Member Info for OliGarch

beetrootjuice, that's a bit harsh. I don't think that we should be encouraged to 'kill off' our customers just because of one RTS item.....lol

Ha ha ha, very funny Dynamo.

Snapemonster, a first-hand loss of only £65m is actually much better than I had expected given the current pandemic. Could we see a rise to £3 before Christmas?

beetrootjuice, I believe that the plan for smaller mail centres is to use a small parcel machine for primary breakdown to say postcode level with possibly a secondary inward breakdown to delivery office level but that's going to be quite time consuming in itself so the secondary sorting may be done by hand?
I don't think that there would be the time to do a third breakdown to walk level unless there are plans for the larger delivery offices to have small parcel machines as well.
I did mention about four or five months ago that the postie's in our mail centre delivery office were struggling to fit all of their equipment and parcels into their Fiat Doblo vans and I have noticed that we have been using hired VW Transporter vans (nice) lately as there is more room.

beetrootjuice, that was a very good appraisal of what is currently happening. The sequencing machines were designed (by the French) for delivery offices but RM being RM decided to put around 50% in mail centres which already have LSM or IMP machines which are themselves capable of sequencing. One of the issues for smaller mail centres is a lack of floor space to accommodate the letter sorting machines and the huge influx of parcels. Add social distancing to the mix and we have a recipe for failure even before the mail gets to a delivery office.
Incidentally, I have seen videos of the new wave of parcel automation, they are good (Jersey Post use them) but will only be used for primary sortation and therefore the parcels will still not be fully automated.
https://youtu.be/8HmBZpLyVr8

Dave, six weeks leave following 20 years service is RM annual leave policy. Admittedly it is generous but that is what has been agreed for at least the last 40+ years.
Unfortunately your assistant DOM is too far down the line of power to change the annual leave policy but it is down to every office to implement a leave selection system that is fair to each unit. In my office (mail centre), we are put into groups of 8 (for those who have 6 weeks or purchased additional annual leave) and we select our leave on a rotating basis but this has to done almost 18 months in advance! Those who have 4weeks and 4 days are in slightly larger groups but the same principle applies.
By the way, I work as hard as anyone else. I start on time, do the work that my manager asks me to perform and leave at the end of my shift.

Normandy, I totally agree with you on this. Unfortunately we now live in a world where the youth are too impatient to reap their reward for long service and want the benefits in advance. If they don't get it they bleat on about how unfair the system is. All I can add is....."Dave, one day you will be reaping the rewards for long service".

Rural, I totally agree. My mail centre has been taking up to 72 hours to clear the backlog of Tracked 24 parcels and we are failing DSA in order to concentrate on clearing the huge volume of parcels as letters are easier to store and parcels take up more floor space. Fortunately the weekend gives us some breathing room and weekend overtime has been freely available this year.
As I work in a mail centre, I'm not sure about the vehicle situation for deliveries but I understand that vehicle sharing is now being encouraged by management?

Staff costs are a huge factor here especially when you also factor in sick leave. Couple that with low (but increasing) parcels automation and that's a huge chunk from your profit margin. I'm not sure what the average Angard casual costs to employ but I would wager that it's not going to be less than the permanent staff.
Coronavirus precautions and PPE have reportedly cost RM in the region of £50m plus the social distancing and extra cleaning measures are also eating into the bottom line.
Even if RM post a loss I don't expect that it will affect the share price too much as it appears to be driven more by sentiment (and a possible £1bn contract from Boris) than fundamentals.
As JB says, we will know more by this time next week.

Management seem to be quite happy for staff to make their own decisions with face coverings. Most are complying, some are wearing the clear visors and some are wearing nothing but no one is complaining.

But when do they expect it to reach £4, or even break £3?

I thought that the cost of furlough pay for 9 million workers was going to be around £40bn. According to the British Medical Journal "A confidential briefing memo sent to Scotland's first minister and cabinet secretaries, seen by The BMJ,1 reveals plans to grow the UK's testing capacity from the current 350 000 a day to up to 10 million tests a day by early 2021, costing “over £100bn to deliver.”
Looks like Rishi needs to print some more money...

In my mail centre, face coverings are being worn by about 75% on the late shift and about 90% on the night shift. Obviously you don't have to wear one if you have an exemption (or provide any evidence) but it has been noted that most of those with "exemptions" tend to be smokers so there may be a link between smoking and reduced lung capacity? Perhaps Matt Han**** can set up a fund to look into this....lol

200iq, it would be woeful if the government awarded the contract to Amazon over RM however their track record on contract awards this year has not been fantastic.
As face coverings for RM indoor staff and van share partners became mandatory today I wonder how much more is being spent on providing face masks? The recommendation for wearing the blue/white non medical masks that we have been given is an hour max or when the inner layer becomes damp so I worked my way through almost a box of 50 on my own last week over the course of six days. Multiply that by 50,000 for the indoor staff and that's quite a lot.

Mark, it's those 'unnecessary layers' that keep the gravy train rolling......lol

stodgy88, I completely agree. My mail centre has mainly resembled unorganised chaos since March. Just keeping the walkways and fire escape routes free from Yorks has been a challenge.
I expect volumes of parcels to drop off around the third week of January once Christmas is over and the catalogue returns are processed so we should have a bit of breathing space for Covid-19 test kits?
I also agree with the comment that even if Amazon win the "moonshot" contact it's very likely that RM will pick up some of the business although I would like to see Boris remain loyal to a long standing UK business.
Talking of Boris, where did the "moonshot" phrase come from? I had only heard it in two contexts before, one from NASA and the other from Deep Purple!

kassam, that's fantastic news. Hopefully Terry Pullinger can take a copy of that article into pay negotiations and use it to secure a decent pay rise for the hardworking postie's of the UK.

Thanks for the correction Dynamo. For some reason I always associate Trump with bad news. Can't think why thought....lol.
Looking at the states that have yet to vote and their predicted outcomes I think that it's going to be very close but that Trump will just shade it.

Shaunymac, the only reason that I can see for this rapid early increase is the possible outcome of the US election?
As of posting, Biden leads Trump by 220 to 213 but there's a long way to go with several states being "too close to call".
I suspect that if Trump retains the Presidency then the SP may slide back again?

JB, I have just reread your post and picked up on your "giving business to competitors is commercial suicide " point, however pre privatisation RM were forced to lose business in order to make for a level playing field so it's not entirely unreasonable?