The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
JB, your OFCOM post yesterday, quoting a 46% reduction in letters over last decade. Was that all letters or just letter box collection? AutoMIS is showing a 49% decline in letter box collection mail since January 2014 (in my mail centre), however we have a manager that keeps a daily record/spreadsheet of downstream access mail and he has reported only a 21% decrease in the same period. Admittedly, DSA volumes vary wildly depending upon location and the business mix in the postcode area however DSA generally accounts for about 80% of our daily letters mail mix.
Golfdinger, just prior to the pandemic in December 2019, when Rico Back was the CEO, the CWU and BoD were just about to come to blows over plans to reform the UK operation. The pandemic effectively kicked the can down the road for two years and bloated the figures giving the impression that all was well with the UK operation, however the original disagreements were always bubbling under the surface. This was a business that was always going to be in trouble due to the restrictions placed upon it despite the data that read to the contrary.
The UK operation is capable of making a decent profit again but it's going to need the right people at the top making the right decisions but it's not going to happen overnight that's for sure.
Dowsie, "hopefully the government will see sense and reduce letters to 5 days a week but I won’t hold my breath".
That's quite funny..... seeing as this useless Government can't even decide what to do about illegal immigration and when they do make a decision they find themselves unable to act on that decision...... amongst other things.
I think that a three day USO for letters (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) would be sufficient with a seven day USO for parcels. The first class letter service could then be effectively dismissed saving both customer and the business money.....it's not as if another company is desperate to empty those red boxes or deliver letters anyway?
Https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/09/royal-mail-stamps-price-change/
First class up 14% to £1.25.......kerching.......
Derek, for clarification, I don't agree with those institutions that "short" any stocks. Over the last decade, I have held RMG/IDS shares as long term (more than five years) investments as well as holding for short term gain (two to three months sometimes) and I know that others on this board have as well. It's the nature of the game really and personally, I like the way that this stock can be as unpredictable as a Shane Warne delivery but each to their own.
Perhaps it would be better for some if the share price went up in a straight line, say 3% per annum but if that were the case then you may as well stick your money in an NS&I income bond.....lol
Continued....
A further aim of the introduction of the seasonal hour’s approach is to maximise consistency of duty cover, which helps with familiarity for frontline OPG’s and consistency for customers and so the core of work through different seasons is intended to be the indoor and outdoor work related to the listed duty walk-holders. There may be instances where there is a gap between supply of hours which needs to be filled with productive work, and it is the aim to do this from additional work added to the core duty rather than reallocating people to alternative duties with more workload.
The initial design for Year 1 will be jointly reviewed to capture lessons learned, taking feedback with the aim of improving the approach.
The introduction of Seasonal Variation will also focus on the commitments outlined within the National Joint Statement on improving Quality of Service & USO Compliance: -
• Deliver Section 2.5 of the BRT&G Agreement, which committed Royal Mail and the CWU to urgently improve and restore Quality of Service for all products, including achievement of our USO obligations;
• To reduce the reliance on agency workers whilst meeting productivity targets.
To deliver the aims and opportunities set out above, it is critical that local managers and CWU reps work jointly to maximise the value of these additional hours during the High Season via the Weekly Resourcing Meetings.
Both Parties recognise that there are a number of other matters which are still under discussion nationally, for example, the approach for Delivery Revisions and these will be jointly progressed and communicated.
Royal Mail and the CWU also confirm that all other aspects of Seasonal Variation remain fully in place.
Any issues arising from this Joint Communication should be raised to the signatories for resolution
Francis Williams
Commercial & Field Programme Director
Mark Baulch
Assistant Secretary
JOINT STATEMENT
This Joint Communication has been issued to confirm that the planned move over to the Seasonal Variation as set out in the RMG/CWU Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement, Appendix 1, will take place as previously outlined and reported.
From Monday 4th September to Sunday 17th December 2023. Full-timers (including 35-hour contracts) will see a 24 minutes per day variation increase applied before their start time. Part-timers will see a 10 minutes variation before their start time.
From Monday 18th December 2023 to Sunday 26th May 2024. Full-timers and part-timers will work their normal hours.
From Monday 27th May 2024 to Sunday 8th September 2024. Full-timers will see a 24 minutes per day variation decrease (starting 14 minutes later and finishing 10 minutes earlier). Part-timers will work 10 minutes less per day, finishing 10 minutes earlier.
In setting out this Joint Communication, it can be confirmed that Royal Mail did initiate an approach to the CWU on the option to delay the deployment of seasonal variation due to some concerns regarding forecasted traffic levels. However, following further talks, Royal Mail has since moved away from this consideration as it has now been highlighted that any changes in the commencement date at such short notice will generate a number of systems issues which could have impacted individuals pay.
Royal Mail and the CWU have agreed an approach which supports the need for Royal Mail to be more flexible in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The approach will also support the Universal Service Obligation and ability to meet quality of service targets against varying levels of workload over the seasons of the year. The approach is based on a mutual interest approach and will aim to maintain job security and secure terms and conditions for employees. Seasonal variation aims to better align scheduled hours in different blocks of the year to the typical workload in those periods. In doing so it also aims to: -
• Improve productivity and efficiency and USO/services standards for customers and ensuring all workload is cleared including door to door.
