UK Royal Mail Strikes

Most of London and the Midlands are hit. Should be fun

cheque is in the post.

honest guv,

Shak

Yeah I expect to hear that one a bit more often.

Good news is though Barclaycard isnt going to charge people if they are late paying their cards!

I had a special delivery letter I tried to post yesterday in Leigh on Sea (just outside of southend) and they turned me away :(

Could of cost us alot of money as it was a letter trying to secure a big contract.

Yeah im just up the road to you in Clacton the post office here has shut down and all the boxes are sealed.

I just posted a bundle of ivoices yeaterday an all....

How long is this going on for?

How long? Who knows? What are they actually striking for? The suspension of that dirver? But he has been re-instated now, hasn't he? So it's pay now, then? Who knows anything about it?

The Royal Mail is talking about taking legal action and dismissals. Good idea or will it make things worse? As they are on an illegal strike, they will lose all pension benefits and will be entitled to no lay-off money at all. Simple sacking for gross misconduct.

I am more in support with the office in Scotland that striked when they were asked to sort some of London's mail. When managers sent the mail back to London, they returned to work. I can at least understand that they would not want to do others work (what benefit would it get them, a couple of hours overtime and then it'd all be forgotten 2 months later!).

Thankfully I have worried about this for a month or so now and have found alternatives to delivery problems by using a courier and a supplier who sends items from their premises using Parceline. Though couriers may get snowed under before long...

For payments, I am paying by bank transfer at the moment and I will be contacting business customers as bill due dates get close to inform them of my bank details for payment, or they can pay by credit or debit card. In this day and age they have no excuse for paying late, legal action will be taken even if the money comes after the strike is over if it is still late - I will be charging interest if they refuse to pay by any other method than cheque by Royal Mail - they can send it by courier if they want to pay by cheque.

Essex_Boy, ring your customers who you've sent invoices to for fax numbers (if you don't have them) and fax the invoices.

creative_craig, get a lost/damaged mail form from the post office and claim for compensation for a refused special delivery which is guaranteed by the Queen of England. You probably won't get any money, but I wonder what the letter you get back from them will say! Worth a try in my opinion, let them know you are not happy!

Thank the world for couriers (I never thought I'd say that!) and FREE THE MONOPOLY! (Which may happen soon, temporarily, but if they open it, do you think they'll ever close it again?)

Said on the C4 news that the strike was over pay and coditions, apprently one office returned from strike only to find themselves with new terms and conditions.

I knew 2 postmen in the Chelmsford area both are skivving barstools grossly inflating the time it takes to deliver the round. Problem is its been going on for so long, how can you crack down on it?

The management of RM are crap turning a profitable company in to a £100's Million loser.

Dont know who I back.

No do not end the monopoly, look atthe directory enquiry services fiasco, railtrack etc etc better the devil you know.

Court threats dont work in the long run youll only upset your customers/suppliers etc

I hope they do scrap the monopoly. We are not talking little rubbish, unheard of companies that want to replace/compete with them. One company is the Dutch Post (a courier only in the UK: TNT Couriers) and should prove effective. However, it would probably take a while for their service to be up to scratch so it could be a catch 22 situation for them. Some monopolies have been scrapped very effectively - think of BT, in our area NTL probably have over a third of the customers and both companies are thriving. Good for them, good for us. But I agree that it needs to be done carefully.

Court action is perfect for those who are already well overdue and now will try to use the Royal Mail strikes as an excuse. (Only they'll not get the court documents!). It gives you a good excuse to demand payment by credit/debit card on the phone, there and then. I don't mean for customers who are less than 90 days overdue, just those over using the excuse.

Glad to see that the Royal Mail has just lost a contract (terminated early) with Tesco :) - Good one for Tesco, sourcing an alternative instead of waiting and hoping, well done Tesco!

Hi, I have a royal mail daily collection service of recorded delivery items. I've already had customers email and ask for alternative methods of delivery. I'm afraid I have a contract with royal mail and they are very cost effective if you are sending small parcels in bulk every day. The question I have is there an alternative courier service for U.K customers that is cost effective, easy to set up and will not tie me up in a contractual agreement?

[webmasterworld.com...]

Tesco are using ParcelNet, but I don't know anything about them.

Thanks, i'll have to do some research on parcelnet before monday!

www.parcelnet.co.uk - seems to need to have a contract with them by looking at the site? But I suppose there is no harm in phoning. Also try Yellow Pages/BT Phone Book for couriers in your area, you can always ring and set up a contract price list with them (no matter how small the number of parcels).

apparently this isnt a legitimate strike, and the unions say they are not involved in the current walks outs - of course there not encouraging workers back t0 work!

causing problems all over!

I spoke to the post man this morning when he came to our offices to pick up the mail. Apparently, the Birmingham workers are also thinking about this unofficial walk out. This is really bad for small businesses, I have noticed a 40% decrease in order over the past 48 hours in comparison to last week. The parcelnet site does not have a phone number!, just an email address. I'll try and contact them and any body else I kind find come Monday morning. We may have to absorb higher postage costs to keep the orders coming!

Royal Mail's competitors are already being allowed to take over more deliveries on a temporary basis.

Private firms holding licences to deliver a limited amount of bulk mail to business customers have been given permission to carry any mail they wanted because of the dispute.

-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3232593.stm

The monopoly breaking could be in for a little test to see how these private companies react. The bad thing about the monopoly been scrapped could be thousands of postal workers who lose their jobs and then end up working for a competitor, I imagine they may get less money working for someone different. So it could be in the postmans interest not to disrupt for too long.

Received a letter today are they all/some back?

12th day now without mail :(

(Hey i just passed 2000 :) )

Must be a real killer that. Where are you?

Kensington

We get 99.9% of our payment by bacs. Plenty of alternative carriers for parcels, personally I think Royal Mail’s future is doomed in the electronic world.

Our postal service is almost non existent they leave it in a pipe in a hedge about a mile away from the house. Most of it is Junk mail postman gets paid to deliver paper spam which I then on occasion deposit in bulk into the nearest postbox.

It shouldnt be doomed in the electronic age, we still need to have items delivered.

I think its a case of adapt and survive oor go the way of the Dodo.

Less and less mail needs to be sent by Royal Mail.

Adapt and survive yes that I agree with, but can you see that happening?

It may well end up as a luxury service and something of an oddity they may even theme it as an OLDE WORLDE POSTE experience.

Strikes always spawn alternatives I do believe that the motor cycle courier services began during a previous strike.

This INMO is the future, what we all do - electronic communication, its going to get faster and way more sophisticated.

trying to get some cost effective alternatives to RM's special delivery:

I hope its ok listing these...

Some mentioned parcelnet
also try:

Parcelflash (.com)

Specialdelivery (.co.uk)

Not endorsing these co.s (got to choose one 4 mon)just need a list of viable alternatives.

PS- this is effecting sales with others? we are down.

b

My sales arent down but Ive stopped buying on the net until this is over.

Whats the point of buying something you cant have?

Ive a list from one site of xmas prezzies totaling nearly £600 ($800) worth of goods. So yes I can imagine its really hurting some.

[ananova.com...]

Just seen similar on the BBC. But one day of striking can affect the post for days. Two weeks can affect the post for...well, it must be several weeks. But at least it is beginning to move now.

I wonder if the private companies having their restrictions lifted will get the restrictions again or if they'll be free to compete (they were allowed to build their own post boxes and have collection services, which surprised me). If the restrictions are never brought back, this could be the strike of the Royal Mail to remember - it could never be the same given a year or two of competition.

...it could never be the same given a year or two of competition.

Let's hope so.