Main Menu

Unofficial mail strikes

Started by Wake, 30 October, 2003, 03:34:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Matt Timson

There are several problems with the Royal Mail (having insider knowledge as well)- most of which are centred around a collossal waste of money and the Government's refusal to allow them to put up their prices (like any of us would really begrudge having to pay an extra two pence for a first class stamp).

The craziest thing has to be their 'sick' system.  As a postie, you're allowed to have up to four periods of sick leave per year (without a Doctor's note) before questions are asked.  A sick period starts when you fail to turn up for work and ends when you return.  Or to put it another way- if you're off for a day, you might as well be off for a week (after which you'll need a doctor's note), because if you feel ill again after returning and take the next day off- that's two sick periods that you've had.

Now then, I'm not suggesting *for one minute* that the humble postie might abuse this system- but I do know several posties that plan their holidays throughout the year based on the extra four weeks that they can go sick.  It's a bit of a silly system and must cost the Royal Mail a fortune.

I also know another woman who works in upper management who freely admits that she's paid a fortune to sit around all day looking for stuff to do.  There are way more managers than are actually needed (which I suspect is true of the trains and NHS as well).

I would have answered this post earlier, but I was having breakfast with my postie (on company time) because he also happens to be my best mate.  To be fair, it's pissing it down today and he'd earned it- but even he admits that he's doing a part time job for full time wages.  He hates it, but doesn't want to give up the spare time that goes with it...

He also admits that the job has got harder recently and most posties are having to do more- but before that, he used to moan that he had to be up a 4.30 (an hour before me), but was finished by 9.00- how he longs for those days again!  He now has short and long days- shorts finish at 8.30 and longs at 1.30, but he still does less hours than anyone else I know.

I will also have to grudgingly admit that his round (in his own words) is a "piece of piss" and it does seem a bit unfair that he's paid the same as some bloke delivering to a tower block.

They also have to work Saturdays and can't get time off over Christmas and New Year as the managers book that time off- which sucks!

Matt
Pffft...

Dudley

like any of us would really begrudge having to pay an extra two pence for a first class stamp

Yeah, but it's not the domestic users who matter in that case, it's the business users.

E.g. one of my clients, Halifax, sends out approximately 4.5 million letters a month.  So 2p on postage, even with bulk discounts, would increase their monthly marketing costs by at least ?50K, or ?600K p.a.  With the government in thrall to big business, as all governments are, Tony "history will judge me" Blair gets scared by the very idea of fighting a group made up of MBNA, Capital One, Loans Company UK, Lloyds TSB, American Express, Barclays, Halifax, Saga Services, Morgan Stanley and DFS (the top ten mailers last month), plus just about all other banks, charities, mega retailers, etc etc.

Totallt agree with you on the mismanagement side, though.

Queen Firey-Bou

one of my bessie mates is also a postie, there does seem to be a huge farce element in the organisation structures, Its only cos the majority of our local posties work more hours than theyre supposed to & don't put in overtime , have incredible local knowledge & are flexible with the rules, that anything works. One jobsworth recently came along & started demanding his rights & sticking to the rules & everything went tits up & the letters didnt get thru.

Luckily my pal kicks arse, & when they come around inspecting her van to see if shes filled in three forms to explain why the first aid box is one elastplast short, or *this is true* they wanted to count how many paperclips she had... she told them to Vuck right off, she had post to deliver ( and old ladies pensions, and shopping, and news of annabelles cow, and medicine to Jimmy, and help catch jockies sheep, & pull people out of ditches ... rural posties = lifeline )

Art

Even if they stuck an extra 2 pence on each stamp, would cheap bulk mail actually be profitable? I thought all the real money was in parcel delivery.

