Air Mail

[Guest]

12 hours ago, woolley said:

That really is the thing. There has to be a review of what is an appropriate service to provide in an age where letters have largely lost their status. If junk mail was banned what would be left? And in general I don't have a problem with public ownership. It's a great principle so long as it's run on commercial lines rather than for the convenience of those on the inside having a beano on taxpayers' money. The problem is that the unions have you by the short and curlies more than in any commercial situation.

That’s very true. The unions have a lot to answer for. Yes of course there should be fair but demanding managers but one of the reasons public sector is as it is, is due to the awkwardness of unions, meaning that no real progress is made and everyone gets a pay rise each year as no one is allowed to be rewarded on performance - how is that fair? 

[Mongoose-Man]

21 hours ago, Moghrey Mie said:

More and more people seem to be realising that the Isle of Man is not part of the UK eg credit card companies and acting accordingly.

Reap what we sow.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

32 minutes ago, Satan666 said:

He thinks they’re providing a great service and are well run. He’s stated that previously on here. Despite them throwing tens of thousands down the drain by allowing staff to abuse the vans to such a degree in their last auctioning off, late last year, they ALL went for at least £5k under book value! Well managed - not!

What do comparative Royal Mail vans go for at auction compared to book value?

Post vans are always going to be ragged. It’s stop start with lots of idling. The American Grumman LLVs are so ragged, hundreds of them have gone up in flames. 

[Banker]

8 minutes ago, Mongoose-Man said:

Reap what we sow.

All the crown dependencies are in same position with credit cards, mail planes etc. Basically it seems the plane is too expensive for what it’s needed for ie declining volumes of mail 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

3 minutes ago, Banker said:

All the crown dependencies are in same position with credit cards, mail planes etc. Basically it seems the plane is too expensive for what it’s needed for ie declining volumes of mail 

Declining volumes of letters.
Their parcel business is raking it in. 

[Banker]

Just now, AcousticallyChallenged said:

Declining volumes of letters.
Their parcel business is raking it in. 

Think most parcels come on ferry along with Manx independent, Hermes etc 

[Ringy Rose]

7 hours ago, woolley said:

And who is enjoying this bonanza? It certainly isn't the company's shareholders, because the share price is down from £5.50 to £2.08 in 2 years.

Depends if you believe the rumours about the parcels business, where the Group’s largest shareholder Daniel Kretinsky is pushing to have it spun off into a separate business. Which he will buy for himself. An undervalued share price certainly helps there.

But I’m sure they wouldn’t asset strip the business then dump the public service rump back on the taxpayer.

57 minutes ago, Satan666 said:

Despite them throwing tens of thousands down the drain by allowing staff to abuse the vans to such a degree in their last auctioning off, late last year, they ALL went for at least £5k under book value

Vans used intensively for repeated stop-start work get shagged out quicker than a builder’s van which is parked up all day on a job. Who knew.

[Non-Believer]

50 minutes ago, Ringy Rose said:

Vans used intensively for repeated stop-start work get shagged out quicker than a builder’s van which is parked up all day on a job. Who knew.

Especially when servicing/inspection intervals have been extended to only once every two years ("savings"), regardless of mileage and other than that being just driven until they stop.

Plus an apparent lack of imposed discipline of driver-level maintenance and driver-induced damage. 

[Roger Mexico]

11 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

Teething problems, not unusual with new kit.

Well according to the original press release, the parcel sorting machine was due to be "commissioned, during the autumn of 2022".  So you'd expect a full set of teeth by now.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

1 hour ago, Non-Believer said:

Especially when servicing/inspection intervals have been extended to only once every two years ("savings"), regardless of mileage and other than that being just driven until they stop.

Plus an apparent lack of imposed discipline of driver-level maintenance and driver-induced damage. 

Modern vans do have 2 year and 30k intervals for servicing. 

It makes them look better in fleet deals.

However, postie use would almost certainly qualify for the hard use intervals which look a bit more normal. 

[CallMeCurious]

Even as post declines in volume I still would rather pay a small premium for paper bills and bank statements.

There are two primary reasons;

#1: Every year the parking permits require proof of address from a recent utility bill and so do banks, phone comapnies etc. for the KYC checks. No sign of that changing until we get Digital Citizen ID cards or RFI chips

#2: Having gone through PPI claims with several banks and credit card companies, some of whom I no longer used. I had all the records to find every account, its details, proof of loans and insurance payments etc.

Apparently the banks and institutions have very poor record keeping and insisted I provide them with all of the information they had carelessly disposed off or misfiled.  Having been able to do it quickly and easily, I recieved my money back, plus interest and compensation in four instances of five cases in a few months, it proved to be well worth the hassle of keeping two or three archive boxes of bank & card statements dating back 20 odd years. The fifth finally repaid me too after a year of toing and froing, with a compensation payment 5 times what they had owed me with interest.   

So I don't trust the banks on many levels (misselling, deteriorating services, poor interest returns). The online stuff is merely a back up of my own records.

[NoTailT]

29 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said:

Even as post declines in volume I still would rather pay a small premium for paper bills and bank statements.

There are two primary reasons;

#1: Every year the parking permits require proof of address from a recent utility bill and so do banks, phone comapnies etc. for the KYC checks. No sign of that changing until we get Digital Citizen ID cards or RFI chips

#2: Having gone through PPI claims with several banks and credit card companies, some of whom I no longer used. I had all the records to find every account, its details, proof of loans and insurance payments etc.

Apparently the banks and institutions have very poor record keeping and insisted I provide them with all of the information they had carelessly disposed off or misfiled.  Having been able to do it quickly and easily, I recieved my money back, plus interest and compensation in four instances of five cases in a few months, it proved to be well worth the hassle of keeping two or three archive boxes of bank & card statements dating back 20 odd years. The fifth finally repaid me too after a year of toing and froing, with a compensation payment 5 times what they had owed me with interest.   

So I don't trust the banks on many levels (misselling, deteriorating services, poor interest returns). The online stuff is merely a back up of my own records.

I download my Sure and bank statements every month.

My MUA bill comes by email and I’ve used it many times for KYC. I don’t receive any paper bills anymore and I haven’t once experienced a hurdle. I have one day a month I sit at my computer and do finance admin for an hour or two. Works just fine.

Edited May 19, 2023 by NoTailT

[genericUserName]

19 hours ago, offshoremanxman said:

No but the package service here is fairly horrendous too. I’m sick of refunding buyers in eBay for late and delayed stuff. The service here is in general crap. 

That's not my experience. Are you not using Special Delivery? My experience is that it is incredibly reliable.

[genericUserName]

50 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said:

Even as post declines in volume I still would rather pay a small premium for paper bills and bank statements.

You should be paying a fairly large premium - in order for that service to be viable. Basically letters need to be charged at the same rate as the smallest Special Delivery package. And there should be a single, basically parcels, service.

One size fits all letter service made sense when letters were the primary method of communication and a vital part of the national infrastructure.

Edited May 19, 2023 by genericUserName

[woolley]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Well according to the original press release, the parcel sorting machine was due to be "commissioned, during the autumn of 2022".  So you'd expect a full set of teeth by now.

Really? After the power station, Peel Road, The Prom, The Cabbage, The Flumes, The former prison site, The TT Scoreboard, The new Sea Terminal in the wider empire? I expect it will be gnawing on a teething ring throughout its life.