Yes, they are good at small parcels. Once you get up to say 5-7KG, they are not competitive at the moment.
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In this period they should have been making huge profits with parcels. As they did not do that (while UPS and FEDEX have seen large gains), I am a bit disappointed with them. The 2000 managers cut should have been done years ago. Automation should have been taken care of much earlier. A lot of downsides in this company. Difficult for me to justify maintaining my position.
In more than 30 years of working for Royal Mail, one postman said he had never witnessed a period anywhere near as hectic as the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. With the country in lockdown and all but essential shops closed,
Britons stuck at home went on an online shopping spree that filled up mail sacks faster than even the busiest times of year.
Still, parcels market share is heading to the wrong direction:
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Share price doing well today though
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Why the surge? It’s again a loss despite surging volumes. RMG is not taking advantage of the pandemic.
The rumour is that they may be forced to spin off their profitable parcel arm from the rest of the business.
Can’t see it myself but what do I know…
It would be a typical way of nationalizing losses and privatizing profits. RMG would be mad if they spin off their only way to get back on track.
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Or maybe it’s part of the plan? Strip out the profitable parts then renationalise the loss making postal service - yet another privatisation that asset strips the country, fails customers, fails the taxpayer and benefits a select few.
Anyway, I can’t hang around here chatting - I should go and take advantage of the free market to change my water supplier so that I can get a better price and also work out which rail franchisee is the cheapest on a the route I need to take later!
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Price increases from January
And it sadly looks as if the days of letters delivered on a Saturday are numbered
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People don’t post many letters anymore, it’s kind of sad.
85p is pretty good value when you think about what’s involved though.
Few like they could do more to encourage letter writing. What app is so cold and impersonal, the internet in general is like that.
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I agree that it is less personal, and the fact it can be done in a blink of an eye means less effort is needed.
But sadly sending a letter, a practice thousands of years old, is a little ridiculous nowadays.
Kind of like using a cheque, or listening to a cassette!
Hehe! I know you know this by the way. But it’s all inevitable.
I do think it’s super cute though when you get a hand written letter from a grandparent.
I mean you say that, but using physical couriers is still one of the safest ways of transporting data securely from site to site. Sometimes just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s not fit for purpose.
This is also actually kind of sad
Royal Mail have been focusing more on the parcel delivery side of the business for a number of years now, the management realised a long time ago that sending letters is in decline so they have been actively reconfiguring the core business model
To little too late for this outdated business
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There are some points to consider here - Amazons couriers are ‘self-employed’, not in a good contract, and aren’t paid particularly well for their service. As a driver, they cover the cost of their vehicle, petrol/diesel, insurance, have to turn pay their own tax (Amazon doesn’t automate this for them, and they aren’t on paye). They don’t get sick pay, holiday pay or pensions unless they orchestrate this themselves. In the long run, they are paid far less than a royal mail worker and this business model isn’t sustainable… for a want of a better phrase amazon is shafting their couriers. Over the years, I think we’ll see a change where royal mail becomes a dominant provider for couriers and delivery drivers as they are able to offer a superior and better role, unless Amazon act and actually treat their couriers as PAYE workers with full benefits. But I doubt they will as it costs more. At present I’m not invested in Royal Mail, but after having spoken with a fair few Amazon couriers and someone who has an understanding of these business models I can see how things have to change in the long run. Will be interesting to see how things change
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Not convinced that Royal Mail will dominate the courier business. They only operate in our domestic market whereas Amazon is a global brand with huge and ever growing resources.
Having their drivers be self employed saves them money, how is this unsustainable?
Uber/Deliveroo and many others operate the same way. Morally and ethically there may be implications but with an abundance of people aways looking for work these drivers are replacable in fact aren’t Amazon thinking of ways to automate this further such as drone drops.
Yes, courier services will likey change but prehaps not how we think it.
That’s not quite what I said… I don’t mean they will dominate the courier business in general, but eventually are well positioned to become a dominant provider at least in the UK. I’m only talking about the UK, not the rest of the world. What I mean is that the gig economy only operates as it does because companies like Amazon and the like are set up in a way that pays their drivers as little as possible. In the long run, that is not going to be sustainable for couriers themselves, and that is where the change will happen.
There will be a change (at least in the UK) across the gig economy in a big way over the coming years, as more and more workers realise that they’re not in a good position and action is taken to combat that… whilst it is quick/cheap for the big companies to set up, it’s not sustainable in the long term for the workers. Who makes that change I don’t know, but it will happen.
What happens when the gig economy makes a stand, starts a union and strikes against the principles of companies like Amazon? Those companies are then in a massive pickle, which is where a company set up like Royal Mail can step in, amend their business model and pick up the pieces.
(I also can’t predict the future so maybe wrong of course 
)
This is also happening in other industries, such as recruitment for substitute teachers in schools (recruiters earn about £60 per teacher per placing per day for basically making a phone call… coming out of schools/education budget. If you have children, you’d be shocked to understand how much of the government budget for education is lining recruiters’ pockets… but that is also changing with advances in technology and automated systems). Changes to the recruitment process for all industries will come, it may not be today or tomorrow, but over the years I expect we’ll see a large change.
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My reference to changes within the gig economy above a few weeks back… The verdict against Uber could be the catalyst for change across a variety of different industries for gig workers
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What’s the link to royal mail you see here?