No postal service until next Thurday

[Mark]

People may not like Margaret Thatcher, but right now I think we could do with someone with Thatcherite mettle to stand up to the unions and tell them to STFU. Gordon Brown may have the fortitude for it, but as the Labour party is mostly funded by the unions, he wouldn't dare, and Campbell is just plain too soft.

Biggest problem with this idea is how much damage that would do to the country in the process, but right now it seems like a choice of slow lingering pain or a quick dose of utter chaos and get it over with.

[lostkat]

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

What competition?

Well TNT for a start. Leon said that the phones went absolutely mental yesterday with people wanting to send stuff, because it had been in the news on they were mentioned as one of RM's competitors. I think RM probably make most of their money by the large contracts they have with various companies, rather than the letters etc. sent by the public.

On the letter side, TNT do a lot of sorting for various large companies (ever seen "TNT Mail" on an envelope?). They then deliver it to the Post Offices, and the normal posties deliver it. Basically, they carry out all the "value add" where the money is made, and then palm it off onto RM to finish off.

I don't think there's any competition for mail sent by the public, which is why we're getting hurt by this so much because we really do have very little option for sending letters and stuff at the moment without paying a huge price for the privilage.

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Mark

People may not like Margaret Thatcher, but right now I think we could do with someone with Thatcherite mettle to stand up to the unions and tell them to STFU. Gordon Brown may have the fortitude for it, but as the Labour party is mostly funded by the unions, he wouldn't dare, and Campbell is just plain too soft.

Biggest problem with this idea is how much damage that would do to the country in the process, but right now it seems like a choice of slow lingering pain or a quick dose of utter chaos and get it over with.

Whenever there's a hint of trouble with unions, people start harking back to Thatcher and how she tamed the unions. Yes, she crushed the unions but in a brutal and vicious way with little or no thought for the hardship caused.

I agree that the CWU are out of order and are being no less brutal in their methods but the last thing this country needs is another Thatcher. Whether a Labour Prime Minister is the right person to ask to clip the unions' wings further is doubtful, due to the funding issue - maybe Gordon Brown has the balls, Tony Blair certainly didn't.

[Matblack]

I think the answer is to increase the cost of postage to something nearer the realistic cost i.e £2 for a first class letter. This would make people seek alternatives; for example using the internet for moving money about, and the phone for banking the UK would develop technologically overnight as those without net access bought phones which allowed them to make such transactions and people were more likely to demand broadband.

The Royal Mail can't survive without subsidy unless they charge a decent price for the job they do thats just economics.

MB

[Fayshun]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

Whenever there's a hint of trouble with unions, people start harking back to Thatcher and how she tamed the unions. Yes, she crushed the unions but in a brutal and vicious way with little or no thought for the hardship caused.

And she stopped school milk.

Cow.

[Desmo]

Originally Posted by Matblack

I think the answer is to increase the cost of postage to something nearer the realistic cost i.e £2 for a first class letter.

This would be a massive problem for a lot of businesses if postage hit prices like these.

I feel for the RM as they are stuck in a certain position. They HAVE to deliver to every address in the UK, other companies like TNT don't, so they can pick off the good, profitable customers (business) whilst ignoring the less profitable (normal personal post).

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by Desmo

This would be a massive problem for a lot of businesses if postage hit prices like these.

I feel for the RM as they are stuck in a certain position. They HAVE to deliver to every address in the UK, other companies like TNT don't, so they can pick off the good, profitable customers (business) whilst ignoring the less profitable (normal personal post).

Ahhhhhh, now I should have expounded on this idea.

I think you could give businesses a quite reasonable bulk discount.

I really think we need to encourage electronic communications and use RM etc for actual transfer of goods, which seems to be an area where people are willing to pay a decent price for and people can compete.

MB

[Fayshun]

I sent 3 dvds in sleeves to Dawn - 48p. No profit there...

They're still tossers for going on strike, I want my new toys.

[Lopez]

RM need to watch out - they are going to start losing big contracts.

This was in our latest corporate publication:



However, when it comes to losing the whole lot....

We took over 25,000 calls today, and a similar level yesterday. I have never seen anything like it. Our Service Level (number of calls answered within 3 rings) which is normally 90% or above dropped to under 25% at one point in the day, though we clawed it back to about 45 by the close of business. We abandoned over 2000 calls and when I left today there were still over 20 calls holding and queries untouched since midday.

Our network cannot cope under the strain of freight put on it by the strike actions - hubs and depots are operating over and above normal capacity as it is - so it will be a long while before TNT or any other courier is capable of taking over the whole shebang from RM.

[Desmo]

Leon...when are we going to see you in the TNT magazine? I bet it's on your todo list