Isnt this the total opposite of what we should be aiming for?? With all the congestion on the roads, surely we should be trying to reduce the freight transported by road, this'll just make things worse...

Totally agree:(:
Alcazar

Yeah and they reckon by using air and road they're gonna save £90 million cant see how using loads more artic's is gonna be cheaper or more effecient.

Gary

It demonstrates how GOOD our road system is in the middle of the night!! (When there is no one but the Roayl mail + the other HGVs out) What's the problem with using the spare capacity of our road network at night when no one else needs it???

There is a lot of red tape and hidden expense in running the rail system. By comparison, the running costs of a fleet of lorries is small! eg: £1000ish for a years HGV tax and paying a driver £10 per hour (max 40 hrs per week, from memory... Dad is a HGV driver, so I ouught to remember...)

HGVs don't work to a "strict" timetable like the trains either - so there's less planning overheads & fighting with another company - your company maintains control of everything in the supply chain - that's an important consideration...

I'm rambling now, so I'm off to do some real work...

On the reverse of that...

Trains don't always run on time & are subject to delays, accidents & mis-haps like any other form of transport.

I would also hazzard a guess that the freight side of trains & the running of to do with RM is NOT cost-effective. Prehaps the operators are charging too much?

Roads may not be the medium that is always used as to fly from London to Glasgow is quick & relatively cheap as well as a myriad other destinations.

Yes, but the Post Office/Royal Mail is an organization with lots of historical association with the government. For the government to be advising people to use public transport, then for Royal Mail to abandon rail transport is hardly a major PR coup for the govt.

Its also very labour intensive as the mail is also sorted manualy on the train not just transported.

Its cheaper to let an automatic sorting machine do the job and get the lorries to deliver it.

Lee

Just another failed government policy. In fact I can't think of a single policy they have stuck to, or successfully implimented.:(

UB:(

the problems with the trains is they are often late due to something or other, the planes arnt much better, cant land in fog etc, at least the lorries arrive on time, the cardiff to glasgow train has finished, the swansea to london is due next, the first one finishing has created 10 part time jobs on nites sorting the mail that the tpo staff used to, far cheaper than the tpo staff
mark

How many of you who have looked at this thread are actually employed by RM? We are currently going through a huge transport review, and the gist of that seems to be a move over to the road network, and a farming out of the fleet. This would seem to point to the way Parcel Force has gone, with drivers having to fund their own vehicles to keep thier job.
The drivers in our Mail Centre are very jittery at the mo', as they feel that thier jobs are at risk from competitors.
It wouldn't take much to hire ex hgv drivers on a short term contract to deliver mail by truck, rather than having to rely on the expensive, unreliable rail network.
chris.

bugger, so no more riding the mail train home from London in the early morning then. bummer.

cw42

The prob seems to be that RM is a little bit short in the book-balancing at the mo :(

I now have quite a lot of dealings with RM on a daily basis & there is a major drive to cut costs. They just can't keep losing money & stay a viable option. Some of the costs being saved are justified, some I'm sure, won't be :(

Mark Morris

Planes CAN land in fog btw!

Oh dear! As a front line manager, I've just had to tell my staff that, although we have lost money this year, we've not lost as much as last year!
Hope it works and motivates them!
:-0
chris.

Two points come to mind here:
1. how on earth does a company with a TOTAL monopoly on letter delivery, lose money????:confused:
2. The railways have priced themselves out of this one.....consider the fact that it's cheaper to take a preserved loco to an "open day" somewhere else, on the back of a low loader, than to tow it there by train. Ridiculous!

basically alcazar, we once paid millions each year into the government coffers, now we dont. that was our profit.
we are facing much better competition, when the government stopped our monopoly of letters above a certain weight.
our parcels business has been subsidised for years, as it is bleeding out of the eyes!
we are one of the biggest manpower employers in the uk, and manpower means wages.
we now have a REGULATOR, who is paid for by us, and who fines us if we dont meet our targets. the fines are paid to the regulator!
no other company has to meet the same targets for delivery.
our competitors can use our network to deliver thier customers mail, and if we dont do it right, we get fined by the regulator, and the competition and the customer can claim compensation.
BUT, WE STILL HAVE ONE OF THE CHEAPEST AND BEST SERVICES FROM LETTERBOX TO FRONT DOOR IN THE WORLD.
you should see our place at xmas, you wouldn't believe the amount of mail our little spoke of the wheel handles each week.
I'm off to bed now, I'm up at 5am, to start at 6, so you can all have your bills first thing monday morning,
chris.



[Edited by cw42 - 6/6/2003 10:49:46 PM]

Its simple.
It is cheaper to transport freight by road than it is by rail.
Why?
Because the cost of the roads are covered by their main users - the car. (with the odd tax or two!)
If freight had to cover the cost themselves, they would soon be back on the trains.

None of my first class letters ever managed to get a seat anyway.....

LOL at Luke

Chris

I hope it all goes well with you. I think you've identified several things that cause you problems but in addition would add "old working practices" as well.

I'm working with a new bunch down in Swindon hoping to re-dress the balance a bit with "competition" knowledge. Your profit/potential has a direct bearing on my crust of bread at the moment! :eek: ;)

Your present high chief is probably seen as harsh but is in fact starting to make inroads (if seen from outside).

The decline in mail is a trend which will continue and the fact that the money you have raised over the years has gone to the government instead of being invested in the buisness is a part of the cause of the problems but as i say below making the service you offer the customer poorer is not the way to increase demand and underminds any defence of your monoply position.

I for one as a consumer of the service can not wait for a either a vastly improved service or choice in the market place as the current policy of cutting services like the second post and making deliverys later in the day are not what i want yet i have no real choice.

On a personal level good luck and i hope you hang on to your job.

On the topic above the fact that the lorries are subject to a fuel tax of over 80% and the railways are subsidised out of our pockets proves how unviable long term the rail network is.

morning! I've just re-read my last post, and it comes across as sour grapes. I have been with RM for 15 years now, and only recently moved into management (11 months), and I do like working for this company, and we have some cracking people working for us. we also have some right dead heads working for us too, but I suppose we are not alone there.
Alan Leighton, our boss, does seem to be making improvements, but like you say, it takes a while for a dinosaur like us to change, lets hope it doesnt take too long!
chris.

Mail will be on time perhaps

Talking of using lorries you will all have heard of the private railway the Royal mail had under london well this is now to close and all this will go on lorries because it is cheaper than using this railway even though it goes from paddington to the east end in under 45 minutes even during rush hour.

puff
thats the excuse i get told when theres no bags of mail for me to open
lol
mark

[Edited by MARK MORRIS - 6/7/2003 12:47:48 PM]