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Results

UPS - £37.80.
DHL - £15 next 2 days delivery or £9 for a within 5 days service.
interparcel - £9-10

In the end, I didn't post the card
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