Member Info for OliGarch

I would totally agree that 47% of the workforce are over 50, however that does not mean that they are going to retire when they reach 60. My office has quite a few in the 60 to 70 age bracket and the majority are in the CWU. It is also worth noting that the majority of over 50s are usually "lifers" with many years service and long memories regarding senior management plus they now have the financial means to afford to take industrial action (and also support their younger relatives or children who also may work for RM) so I wouldn't be surprised if another ballot returns over 75% turnout with over 90% in favour.

JB, with a UKPIL wage bill of £4086m it looks like sick leave is running at around £278m.
Cutting this from 6.8% to 5% would save around £75m alone which would almost pay for the next hour of the SWW.

Wolves posted that sick rates were running at around 15% to 20% in his office which seems to be extremely high and I'm not sure that another business would be able to cope with that.
It would be interesting to know how much sick leave costs RM. Any ideas?

I have just watched the video and I'm a little surprised. It seems that RM are pleading poverty so on that basis the next trading announcement should make grim reading?

A belated Happy New Year to you as well Wolves.
Unfortunately parcel automation will cut jobs in mail centres (I predict around 20 in my office). The delivery office operation should not really be affected so the high sick absenteeism will still exist. You are correct though when you say that sick absence needs to be reduced but in a sensible way. If you are recovering from an operation or if the doctor has signed you off then fair play but self sick absenteeism really needs to be looked into.

"With the UKPIL profit warning, the share price is a sitting duck"
I think that long term holders will see this as an opportunity to press the "Add to cart" button all the time that a 15p per annum dividend is in the offing.

Redceo, so true regarding the dividend over interest rates. Shares purchased in October 2013 have attracted £1.35 in dividend payments which effectively means that as long as the SP stays above £2 then they haven't lost as bank interest rates have been appalling for the last six years. Any SP above £2 is a winner :-)

H-hi, I work for RM in a mail centre. We already automate over 90% of letters however parcels are a different story. Only mail centres and hubs will receive parcel automation as most delivery offices are too small. Even if we could fully automate parcels and letters and leave mail centres and hubs with skeleton crews we would still need the 90,000+ postie's to deliver to your front door every day.

Yup, dividend payment hit the bank at 8am this morning :-)

Quinny, this is going to be a slow burner. Just sit back and take your dividend payments for the next few years.

POD, some interesting points regarding electric vehicles. It will be interesting to see if the likes of Hermes are forced to be compliant or whether their drivers will continue to carry on with petrol and diesel engines. I suppose that time will tell.

DerekR, the best mpg figures that I can find are "The combined (motorway and city) energy consumption of the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid is about 280 Wh per mile in electric-only mode. By comparison, this energy consumption is the equivalent of a fuel consumption of 145 mpg in a traditional petrol car" but that's for a plug in hybrid.

POD, DerekR, it would be interesting to see figures and costs for RMs national fleet. I would imagine that even if we could reduce usage by a couple of percent it would be quite a cost saving. We also waste quite a lot of heat through inefficient buildings and lighting.

DerekR, he has a Toyota C-HR whic according to Google "means you can expect a fuel economy of up to 74.3mpg with the Toyota C-HR Hybrid (great for an SUV), and 86g/km of combined CO2 emissions". He mainly uses it to commute around 600 miles a week but reckons that he only saves around £20 in fuel per week over his old Audi TT 1.8. I'm not sure how light his right foot is but I do know that he lost his licence for speeding in the 90's.
My real point was that the vehicle is still burning fossil fuels. What we really need to be looking at is reducing the carbon footprint which would include thing like reducing unnecessary journeys or sending 360s out with only 40% capacity etc..

POD, I have to disagree with your earlier post "My own view is that hybrid is the way forward, small petrol engines charging “as you go” is much better than pure EVs". My next door neighbour has just purchased a rather impressive and large Toyota hybrid which is equipped with a 1.8 litre petrol engine. This replaced his previous vehicle which was a 1.8 litre Audi but it is still burning petrol so I fail to see how it is greener?

JB, my understanding was that the agency staff were taken on before IA was announced as a precautionary measure. They were also offered guaranteed hours which the shift managers still had to honour.
Incidentally, I have been looking at some Mail Centre data today and it looks like posted mail volumes for December are down by between 6% to 9% depending upon area. The general consensus on parcels from our management would indicate that volumes were about the same as last year. The trading update will make interesting reading.

At least we don't get headlines like this...
https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/18156261.hermes-parcel-delivery-depot-shocking-mess-leaked-photos-yorkshire-depot/

https://images.app.goo.gl/QP1hFDxvUCxsuWVA8
Amazon's solution

https://images.app.goo.gl/7ryXchccNvBncmmB7

JB, two almost identical trades very close to each other? Perhaps the same buyer with two different accounts or an erroneous entry?