• Reduce the need for outdoor lapsing and absorption which is unpopular for employees.
• Provide more consistency of delivery time for Estimated Delivery Windows for customers.
• We agree that employees’ weekly hours will be adjusted up and down by a fixed amount for a block of weeks and their start and finish times will vary slightly depending on seasonal peaks and troughs of work.
Continued....
Joint Communication Covering The National Rollout Of Seasonal Variation 4th September 2023:
Branches, Representatives, and members will recall that a number of LTBs (Letter To Branches) have recently been issued in terms of moving forward the commitments contained in the Business Transformation, Recovery and Growth Agreement in relation to Appendix 1, Seasonal Variation, the most recent being LTB 213/23 issued on 21st August.
However, you will also be aware that over the course of last week, there had been widespread speculation that the planned changes under Seasonal Variation as outlined in these LTBs would be delayed until October and limited to 9 weeks.
To be clear, this speculation was started by Royal Mail who did initiate an approach to the CWU on possible options to delay the development of Seasonal Variation due to some concerns in regard to forecasted traffic levels over the next few weeks. However, following further talks, Royal Mail has moved away from this consideration as it has now been highlighted that any changes in the commencement date of Seasonal Variation at such short notice will generate a number of systems issues that in turn could impact on the accuracy of employee’s basic pay.
However, during this period of discussions both parties have agreed to a Joint Communication which reaffirms a number of key aspects of Seasonal Variation.
Clearly, this period of ongoing conjecture has not been a helpful development nor has the delay in issuing this Joint Communication. However, it is now hoped that this further clarification will end any remaining confusion in this regard, alongside reaffirming the wider aims and aspects of Seasonal Variation.
Any issues arising from the local application of Seasonal Variation should be raised via the IR Framework and any questions on the interpretation or application of the arrangements should be fast-tracked to the relevant ROD/CWU Divisional Reps as necessary.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch
Assistant Secretary
I have just been reading through the posts from the last couple of days.
Regarding short term and long term shareholders, I believe that companies need a mixture of both. The long term shareholders provide stability and the short term shareholders provide a bit of excitement for the stock. The old argument about whether RMG should or shouldn't have been floated on the stock exchange ten years ago and separated from POCL is largely academic as it happened and the genie isn't going back in the bottle anytime soon.
As for the dividend payments, I believe that since flotation, RMG/IDS has paid out around 160p (it may be more) so although a share purchased at IPO for 333p is now worth 242p, if you add in the dividend payments it could be argued that it is worth over 400p? Admittedly, a 70p return over a decade isn't fantastic but at least it's a positive?
Broch, I have not seen any challenges to seasonal variation hours yet but it wouldn't surprise me.
When this all kicked off, I said that some of the larger delivery offices are going to need a full time PSP guru manager to deal with the variances, extra hours and any arising queries and grievances. I suspect that the People Portal will also need a rework so that staff can keep track of their hours in real time?
However as this is RM, they probably won't want to pay for any software changes because their South African IT department charge a fortune for this type of thing.
Redceo, "Blue or Red nothing changes".....
At least we agree on something?
I really don't think that it matters which party win the next GE as they all appear as ineffective/inept/self serving (delete where applicable) as their opposition. Sunak has promised to halve inflation by the end of the year but I'm not confident and even if he says that he has then you can be sure that the figures have been fudged somewhere? The Tories promised to "Get Brexit Done" but what have they actually achieved as they seem to be thwarted at every attempt to control our borders.....by our own legal system....and Starmer and Co will probably just open our borders up anyway....
If it wasn't so tragic it would be laughable....
Sid, I posted this story last week. Unfortunately, the UK operation has always been very wary about upsetting it's large volume customers should they decide to take their custom elsewhere and has always given these customers a bit of leeway. It also smacks of "insider help" from within the UK operation and I wouldn't be surprised if there are other cases being investigated.
TMS, "If inflation is increasing its bad news. If inflation is decreasing it’s bad news. If unemployment is increasing it’s bad news. If unemployment is decreasing it’s bad news. If GDP is falling its bad news. If GDP is increasing it’s bad news".
Is it worth getting a batch of T shirts made up? I think that they might sell quite well?......lol
Probably old news but I wonder how much Royal Mail will be able to claw back?
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/royal-mail-slough-buckinghamshire-berkshire-southwark-crown-court-b1100811.html
Derek, that's an interesting take on the SameDay service and not one that I had pondered before. I have been using Royal Mail SameDay for several years as an internal courier for time critical parts however they never seem to be that busy?
Hounddog, thanks for the update. Are you definitely sure that RM ate purchasing their EVs outright and not leasing them? From a meeting last year at one of the RM Vehicle Services workshops there was some concern regarding outsourcing for maintenance of the new EVs and I wasn't sure if this was because of potential purchase or lease scenario?
So, presumably the fact that Ben2020 has claimed compensation has passed your moral compass test?
Surely it would be discriminatory to have one set of your morality rules for some customers and another set for other customers, because when I go to a Post Office and pay for a service that's exactly what I am....a customer.
The fact that you cannot get your head around that speaks volumes about you.
Redceo, you really do need to get over yourself on this issue and it seems that I have been living in your head rent free over this issue for quite a while.
It happened so get over it and stop being such a melt.