Member Info for OliGarch

Simx, as Derek has correctly pointed out, the system peaked at circa 20bn letters per annum in 2002 and RM had the automation fleet to cope with this volume, however over the last decade the automation fleet of CFCs, IMPs and iLSMs has been drastically reduced by between 50% and 66% in most mail centres. Apart from high days and holidays, letter box collection has fallen through the floor so that (roughly speaking) for every letter with a stamp on there are 10 downstream access letters which are processed at a significant discount as opposed to the current 85p that Joe Public pays for.

"Just look at what's been written on this board about what will have to be done to change the USO. Ooh it's going to be so difficult etc., no it isn't it's a piece of p*ss"

You are conflating two different issues here? With regards to changes to the delivery specification, we have known since privatisation that OFCON has had the power to suggest and implement changes to delivery specification without the need to go through Parliament however changing the USO from 6 days to 5 days, or indeed 4 days is a well documented process.

JB, "seems a very sensible approach that could have been written 12 months ago".

Indeed, however 12 months ago the objective was still about crushing the workforce and the union. Creating a sustainable solution was a secondary consideration?

Darbo, usually the SP gets a boost on news of a replacement CEO?

Brendyboy, any recommendations made by OFCON will be debated in the House of Commons however in my opinion this isn't going to happen until after the next General Election (plus we have seen some blatant filibustering over the last month from labour MPs) so who knows what the new intake of sitting Members of Parliament will vote for?

Pumpky, it's good to hear that your office is delivering letters every day. Unfortunately not all areas can make this claim therefore the offices that cannot deliver letters every day due to staff shortages or sick leave must be making huge savings?

I find that the abrupt absence of TheMoneyShark quite strange however this poster started out as AngerSharkz a couple of years ago and had the account deleted in June 2023 leaving just the last goodbye message which then vanished after a couple of weeks. Allegedly a deal had been struck with the admins here because someone was trying to find out their personal details and speculation was that AS had posted something bad about another poster who wanted to take matters further.

A week or so later up pops TMS who starts off being passive but soon shows the aggressive traits of AS. It is strange how the posting stopped so suddenly without the account being deleted? Perhaps the admins have just suspended the account or perhaps something major has happened to TMS. Either way, it's a lot more pleasant.

Dowsie, "I’m pretty sure if IDs delivered letters 1 or 2 days a week it would make massive savings I think ofgom said if ids went down to deliver letters 3 days a week the savings would be up to 650 million pounds a year".

I'm not seeing a massive reduction in staffing levels locally despite the reduction in daily letter deliveries so presumably the staff are busy delivering parcels?

I would hope that the group would post a small profit however any profit posted by GLS will almost certainly be offset by the losses of the UK operation?

I don't believe that the cost savings associated with only sending letters out once or twice a week will bring the UK operation back into profit plus it looks as though Solystic have held Seidenberg's feet to the flames over the parcel machine contract which Thompson tried to stop midway through the process?

Continuing with the politics theme......

The business does not want to employ more delivery posties than is necessary however the retention of new entrants is becoming an issue especially when there is a struggle to retain staff in general. This is obviously going to have a knock on effect with delivering quality of service and will therefore feed into the uncertainty factor.

The fact that supermarkets are upping their pay is not going to help with staff retention either.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ge8e3l040o.amp

Cherryandwhite, a couple of weeks ago, MaryBr190 asked "Would someone be kind enough to summarise in a few lines, politics aside as to what is happening with IDS" and I replied that fundamentally nothing had changed with IDS this year however I believe that the politics come into play here.

The UK operation has a unionised workforce, albeit smaller than it was a couple of years ago, despite the will of previous CEOs trying to break the union and the USO which has led to a period of instability and the stock market does not like uncertainty. This is the politics part.

Fortunately, this uncertainty has provided some great opportunity for short term trading. Over the last couple of years I have dipped in and sold up taking modest profits of around 40p to 50p a share on quantities of around 10k to 20k holdings. Certainly not huge profits but a nice amount of pocket money even after tax. I don't gamble on sporting events as that's a mugs game in my opinion however when this stock dips below 200p then it's time to drawdown from the slush account again:-)

My opinion is that the stock market is anticipating the Q4 results for the UK operation to be below expectations and this may well have a knock-on effect to group profits which is driving the SP down. It seems that with every day that passes, the stock market is more certain of it's uncertainty regarding this stock?

Politics aside.......it's still the same business that it was six weeks ago...... nothing has fundamentally changed.

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?

After watching the Panorama programme last week, I wouldn't be surprised if there were mass management sackings?

Dowsie, it's 600 million pounds after the BoD have taken their cut?.....lol

"Does OFCOM have no control over what price increases RM can put though?"

Looks like your area of expertise Derek......

Good news for shareholders. Yet another nail in the coffin for letters. They really should cut to the chase by banishing letters and make everyone send items in jiffy bags...... That ought to do it.....lol

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?