Royal Mail, disjointed?

[Ihavenojob]

I had to wait in today as I had 3 parcels being delivered. I got the 3 emails yesterday "your parcel has reached XXXX delivery office and is due to be delivered 14/10/26" . This morning I got 3 more emails "your parcel is out for delivery today". I had a delivery at 11 am, 2.00pm and 4.00pm. I thought they needed to save money?

 

[blup]

Do you mean Parcel Force or Royal Mail?

I had to wait in today as I had 3 parcels being delivered. I got the 3 emails yesterday "your parcel has reached XXXX delivery office and is due to be delivered 14/10/26" . This morning I got 3 more emails "your parcel is out for delivery today". I had a delivery at 11 am, 2.00pm and 4.00pm. I thought they needed to save money?

They probably find it more cost effective to deliver direct from three different depots rather than introducing an extra step so the parcels end up in the same office before delivery

 

[Trazor]

Do you mean Parcel Force or Royal Mail?

They probably find it more cost effective to deliver direct from three different depots rather than introducing an extra step so the parcels end up in the same office before delivery

Correct, all depends on each drivers route for the day.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Do you mean Parcel Force or Royal Mail?

They probably find it more cost effective to deliver direct from three different depots rather than introducing an extra step so the parcels end up in the same office before delivery

All Royal Mail., all 3 were at the same delivery office when the emails sent.

 

[securespark]

I wish I had deliveries like that. IME, the service has gone completely to pot in the last 30 years. In 1996, I had deliveries twice a day, with the first post at 06.30. Collections were several times a day. Postage costs were reasonable and delivery times were swift.

Fast forward to today and the exact opposite is true. Deliveries are very sporadic - at least here - I can go a week or more without post, then get a handful in one day. I have missed NHS appointments and been put down as DNA because the letter arrived after the appointment date. Apparently, at our local sorting office, if someone goes off sick, they don't replace them, just wait until they get back. Meanwhile, letters pile up.

Collections have gone from several a day to one a day during the week. If you miss the 09.30 collection on Friday, the next is Monday morning, unless you take it to a PO.

And postage costs? Don't make me laugh...
It's the Royal Mail version of shrinkflation:
Pay more and get a way slower service.

In the 90s, first class was next day, no debate. These days, you're lucky if it's there in two.

I got my lad to post me something back from Notts recently and it took the best part of a week. That was first class signed for. £5.30 I paid for the privilege.

 

[blup]

All Royal Mail., all 3 were at the same delivery office when the emails sent.

Probably timing then, in other words they could have justified sending some of them the next day.

 

[johnny2007]

Our postman was on holiday for 3 weeks and we only got mail on Saturdays.
I asked the replacement postman and he said when someone is on holiday they use postmen on overtime and if they don't have enough of them, you get mail piled up to be delivered only one day a week.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Probably timing then, in other words they could have justified sending some of them the next day.

RM are prioritising parcels, all these were 48 hour tracked parcels, they were all at the same delivery office at the same time, I am just wondering why they used 3 different postie's in 3 different vans to deliver them .

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

RM are prioritising parcels, all these were 48 hour tracked parcels, they were all at the same delivery office at the same time, I am just wondering why they used 3 different postie's in 3 different vans to deliver them .

Because they're a fragmented complete mess of a company. Mainly because the unions are so entrenched that if anyone suggests anything involving efficiency then they'll all be out waving placards, so nothing ever gets done. There's probably someone whose job description says they do small parcels, another department that handles slightly larger parcels and another that deals with brown parcels.

Every business that unions get involved in always ends up bankrupt - history is full of clear examples, not least our entire car industry. They get high pay and good conditions for a few years, then they and all future generations end up unemployed.

The current billionaire owner isn't an idiot, he bought it knowing it's a complete basket-case of a company. But they own lots of land in almost every town and city centre, under all their sorting offices. They just need a few years to allow (and probably ensure) the company goes bust, then they can sack everyone, knock everything down, asset-strip and cash in.

 

[blup]

RM are prioritising parcels, all these were 48 hour tracked parcels, they were all at the same delivery office at the same time, I am just wondering why they used 3 different postie's in 3 different vans to deliver them .

The computer said no, the vans are probably loaded in accordance with calculations of weight size and postcode/location rather than a specific address.

I had two deliveries today that could have been one.

 

[Ferooz]

Because they're a fragmented complete mess of a company. Mainly because the unions are so entrenched that if anyone suggests anything involving efficiency then they'll all be out waving placards, so nothing ever gets done. There's probably someone whose job description says they do small parcels, another department that handles slightly larger parcels and another that deals with brown parcels.

Every business that unions get involved in always ends up bankrupt - history is full of clear examples, not least our entire car industry. They get high pay and good conditions for a few years, then they and all future generations end up unemployed.

The current billionaire owner isn't an idiot, he bought it knowing it's a complete basket-case of a company. But they own lots of land in almost every town and city centre, under all their sorting offices. They just need a few years to allow (and probably ensure) the company goes bust, then they can sack everyone, knock everything down, asset-strip and cash in.

The 3 different vans for 3 parcels from the same office at the same time is just peak inefficiency. Do you think this is purely a routing software glitch, or is their sorting system really that fragmented internally?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Even Thatcher thought that privatising Royal Mail was a bad idea. They split the company, with Parcelforce for parcels and Royal Mail for the post. The plan was to privatise just Parcelforce, keeping the postal service state-owned. But it never happened before 1997, when Labour took over so the sell-off didn't happen. Then the tory/lib dem coalition got into power, and immediately sold off the whole lot, not just the parcels part.

But there's still this weird division between the two brands, with lots of crossover. It looks to me like they've been trying to retire the confusing Parcelforce brand. I've had a few pretty big parcels recently under the RM brand, which would have been Parcelforce in recent years. I wonder if these multiple deliveries could be one from the original RM and the second from Parcelforce that's now been re-branded as RM.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

For anyone thinking Royal Mail has to always exist to deliver the post, here's a good example of what the future could look like...

Denmark's postal service to stop delivering letters

The decision will end 400 years of the company's letter service, and postboxes will disappear from June.

www.bbc.co.uk

It would probably do us all a favour. If the NHS had a computer voice calls system to tell people about appointments they'd save a fortune in postage and have far fewer missed appointments due to delays and missing letters. But they keep on doing it the old way. They'll modernise only if forced to.