Oxford posties to ballot on strike action
June 29, 2008
The BBC report that Oxford postal workers are to ballot on possible strike action over working conditions. Delivery staff claim that their workload has increased massively because of cuts in the number of workers, but Royal Mail say that changed workloads were included in a national agreement reached after last year’s strikes.
Royal Mail failed to deliver due to strikes
May 30, 2008
Royal Mail failed to meet 9 of its 12 services targets last year, according to watchdog Postwatch. Millie Banerjee, Chair of Postwatch, said that RM’s performance “was severely blown off course by last summer’s strikes”. Over the year, 85.2% of first class mail was delivered next day: the target was 93%. 97.8% of Special Deliveries were made on time: the target was 99%.
Postwatch go on to comment that the industrial action led to an overall reduction in the number of items processed by Royal Mail, as customers found other ways to communicate: this will have a knock-on effect on RM’s financial standing in future years. Daily mail volume is down from 84 million items to 80 million.
Stoke-on-Trent, which has had a series of local disputes between Royal Mail staff and managment, was the worst-performing postcode in the country for next-day first class deliveries, with Twickenham coming top.
Ex-postie sold junk mail coupons on eBay
May 21, 2008
The Hull Daily Mail reports that a former postman has been sentenced for stealing junk mail containing money off vouchers, which he then sold on eBay. Coupons from companies such as Lurpak, Pampers, McCain chips and Wetherspoons were sold in bulk to eBay customers, and he even posted them using Royal Mail prepaid envelopes. The 36 year old Hull man pleaded guilty to three counts of theft, and was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid community work, and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.
If he wants to start up a legitimate business selling junk mail, I have plenty of stock here for him.
Royal Mail Loses £200m
May 8, 2008
Days after a report revealed that deregulation of postal services had not provided significant benefits to consumers, Royal Mail has revealed annual losses of £200m. For the first time, the universal system for delivering letters and parcels (which allows senders to enjoy the same rates regardless of where they are in the country) was not profitable.
£800m was pumped into the Royal Mail’s pension pot but despite cost-savings from staff redundancies and 600 Post Office branch closures, the poor results have prompted Royal Mail chief executive, Adam Crozier, to call for greater freedom and deregulation. He said that Royal Mail now competes not just with other mail companies but also online companies. “We probably lost more direct marketing business to Google than to TNT” he said.
On the brightside for eBay buyers and sellers, Crozier reiterated the Royal Mail’s commitment to the universal service calling it “part of the fabric of our society and… vitally important to social cohesion and to the UK economy.”
RM prices increase from Monday
April 4, 2008
UK sellers shouldn’t forget that Royal Mail are increasing their prices from Monday. RM’s website has details of all the new pricing, or you can download a PDF of the full new tariff.
Royal Mail union threatens more strike action
March 21, 2008
The possibility of a Royal Mail strike is once again raising its ugly head. RM managers have voted to reject planned changes to their pension scheme, and their union have said they will consider a ballot on industrial action if Royal Mail do not reconsider their proposals.
Unite’s National Secretary Paul Reuter said, “I believe that it is not in the best interests of our members, the business or the customer to rush into a further period of industrial unrest.” But Unite’s statement went on to say “If Royal Mail do not respond to the clear view of their staff then Unite will be left with no choice than to consider balloting for industrial action.”
Proposed changes will see the value of pensions cut for new and current members, and the retirement age raised. They were rejected by 85% of those who voted.
Merseyside and Cheshire PO closures announced
January 22, 2008
The Post Office have announced the next round of branch closures, with the loss of 60 POs in Merseyside, the Wirral and Cheshire. Originally 65 branches had been slated for closure, but after six weeks of public consultation, three won a reprieve, and two are undergoing a further consultation process. In addition, six branches are to be replaced with “outreach” services: that is, Post Offices based in pubs or shops, or mobile services.
Post Offices bosses claim that the new plans mean that 99% of the population will still be within a mile of an alternative PO.
The full list of affected branches is available as a pdf.
Special Delivery - Post Office changes
January 21, 2008
If anyone has posted a parcel via Special Delivery today they’ll have found a change in how the parcel is handled.
In the past you’d have filled out a silver Special Delivery receipt which the post office would have stamped, signed and returned to you as your proof of delivery. That’s all changed as of today. Now the post office will enter the destination address which will be printed onto a paper receipt. At the same time address verification will ensure that you have the correct postcode for the street and house name/number/business.
My local post office today told me that my parcel (yes I couldn’t resist testing the new service!) was the first which passed address verification, which doesn’t bode well for the future. The Royal Mail are exceptionally good at delivering mail which has a typo in the address, sadly computers aren’t at all forgiving on address verification - it’s either right or it’s wrong.
