Postal Strikes
Posted: Sun 20 September, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Customer Services, Thoughts 2 Comments »As I’ve mentioned a couple of times before, I really don’t understand how strikes are supposed to work.
The case of the (probably) upcoming national postal strike is a perfect example of this. As the BBC story says,
At the core of the dispute is the Royal Mail’s plans to trim its 121,000 frontline postal workers as part of the modernisation it says is needed to secure its future against a backdrop of falling mail levels.
But the strike itself, if called, will mean more people stop using the Royal Mail, and thus there’ll be a need for even more redundancies over time.
Because of previous strikes, for example, the last three agencies I’ve worked with have all done pretty much everything online. In the current one, only one thing goes through Royal Mail (because it’s a) more expensive to use, and b) not reliable) and that’s the payslip, which is fine to be delayed.
At the start, all my contract documents were sent as PDF files by email. My ‘timesheet’ is filled in online, and submitted electronically. My invoice for the week is created on the computer, and emailed across. Payment is done by BACS Faster Payments, and then the agency posts out the remittance advice. (And I’m sure they could automate that too)
However you look at it, that’s a significant bit of money that Royal Mail is losing out on – it would’ve been Special Delivery for the contract documents both ways (Recorded not being worth the paper it’s written on), first class post for invoices and timesheets, every week. When the agency deals with a couple of thousand contractors, that’s starting to add up even more. Bear in mind that there’s one hell of a lot of agencies out there doing this too, and that’s serious cash that Royal Mail isn’t receiving – and all because they can’t be relied upon to provide a good service.
Royal Mail spouting on about “needing to modernise” is all well and good – but they can’t modernise enough any more. People simply don’t rely on them, the service has steadily decreased over the years, and all those past ‘modernisations’ have left them with an organisation that can’t cope.
But the strikes don’t help either. If this new one happens, it’ll cause another wave of customer to go elsewhere – either online, sending things by email instead, or doing as companies like Amazon do, and using courier services for everything.
In my opinion, the best thing Royal Mail could do would be to go back to the service of twenty years ago – deliveries to the home first thing in the morning, a reliable service, and open to all. It would involve investment rather than modernisation and taking on more people instead of getting rid. It would be a massive PR win into the bargain – “We’re bringing back the service you want” – and would raise the public perception of their service in epic style.
However, I can’t help but suspect it would also be far too late to get back all the customers they’ve alienated over the last two decades. And that’s a great shame.
Unsalted
Posted: Sat 19 September, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Health, Norfolk, People, Stupidity, Sweary, Thoughts Leave a comment »Sometimes you read a story and your mind boggles right out of its tiny capsule.
In this case, it’s a story about Norfolk’s Trading Standards launching a campaign to get people to reduce their salt intake. “How?”, I hear you cry. Well, like this…
New saltshakers with fewer holes have provided for fish and chip shops in Norfolk to help cut salt consumption. The saltshakers only have five holes and dispense 50% less salt than the usual 17-hole versions.
What ?!?
So this ‘campaign’ is only in the 400-ish fish-and-chip places in Norfolk. If you’re in a chippy, I somehow suspect that the salt in it is far less of a long-term risk than the amount of fat that’s going into that meal. But no, we’ll focus on the salt. Genius.
And what the fuck has it got to do with Trading Standards? Are people no longer judged to have enough personal responsibility to manage their own salt levels on their food?
I despair. I truly do.
Abandoned
Posted: Sat 19 September, 2009 Filed under: Driving, Parking, Thoughts 3 Comments »One thing that is good about the local(ish) Tescos is the sheer amusement value you can get from seeing the way people park, and apparently think “That’ll do”.
This is today’s example.
Abandoned Car
I’ve blocked out the number-plate, although I’m not sure I should do – after all, people should be properly recognised for their achievements. What do you think?
