RIP Royal Mail

[pfifes]

3 hours ago, Vrsaljko said:

 

It's annoying when they leave items with neighbours, especially if it's one you may not get on with 😂. I'm not a huge fan of Amazon as a business model but you can't fault their delivery service.

To be fair RM have improved in the last couple of years or so with arranging safe places for post. 

[melthebell]

23 minutes ago, pfifes said:

To be fair RM have improved in the last couple of years or so with arranging safe places for post. 

Yeah I prefer RM we know the usual posties and they know exactly where to leave stuff

[Baron99]

And Royal Mail wonder why, especially regarding their business customers, they are losing out to competitors. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/08/royal-mail-bin-collection-website-letter-delivery-days

 

£1.65 for a first class stamp & at the latest info shows they are only managing an 80% first class delivery rate. 

 

We only seem to get two deliveries a week these days but from the number of envelopes that get delivered each time & from people asking, "Have you not got that letter / document we posted about ten days ago from the other side of Sheffield yet?", it's clear the post is being saved up to deliver in bulk. 

[ECCOnoob]

On 30/05/2024 at 12:30, pfifes said:

TNT Express was an international courier delivery services company with its headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. It was acquired by FedEx.  The likes of TNT don’t have to deliver UK letters for a flat fee regardless of destination.  That is the difference.  I’ve no issue with courier service btw, many are excellent, but they are what are and can choose the most profitable services for their business. Unlike Royal Mail who at present anyway  have deliver letters for a flat fee.  And it is case of ‘miss it when it’s gone’ if you think about on more than a superficial level. Even quite recently I can think of an instance where we needed to produce an  original (I.e. not downloaded and printed personally) statement/bill for ID/legal purposes. I guess this type of requirement will phase out gradually but the point I’m making is that we do take a lot for granted with regards to mail.

 

These I think are key points that keep being overlooked.   Even on this thread the gripes from people about Royal Mail mostly seem to be about parcels not letters.   Its all too easy to be saying Amazon is better or UPS leave my package where I ask them too...    But, as you quite rightly point out, none of those companies have to worry about a statutory obligation to deliver of a single piece of paper potentially from Lands End to The Shetlands for as low as 85p. 

 

There is no doubt that regular letter mail is dwindling, particularly in the business world.  I certainly remember the days of my office having sacks of incoming mail each morning, all to be sliced open, date stamped, sorted into our pigeon holes.  Piles of hard copy items to wade through each day, dictate and type responses to be printed, signed and sent out in similar huge sacks of outgoing mail each evening.   Now I can sometimes go at least 2-3 days without receiving a single piece of hard copy business post despite working in the legal sector which is still antiquated in many ways - Other types of industries are virtually post free and have been for some time. 

 

None of the 'courier companies' are going to want to touch the fixed priced letter post with a barge pole.  It has to be questioned how long its really is sustainable without some great reform.  People moan about the service taking longer and becoming more expensive but that's not surprising given its ever dwindling use.  Of course there are some exceptions of things which still require urgent hard copy delivery but there are now a range of services which could provide that not just RM.    For the rest of the generic bulk mail - one would suggest if its really that desperately urgent to still be clinging onto the rose tinted totally uneconomical methods of fixed price first and second class timeframes.   Certainly looking at the personal post I receive these days at least 3/4 goes strength in the bin and i'm sure i'm not alone with that - so makes me wonder why bother.

 

Would it be time for RM to bite the bullet and simply make general post once weekly instead?  Would it be time to split out the classes further and making first class delivery an ad hoc booked timed service like a courier with regular 'stamped' post just being once a week to x areas like say bin collection?     Perhaps its about time that some of those organisations clinging on to their antiquated systems sending letters for everything need dragging into the modern world (the NHS is a prime example of sending letters for the sake of it).  Maybe there needs to be more consideration on the real costs of and even any necessity of maintaining such a universal fixed price system. Particularly now with its massive drop in usage and massively increased (even previously non-existent) competition. 

[spilldig]

7 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

 

These I think are key points that keep being overlooked.   Even on this thread the gripes from people about Royal Mail mostly seem to be about parcels not letters.   Its all too easy to be saying Amazon is better or UPS leave my package where I ask them too...    But, as you quite rightly point out, none of those companies have to worry about a statutory obligation to deliver of a single piece of paper potentially from Lands End to The Shetlands for as low as 85p. 

 

There is no doubt that regular letter mail is dwindling, particularly in the business world.  I certainly remember the days of my office having sacks of incoming mail each morning, all to be sliced open, date stamped, sorted into our pigeon holes.  Piles of hard copy items to wade through each day, dictate and type responses to be printed, signed and sent out in similar huge sacks of outgoing mail each evening.   Now I can sometimes go at least 2-3 days without receiving a single piece of hard copy business post despite working in the legal sector which is still antiquated in many ways - Other types of industries are virtually post free and have been for some time. 

 

None of the 'courier companies' are going to want to touch the fixed priced letter post with a barge pole.  It has to be questioned how long its really is sustainable without some great reform.  People moan about the service taking longer and becoming more expensive but that's not surprising given its ever dwindling use.  Of course there are some exceptions of things which still require urgent hard copy delivery but there are now a range of services which could provide that not just RM.    For the rest of the generic bulk mail - one would suggest if its really that desperately urgent to still be clinging onto the rose tinted totally uneconomical methods of fixed price first and second class timeframes.   Certainly looking at the personal post I receive these days at least 3/4 goes strength in the bin and i'm sure i'm not alone with that - so makes me wonder why bother.

 

Would it be time for RM to bite the bullet and simply make general post once weekly instead?  Would it be time to split out the classes further and making first class delivery an ad hoc booked timed service like a courier with regular 'stamped' post just being once a week to x areas like say bin collection?     Perhaps its about time that some of those organisations clinging on to their antiquated systems sending letters for everything need dragging into the modern world (the NHS is a prime example of sending letters for the sake of it).  Maybe there needs to be more consideration on the real costs of and even any necessity of maintaining such a universal fixed price system. Particularly now with its massive drop in usage and massively increased (even previously non-existent) competition. 

Around here a once a week post would be great instead of what we get now is a batch about every ten days.

[Draggletail]

15 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

...Perhaps its about time that some of those organisations clinging on to their antiquated systems sending letters for everything need dragging into the modern world (the NHS is a prime example of sending letters for the sake of it)...  

There are still older people who don't have computers or smartphones who rely on letters for their NHS hospital appointments.

 

[High Chaparral]

21 hours ago, Baron99 said:

And Royal Mail wonder why, especially regarding their business customers, they are losing out to competitors. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/08/royal-mail-bin-collection-website-letter-delivery-days

 

£1.65 for a first class stamp & at the latest info shows they are only managing an 80% first class delivery rate. 

 

We only seem to get two deliveries a week these days but from the number of envelopes that get delivered each time & from people asking, "Have you not got that letter / document we posted about ten days ago from the other side of Sheffield yet?", it's clear the post is being saved up to deliver in bulk. 

Do you think a competitors could offer a lower price than £1.65 for a first class stamp service and do better than 80% first class delivery rate?

[hackey lad]

Son in law is starting a job as a postman this Monday . Should he be concerned ?

[The_DADDY]

1 hour ago, hackey lad said:

Son in law is starting a job as a postman this Monday . Should he be concerned ?

Probably not matey. I can't imagine they'd set someone on knowing they will be firing them. 

[ECCOnoob]

3 hours ago, Draggletail said:

There are still older people who don't have computers or smartphones who rely on letters for their NHS hospital appointments.

 

 

 

 

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Edited September 11 by ECCOnoob