Apart from turning up at the Post Office with mis-typed address labels there’s one other disadvantage - It takes twice as long to process. Currently Post Offices will quite happily print out labels in bulk, eg three large letters up to 250gm, 8 packets up to 250gm, 10 packets up to 500gm. That means for twenty or so parcels there are only three entires into the computer. Now each item has to undergo address verification bulk printing is no longer an option.
From now on the Royal Mail Signed For (Recorded Delivery) service is the exception, Standard Parcels and International Signed For already undergo address verification. The Signed For service is expected to be added to the verification program later this year, although Royal Mail haven’t set a date for implementation thus far.
It’s slower, it’s inconvenient and it’s going to cause longer queues at Post Offices around the country. For eBay sellers it might be the final push to arranging Royal Mail collections and generating postage online.
eBay add new postage options
January 17, 2008
eBay have at long last listened to sellers requests and added in new shipping options to allow for use of various courier companies.
In the past it’s often been a bone of contention that only ParcelForce was available, with the remaining option to cover all other courier companies as “Other Courier”. This meant buyers had no indication of the delivery time (24hour, 48hour, longer) and sellers using alternative carriers were excluded from promotions such as Get It Fast.
Now the new options for “Other 24 Hour Courier” and “Other 48 Hour Courier” give better guidance to buyers and should enable more sellers to participate in Get It Fast.
Great news for both buyers and sellers alike, sadly the options don’t appear in the latest TurboLister update but should be added in the very near future.
Buyers eye: The last Christmas present
December 24, 2007
In typical eBay buyer style I’ve been sitting wondering where possibly (even including Nintendo DS and the Wii) the must have Christmas present this year had got to. Of course I’m pretty good with the post as I know the problems, so every single “Sorry you were out card” from couriers and the Royal Mail had been collected or redelivered, so just where was the Webkinz that I just had to have in time for Christmas?
Well I went up to the local sorting office for a last ditch attempt and there it was waiting for me! It had been sitting there for a week because when I’d collected a parcel there should have been two but only one was marked on the card.
So grrr to the Royal Mail but many thanks to Julie who sent it… there’s going to be one very happy little girl tomorrow morning when her Webkinz comes to life on Christmas day.
My last Christmas present has arrived 
Royal Mail announce 2008 pricing
December 20, 2007
Royal Mail have just announced their new prices for 2008/2009, which is not likely to be good news for anyone. First and second class letters go up to 36p and 27p respectively; Recorded Delivery will be 74p and Special Delivery will start from £4.60.
Perhaps more likely to affect eBay sellers are the Large Letter and Packet tariffs, which are both up: for the popular 100g-250g tranche, prices will increase to 78p and £1.45 respectively. On the heavier end of the scale, packets between 2kg and 4kg will now be £8.22, or £6.85 via Standard Parcels.
For those spending less than £15,000 on post annually, collections leap in price to £450 per annum, though they will remain free for those spending more than £15k. There are discounts for businesses with accounts on most of the RM tariff, so if you are sending more than the odd packet here and there, it’s certainly worth visiting the postal MOT centre and seeing where you could save.
The full tariff can be read in pdf format on Royal Mail’s website.
Stoke postal workers strike til New Year
December 18, 2007
Workers at the Burslem postal depot have voted to go on strike until January 2nd. The depot handles post for 32,000 homes and businesses in the ST6 area, but Royal Mail have said that 200 bosses have been drafted in to handle deliveries.
The strike is the latest action in a long-running dispute between workers at the depot and management, over the suspension of nine colleagues. The Communication Workers’ Union have said that the complaints against the delivery workers were “spurious”, and have condemned RM’s refusal to take their cases to an independent national appeals’ panel.
In seperate action, postal workers in Alderley Edge are to strike on Christmas Eve, in protest at the closure of the village’s delivery office and forced relocation to Wilmslow. 2,000 residents have signed a petition condemning the plan, and union leaders have criticised Royal Mail for putting “the pursuit of hard cash before all else”.
Recent Comments
- Whirly: #3 you don’t deserve one after having a 1p listing festival you jammy blighter.
- Chris Dawson: #1 I didn’t get a voucher either
If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
- faculty-x: us techies are honoured at the mo from ebay or the ones that have dropped off ebay the most, us...
- faculty-x: bling looks excellent, must get a copy. been messing around with coral for years, should save ages. so...
- Whirly: No voucher for me which is a pain as I need some stuff I know a buyer who will get one, he likes...
- Whirly: #2 If you build the fee’s into your sale price I think it’s a justifiable expense, we regularly...
- Trish Connolly: I need to dissagree with part of your statement. You say, “I’ve met many buyers who are more...
- J R: if we sell something for £500 there is no way we would be willing to give ebay £50 plus Paypal fees, there...
- Whirly: lmao