Online/Offline
Posted: Fri 18 September, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »For me (and I know I’m not the only one), meeting bloggers etc is always a somewhat strange experience – you know so much about their lives yet have no idea what they look like, for example. (Unless they’ve posted proper photos, of course)
Even after (ye Gods) ten years of doing this kind of thing, whether through blogging or other internet connections, it’s still something that’s odd yet fun to do. And in my experience people never look like you imagine they will. Regardless of what you imagine, reality isn’t the same.
Anyway, in the spirit of this, I went off last night to see Mike ‘Troubled Diva‘ for his hour on The Plinth as part of the “One and Other” project. I’ve been reading TD for at least seven years, and he’s one of the few remaining bloggers I’d wanted to meet (the other remaining unmet ones are Gordon, Diamond Geezer, and – um – that’s about it) so being based just up the road, it simply had to be done.
And it was a fun evening – Mike is pretty much what I expected, but it’s still fantastic to finally meet, having read his life over all that time. We didn’t get a chance to talk for a long time – there were lots of people around – but it’s been great to meet, anyway.
Mind Crime
Posted: Fri 18 September, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, General, News, Thoughts 4 Comments »Over the last week or so, I’ve been churning this post around in my head – and it’s still a work in progress. I’ve written about it before on a couple of occasions, but in the last ten days there have been two big – and well-publicised – court cases based around conspiracies, and planning to commit offences.
In one case, two boys in Manchester were supposedly planning to blow up their school – and have now been found innocent of all charges, and there’s a small ruckus going on about whether the entire thing was actually a total waste of time and money. The second one (although it actually came first chronologically) was of course the ‘liquid bomb’ plot to detonate bombs in mid-air on several flights. They were found guilty, and this week got sentenced to incredibly long terms ( between 32 and 40 years each)
Now I can’t deny, I find I have a real problem with people going to court to answer a case that they were thinking about doing something bad.
Obviously, I haven’t been in the court hearings on either case, so I don’t know the true weight of evidence in either case. I just find myself uncomfortable with the concept of having people get taken to court and going through epic legal proceedings for an offence that has been talked about, but not actually committed.
Mind you, in my opinion terrorism is the ‘child porn’ of the 2000s, it’s the Big Bad Thing where people appear to say “Oh, well if [the accused] was into that then they’re beyond the pale, just lock ’em up and throw away the key”. It’s the “Ultimate Offence”, or whatever.
I suppose that the difference between the cases is that with the aeroplane bomb plan the people had actually put together the things they needed, whereas the Manchester one appears to have been more about talk and ‘let’s do that’ discussions, rather than serious preparation.
Even with that though – and I totally acknowledge the difference between ‘planning’ and ‘making the things necessary in preparation’ – I keep coming back to the entire concept of being able to be tried for an offence that hasn’t actually been committed. After all, isn’t that pretty much what Orwell described in “1984” as “Mindcrime”?
Dan Brown
Posted: Thu 17 September, 2009 Filed under: Writing 5 Comments »For once in my life, I’m not going to go off on a rant about Dan Brown’s writing style and so on. I’ve done enough of that via Twitter to last me a while. (I may add some thoughts over the weekend, but I wouldn’t count on it)
Instead, I’m going to let The Telegraph point things out in a far better, pithier (and significantly less sweary) way by just pointing you to this article showing what they list as Brown’s Worst Twenty Sentences.
And it’s fair to say I really don’t want to read his new novel.
Just Why?
Posted: Thu 17 September, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »The Aston Martin Vantage is a beautiful, beautiful car. It’s one of the very few that I’d love to own – I know it’s an utterly unrealistic prospect for a number of reasons (Not least being that it costs somewhere north of £85,000) but there we go. It’s still a thing of beauty, and when one goes past, I’ll always appreciate it.
However.
On my current walk in to work, I get passed two or three times every week by a Vantage. And while I love the shape and design of the car, I really can’t believe that anyone sane would get one painted in what I can only describe as powder blue. (According to Aston Martin, so far as I can tell it’s called ‘Glacial Blue 2’, but it’s nowhere near as dark as in their car-configuration thingy)
The car’s still beautiful. The colour is – frankly – fucking horrific. With so many colours to choose from, why the hell would someone choose powder blue, for chuff’s sake?