Devons Daddy

my fathers a postman.
i know it from both sides.

if they started charging more for the MAILSORT stamped rubbish , I,E the stuff you throw in the bin, you could make the whole business more likely to make a larger profit.

note i say LARGER, you see its badly run,very very badly.
no two ways about it. but the real problem lies in the way no investment was made in the system.
take INSIGNIA the short lived renaming excercise they embarked on only to abandon it two years later.
have you any idea how much that cost?

but do you know its the best postal system in the world?
no where else in the entire world has such a successful system at the price you pay in the UK.
mail in your letter box by 10am six days a week.for 0.14 pence
from john o groats to lands end in 24 hours?

ask how much. DHL,or the like charge for a single letter to do that. post cards? dont make them laugh. i think its 2.80 sterling minimum charge and make sure its in before 10 am please.




I AM VERY BUSY!
PJ Maybe and I use the same dictionary, live with it.

NO 2000ad no life!

Oddboy

DD it's not 14p any more...1st class 28p, 2nd class 20p.
Better set your phaser to stun.

Slippery PD

Of course if we could all live electronically then only parcels and important legal documents would come by hand.....  But I suppose not everyone has email.

Personally I feel sorry for the postie and think they do a rather good job.  In the USA (I own a house there) letters take forever to arrive, I think that probably (as with most things run by the goverment) poor investment and waste of resources are probably to blame.

Yer SLips


Art

British Gas is going this way. Which could be the beginning of the end for paper bills...

Oddboy

Better set your phaser to stun.

Oddboy

Actually, I do most of my banking online now...but the buggers still haven't made it possible to change your home address on thier website.  So I finally get around to posting the 'changed address' slip to them (11 months after moving in) on the same day that the strikes start.

Bovvocks.
Better set your phaser to stun.

Devons Daddy

i do all my bills on the net.
singapore is a wired society in the very essense of modern things.

i dont even have a cheque book. you can opt to have your bills on the internet for every government lnked service for which you get a $25 yearly rebate on your combined statement.

i pay every thing by the net. i have not been to the bank in YEARS. no joke. we all carry nets cards or direct debit credit cards with no minimum spend level on them.
even car parks are done by sensor detection from your card as are if you wish petrol pumps.

no cash no problem. yes the paper bill is very rare in singapore i would say the same for you chaps in future.
which is in turn less business for the postoffice.

I AM VERY BUSY!
PJ Maybe and I use the same dictionary, live with it.

NO 2000ad no life!

Oddboy

In which case DD, they should make the most of the mail they have left & deliver it before there is no more post to post!!
Better set your phaser to stun.

IndigoPrime

I don't understand how the regulators can allow our mail service to get into such a state. Royal Mail makes a huge loss, and can't afford to give its employees raises, so allow them to scrap second class and put up a first class letter to 30p or even 35p. That price for next-day delivery to anywhere in the UK is still great value and cheaper the postal service of many other Western countries.

wildcat

Well my newsagent didn't have my latest prog yesterday.I work in a bank's mailroom in Edinburgh(where I live)and this week due to lack of mail I'm almost 6 hours short of my 35 hours, I have a wife and young daughter to support so I'd rather have the money/hours than time off. Personally I couldn't care if they did sack 'em all, give their jobs to people who actually appreciate having a permanent 'secure'? job. I've been working under temporary contracts for years and I'd love to have a permanent job, these people don't know how lucky they are. By the way these 'wildcat' strikes are nothing to do with me!
Seriously tho' given the choice I'd be on the side of the workers, but I don't see why some dispute in London should affect Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Link: http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/very7517" target="_blank">Nick Very's online folio


Oddboy

Or why it should disrupt London, even.

Thier disputes have *nothing* to do with me, yet I have to suffer regardless.
We've had enough bloody strikes in the last year, if it's not the tube, it's the fire dept, we've had rubbish collection strikes and now the post!
I'd like to see how long I'd last if my department were to go on strike, not bloody long I can tell you, and that wouldn't even harm anybody for a day or two, or possibly a week - be like taking a holiday really, the office *can* cope with out us for a few days.
It's hugely unfair that only certain jobs can strike if they're unhappy, and those that do I have no sympathy for - there are other ways to go about standing up for your rights, and at the end of the day if you don't like your job you can look for another one.

Just do the bloody job.
Better set your phaser to stun.