The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Time2Kill "you have to sense RM are trying to kill off non business customers sending letters"..... Yes it would appear that RM are deliberately pricing themselves out of the market. It will be interesting to see if they put the price of DSA up by the same percentage as 2C?
Cherry, price drop of 50p (18%).....perhaps the market is anticipating a poor set of Q4 results? The slating on Panorama isn't going to help either, although I'm still convinced that the conga line of newbies was fabrication by a mischievous BBC employee.
ABRoyalMail, you speak a lot of sense and I couldn't agree with you more. I retired last summer after 45 years in the business and my last year was spent ensuring (along with my colleagues) that our third year apprentice was fully up to speed. I'm pleased to say that he passed with flying colours and my work is done.
Redceo, "all employees should have a substantial element of salary dependant on achievement" is unlikely to happen given the legal position on minimum wage employment. I agree that everyone should earn their pay however it's not always possible as some employees don't "produce" a quantifiable product.
ABRoyalMail, this may sound like a bizarre thing however you have to ask why the managers didn't get involved or even train their cohort?
Perhaps you are trying to allude the fact that RM don't really need managers, or at least nowhere near as many?
Mike, the York Challenge.....lol. During Christmas pressure 2020 we had a couple of teenage lads working as casuals who managed to spend their entire shift moving a couple of empty Yorks around the mail centre. The late shift manager wasn't particularly bothered as they weren't getting under his feet.
As JB pointed out, the safety aspect is more worrying from the footage plus senior managers such as Jenny Hall know that the business is poorly managed but don't seem to offer up any solutions. She definitely drew the short straw for the interview.
JB, it was a bizarre piece of journalism/documentary making. The content was roughly what we expected regarding quality of service, mail prioritisation and staff shortages, oh and they wrote to Simon Thompson but received no reply. Was that because he didn't receive the letter, the response wasn't received or quite possibly because he is no longer an employee?.....lol
One item that has come in for much derision on social media is the clip of around thirty hi-viz workers pushing one empty York container in some form of chain gang. Was this actually done at the superhub or mocked up in a warehouse? Anyway, someone has added the "Benny Hill" music to it for added hilarity whilst others are asking if they can get a transfer to this office.
RM..... Royal Mail or Right Mockery?
RGPostie, presumably your QofS data was released internally as either a notice board exercise or on Workplace (assuming that is still being used following Thompson's departure)?
Even so, these are shocking figures and it looks like a deliberate attempt to force OFCOM to recommend changes.
On the parcels front, I have been restoring an old motorcycle in the workshop since retirement and have ordered quite a few replacement parts, service items and specialist tools. It seems that only around 20% are now being delivered by RM and these are only the small jiffy bags. Anything bigger than a shoe box has been delivered by Evri, DPD or Yodel who are very prompt and deliver within the allocated time slot as per email.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure where this stock is headed this in the short term. I have no doubt that Brendyboy will state that parcels have never been so busy but ex colleagues from mail centres with two parcel machines have been telling me that they only use one at a time and alternate between machines on a daily basis which is concerning as they were originally intended to be used twenty hours a day, seven days a week. The good news is that the maintenance should be carried out fully plus there's always a back up if necessary.
"So, I kill myself to make RM a profit, and the fat cats cream off even more."
Yep, that's the way it works in most large privatised companies. The top brass certainly don't lose any sleep about the workforce's terms and conditions and have almost as much contempt for the customer (look at the UK's utilities companies). If it all goes Pete Tong just walk away with a big cheque and put your CV back out there like a premier league football manager.
Mike, you are absolutely correct regarding the privatisation of the UK's utilities. Selling off our water companies has been nothing short of a disaster because they know that if they make a pigs ear of things then the UK taxpayer will be forced to bail them out so it's a win/win. The reality for RM is similar and the top brass know that they can force change from OFCOM or the UK Government just by making the service worse.
Scamp, let's get one thing clear. RM isn't going to be renationalised, the genie has been out of the bottle for too long and it's not going back. I would also suggest that reducing the USO is going to be a thorny issue for too many politicians, especially if they have only just arrived in post following the next GE. I suspect what will happen is that OFCOM will exercise it's powers to alter the delivery timescales for letters by making 2C letters a five day service instead of three. This will not require any politicians having to vote and nobody will be the bad person. I have no idea how much would be gained in cost savings or how many jobs would potentially be lost should this happen but it would certainly be nowhere near as harsh as a three day USO.
All in my opinion of course......