Postal Strikes

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.