They are expecting us to share vans and push trolleys about, what a daft idea.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208378/Last-post-Royal-Mail-bike-After-120-years-cycles-way-mechanised-trolleys–China.html#ixzz0OykGBbaq

I thought it was the national shortage of red rubber bands that had precipitated strike action.

It appears that my postie has left them all in my garden.

Its a big-up for the posties here!

Good luck Postie fella!

you'd think if the problem was not being able to carry enough load to the designated area they'd fit extrawheel or bob type things, no?

Surely better than no longer being able to support Pashley (whom I guess royal mail are quite a large contract) and introducing the potential for even more maintenance issues with mechanised trolleys?

battery powered trolleys? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

Never seen a postie on bike for years.

Yeah and goodluck.

Extrawheel of course, the simple and (in bulk, probably very cheap) answer. I'd love to see how they justify the mechanised trolley option.

Trolleys MADE IN CHINA?

This is the final nail in the coffin of our once great nation.

(Where does the Daily Mail think the bikes get made?)

This is the final nail in the coffin of our once great nation.

Yes we're ruined now because of trolleys from china. 🙄

Never seen a postie on bike for years.

the sorting office in our village has a rack full of pashleys outside it. Seen a few postoes with the pull along trolleys too, though, in the area nearest the office.

good luck rich

The local kids round here are outraged. Wheres the fun in nicking a trolly.? On a serious note a good percentage of the posties round these here part use bikea to get about. What a load of shite.

have you ever took one them bikes round the chase…???

the sorting office in our village has a rack full of pashleys outside

Ours did for awhile but never seen any posties on them.

does this mean there will be loads of bomb proof bikes on the market?

i quite fancy a postie bike

Drac – Switch your sarcasm detector on please.

Just get back to work you lazy bast***! 😉 😆 😀

competition will slowly but surely kill the Royal Mail if things keep going the way they are. It's just not profitable to collect and deliver mail from local areas. Deutsche Post et al will (and already are) cream off the profitable mass mail market (big single point collection) leaving RM to do the first and last mile bits (the loss making bits).

I say, why don't we have some kind of nationalised mail service? I'll suggest it to my MP.

The only way to make it competitive is massive investment in infrastructure like 'walk sorting machines' and schemes like the one Rich describes.

Drac – Switch your sarcasm detector on please.

DOH!

I just wonder why people strike in general…a job with pay is better than no job without pay…

That is a statement to anyone who strikes not just to postierich…I guess in part it comes down to your beliefs and your job…I've never been in that position so no first hand experience which is why I always wonder why people strike.

You going to be getting these like USPS?

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/localnews/fl/fl_2008_1025.htm

**** Chinese, coming here, making our bicycles and making us eat number52 with chips (mutter)

After a series of f***-ups on their part i once sent a particularly irate email to Royal Mail "FAO Adam Crozier" (their chief executive) saying his mother should have aborted him when she had chance. Funnily enough i never got a reply.

British worker outraged at moves toward more efficient working practices shocker!

finbar – i'm about to send a similar email regarding the number of posties in vans that tried to kill us on the road in scotland. I won't be quite so personal though, he's actually a really nice chap 😀

£450 for a freakin gas piped piece of pig iron shite? No wonder the Royal Mail looses money.

BillyWhizz – Member

British worker outraged at moves toward more efficient working practices shocker!

Ha ha ha you think it will lead to "more efficient working practices" !
More like …….. even greater profits for the Royal Mail !

The only certainty is that Royal Mail will be providing a deteriorating service in the future, as the drive to maximise profits in the interests of private companies overrides all other considerations.

btw, according to the article "A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said that they broadly backed the move"….. typical spineless British trade union which hasn't got the bottle to fight and organise proper effective industrial action ….. shame on them.

No wonder the Royal Mail looses money.

It doesn't.

I remember the last time there was a postal strike and the usual people on here were foaming at the mouth, Rich posted up a thread with details of where he'd been riding that day, what a great time he'd had when we were all sat at our desks, etc. It wasn't big or clever but it was definitely funny. 🙂

whilst i wholly agree with peoples right to strike, i can't help but feel that Unions have been rendered pretty impotent by the governments of the last 20 years.

Our postie is fantastic, he has my full support if he strikes.
If you saw the hills he runs up and down to deliver post in our village you'd support him too.
Always smiling, always polite nothing too much trouble.

Good luck Rich and all posties everywhere.

There wouldn't be a problem with what the postie's could carry if they delivered mail rather than the tons of junk mail the post office seems to be in love with.

The only certainty is that Royal Mail will be providing a deteriorating service in the future, as the drive to maximise profits in the interests of private companies overrides all other considerations.

You also forgot price increases. If anyone needs a reminder just look to the railways/utilities if they want to see where royal mail is going.

the junk mail is the only bit that makes them a profit! Last time I heard info they were still making a loss on every standard class letter they delivered

i can't help but feel that Unions have been rendered pretty impotent

Not at all. If the CWU announced an indefinite strike until the future of Royal Mail as a service instead of a business, had been secured, how long do you think it would take to resolve the dispute – 3 days ? 4 days ?

As long as the CWU ponces about with ineffective one day strikes, multimillionaires Alan Crozier and Peter Mandelson will sleep soundly in their beds at night, happy and secure in the knowledge that the unelected shitesters can do whatever they damn well want with the Royal Mail.

Wake them up in the middle of the night to inform them that the CWU won't be returning to work until there is a satisfactory solution, and they will be frantically phoning government ministers in their pyjamas.

Of course if they had believed that there was a real risk of real industrial action from the start, then it would never have got to this in the first place. So the CWU's non-militant past, is part of the problem.

fair enough but in the past the fact that Royal Mail was the sole provider of mail services would have meant that they had no option but to negotiate under such conditions. Nowadays though, if the CWU did such a thing it would only take days before RM folded completely/got bailed out by the government and the competition would step in with their non union/temporary workers.

the junk mail is the only bit that makes them a profit!

All four parts of the business makes a profit – which last year was double the previous year.

only take days before RM folded completely

Britain can't be the only country in the world without a mail service !

And don't think for a minute that private companies want to provide a comprehensive universal postal service – they only want the juicy bits thanks.

sorry Ernie – i meant that the only profitable mail that they deliver is the commercial/junk mail. the regular non franked mail was delivered at a loss last time i heard the figures. I know the business is in profit.

I already stated the fact that private enterprise didn't want the regular mail above.

my knowledge of the exact details of the CWU is slim and my original comment was aimed at unions in general.