I am angry that in 2003 the government decided that we should all benefit from "healthy competition" and that Royal Mail should not have a monopoly on postal services, the result of this is total chaos and the public don't even know the full details! Firstly, the regulators, Postcomm said that to give the competitors a level playing field they can compete with Royal Mail, so obviously they have cherry-picked the best business clients but what most people don't realise is that these private companies collect the mail from businesses then drive it to their nearest Royal Mail depot to deliver it for them, worse still, the Royal Mail are forced to deliver it at a loss to give competitors a "fair chance to compete", which means Royal Mail have to cover (at a loss) the cost of your postmans salary, pension, sick pay etc. Our local postmen now have had their regular rounds broken up, they arn't allowed to leave the sorting office until 9am, the full-time staff are not being replaced and they have to work longer hours with no overtime.
I watched a local postman last winter in the heavy snow, pushing his bike with a very heavy sack up a steep hill, he fell over repeatedly, was soaked through and his trousers were frozen below his knees. Most wouldn't want their jobs, they have already been working in the sorting office for four hours even before they start their round. They are not striking for money, they are fighting for the delivery service we all want, ironically Royal Mail and the postal workers want the same thing, they just don't seem to be able to communicate! The competitors don't want to carry the cost of delivering to every front door, they have been trialling the cost of walking up every path from John O Groats to Lands End and admit they couldn't possibly deliver a letter for the prices Royal Mail charge. I hope we don't lose our postmen, I live in a village with only 10,000 people, so I wouldn't have to queue as long as people in towns each morning at the sorting office for my mail, but imagine the traffic if we lose our postmen! I am glad I spoke to our postman, I have now read the unions, Royal Mail and Postcomm's comments and I think our postmen need our support - business's will suffer in the end if private companies can't drop the mail off at a Royal Mail depot to deliver it for them for a cheaper price than they can do it and yet it will be them that finish off Royal Mail. The postmen incidentally are not against modernisation as stated in the press, in fact they were in favour, the only problem is computers go wrong, the mail sticks together, plastic wrapped magazines get caught in machinery and its the postman who end up re-sorting it. Thats not to mention fingers cut on letter box's, homes with tiny letter box and large magazines to push through, dogs biting them and snapping at their fingers...... I will have more respect for the job they do. Like all companies, some staff let the side down, but at our local office they make a point of making sure anything that looks like a birthday card is dropped off, even if it came in late, there are always two sides to a story and the press and media are only portraying the views of Royal Mail and the government (who really want to privatise it and sell it off to a foreign country) then the prices can shoot up!
I watched a local postman last winter in the heavy snow, pushing his bike with a very heavy sack up a steep hill, he fell over repeatedly, was soaked through and his trousers were frozen below his knees. Most wouldn't want their jobs, they have already been working in the sorting office for four hours even before they start their round. They are not striking for money, they are fighting for the delivery service we all want, ironically Royal Mail and the postal workers want the same thing, they just don't seem to be able to communicate! The competitors don't want to carry the cost of delivering to every front door, they have been trialling the cost of walking up every path from John O Groats to Lands End and admit they couldn't possibly deliver a letter for the prices Royal Mail charge. I hope we don't lose our postmen, I live in a village with only 10,000 people, so I wouldn't have to queue as long as people in towns each morning at the sorting office for my mail, but imagine the traffic if we lose our postmen! I am glad I spoke to our postman, I have now read the unions, Royal Mail and Postcomm's comments and I think our postmen need our support - business's will suffer in the end if private companies can't drop the mail off at a Royal Mail depot to deliver it for them for a cheaper price than they can do it and yet it will be them that finish off Royal Mail. The postmen incidentally are not against modernisation as stated in the press, in fact they were in favour, the only problem is computers go wrong, the mail sticks together, plastic wrapped magazines get caught in machinery and its the postman who end up re-sorting it. Thats not to mention fingers cut on letter box's, homes with tiny letter box and large magazines to push through, dogs biting them and snapping at their fingers...... I will have more respect for the job they do. Like all companies, some staff let the side down, but at our local office they make a point of making sure anything that looks like a birthday card is dropped off, even if it came in late, there are always two sides to a story and the press and media are only portraying the views of Royal Mail and the government (who really want to privatise it and sell it off to a foreign country) then the prices can shoot up!
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