The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Anger , we were talking about the USO not ownership of the company. It doesn't matter who owns the company , it will still need MP s to change it. Which like I said, unless they manage to bribe numerous MP'S it won't happen. At no point were we talking about ownership.
If the government feels that Royal Mail is not meeting the USO on purpose it can take the company back into nayltional ownership, just like it did with the rail companies. That is fact, and is made very clear in the USO.
The same regulation that allowed them to interfere with arriva etc. Why would the government allow a board to fleece a company and run it into the ground through bad management, for the government to then foot the bill. That is why ofcom etc was set up, what other reason would they have set them Up?
Not that odd Big Fatty. Everybody knew the rules when buying the shares and if they didn't, then they are a poor investor.
Similar conditions apply to many other companies, BT, British Gas , All the water companies, Virgin, Arriva and the other train companies. We have already seen the government take back control of some rail franchises. Royal Mail is no different and was clearly stated when the company was floated.
Like you said Anger, you only get one letter a fortnight, so get targeted on line due to doing most of your bills etc on line.
Millions don't and average about 10 letters a week . Others like yourself have very little.
As for the huge increase in parcels, Saturday and Sundays. The last few weeks have seen Sunday agency staff delivering letters , due to lack of parcels and letters backlog being left in the office for days. So it's costing over £20 an hour in wages due to lack of posties in the week to deliver letters on a Sunday. Where is the business sense in that.
Companies that won't be in business because they still use mail advertising are most of the banks, credit card companies, tesco , m&s , farm foods and sainsbury's. Car manufacturers and lease companies, Jet 2 , Tui and a host of cruise companies. Just a small number of the companies posting on a Saturday over the last month.
Add on top the monthly magazine publications that always post on a Saturday .
So the only result can be a loss of business and extra costs.
Anger. The problem with dropping one day from the USO will just mean that even more mail , will need to be delivered on those 5 days. Staff will still be needed to deliver Specials and Parcels on a Saturday and Sunday and numerous companies target Saturday for sending letters , especially advertising letters because they know people are more likely to read them , due to not being at work or rushing the kids to and from school. So net result is more lost business, poorer service and still not enough staff to deliver the items.
Only option then becomes even more agency staff at a much higher cost.
As for the board. It needs a new one and quickly because posties don't trust a word they say and managers despise Ricky Macualy . Tricky Ricky has a number of bullying allegations against him, from senior management and has an attitude of its my way or the high way. Which in todays business world doesn't work.
A new start is needed all round , to get everyone on board and pulling in one direction.
I don't think they will stop enforcing the USO whilst Royal Mail has a board , that has manipulated the company ,to deliberately fail the USO and has repeatedly tried to pull the wool over the select Committees eyes. If Conservative MP'S are fully behind the USO, which judging by the replies that workers got , including my own MP , then any changes have no chance of getting through parliament. Somehow I can't see the next government, which will probably be Labour or a coalition, changing The USO either.
Anger , the other point about delivering what the customer wants. Yes that's fine, but the problem is ,they trying to do that by ignoring the USO. Which will only result in fines and a much poorer service for those customer.
Anger , if parcels outnumber letters by such a huge amount , why are the offices full of letters, surely with so few they would easily clear them.
Because so few on the board have worked in the industry, they still don't realise that a 10% drop in letters , doesn't mean 10% less work. It just means going to a house with 2 letters instead of 3.
Like you say, I can't see it be renationalised, the money isn't around for that. If it goes bust though, the government has no choice.
Anger, what industrial action has taken place this year? Commons select Committee has received over 5,000 different bits of evidence in the last 2 months regarding the failure of the USO. Ofcom have also been receiving similar amounts of written, photo and video evidence.
Royal Mails answer to this failure, is to not replace anyone that leaves(younger workers have left in droves), then cut the numbers of walks in every office, so a net result of every office in the country failing the USO ,most days of the week.
Add on top the potential for a number of industrial tribunals , due to Simple Simons so called rogue managers (that he claims he knew nothing about), and the data used from PDA's that he also knew nothing about , and it becomes clear that any potential profit in the future ,will be swallowed up by fines, compensation , and future lost customers, who won't pay for a service that doesn't deliver what the customer is paying for.