Royal Mail Shares

inversions

What I don't understand is how do you sell them if you apply direct without an intermediary?

I'm just interested really.

Glen_Clark

custardy wrote: »

You mean Parcelforces competitors then

No, egor110 said parcels were going out with the letters delivery vans. - post 45 on this thread. Maybe thats different in Scotland too?

Glen_Clark

inversions wrote: »

What I don't understand is how do you sell them if you apply direct without an intermediary?

I'm just interested really.

use a telephone share dealing service to sell them immediately. Or to save costs you can transfer them into an online account free, and then sell them for a lower commission.

custardy

Glen_Clark wrote: »

No, egor110 said parcels were going out with the letters delivery vans. - post 45 on this thread. Maybe thats different in Scotland too?

Lol,so let me get this straight
a courier is the same job as Royal Mail,and as such the wages are comparable?
simply because they carry packages in the vans
vans are great,they're crap at walking up paths and stairs though
Just so you know,I well versed on all of RMs delivery methods
So what was different in Scotland before?

Buzby

Certainly in my urban local area (Scotland) the postman delivers letters and 'flats' - items that would fit through a letterbox. This reduces much of the bulk, and ensures the postie can complete the walk with minimal disruption.

Any other postal item is the subject of a 'large item' delivery, where packets, non-PF and tubes are delivered by a 'secondary' postman who only delivers these items, and is quick to push through 739 cards (While You Were Out), servicing them from the van.

Country areas don't have this - as the van is universal anyway.

vacheron

As someone who invests and also posts a lot of parcels, I'm bowing out of this opportunity.

The home delivery demand is shifting towards parcels thanks to eBay / online shopping etc, however they recently changed their prices so it now costs more to send a 2.1kg parcel 2nd class from a post office than I can pay to have a 25kg box collected from my house on a 24 hour, fully tracked courier! Similar online services are one about 1/3rd the cost, easier and more flexible and I have moved completely to them for all but the smallest of parcels (<1kg) and every day this is losing them masses of loyal customers (from the mouth of my local postmaster).

They are now completely 'rethinking' this decision after only a few months which tells me the upper tiers have no idea what they are doing.

Secondly, As I get a lot of parcels delivered I'm on friendly terms with my postmen. All three who deliver to me regularly are seething with rage about the way this sell off is being handled. One had tears in his eyes when telling me how the feeling of the staff is being spun by the politicians and all 3 are resolute in extended industrial action.

Royal Mail, out of touch, overpriced, inflexible, losing customers and an unhappy workforce.

No thanks.

Buzby

Doshwaster wrote: »

If an independent Scotland did renationalise Royal Mail's operations in Scotland and (assuming it was affordable legal for them to do it) then the profitability of what was left of Royal Mail might increase as they would no longer have to operate a delivery network to rural areas and islands. They could also charge more for deliveries from England to Scotland since it would be an international service.

Quite the opposite - just as telephone networks arrange their interconnections, Scotland after independence would not be an 'international destination' - it would simply join the growing band of areas that already enjoy the freedom of running their own affairs (the Isle of Man, and Channel Islands etc) which have their own postal administrations but are not 'international'. Indeed, like a phone call, the delivery process is transparent to the originator.

My concern is that a sizeable chunk of of RM's infrastructure North of the border may cease to be an asset to shareholders, yet the prospectus arrogantly makes no mention of even the possibility of this change, when it remains a real risk to the investor's vision of a status quo. The fact there is no 'full disclosure' is a warning that should be heeded, what else are you not being told?

Glen_Clark

custardy wrote: »

Lol,so let me get this straight
a courier is the same job as Royal Mail,and as such the wages are comparable?
simply because they carry packages in the vans
vans are great,they're crap at walking up paths and stairs though
Just so you know,I well versed on all of RMs delivery methods
So what was different in Scotland before?

So do the couriers drive their vans up the paths and stairs

Glen_Clark

Buzby wrote: »

My concern is that a sizeable chunk of of RM's infrastructure North of the border may cease to be an asset to shareholders,

I doubt if Scotland is an asset to RM shareholders. With their one price goes anywhere handicap they probably lose more money delivering to the Highlands and Islands than they make delivering to the cities.

Glen_Clark

vacheron wrote: »

Royal Mail, out of touch, overpriced, inflexible, losing customers and an unhappy workforce.

Those are the negatives.
The positive is it still looks cheaper than anything else out there at the moment.
As a taxpayer I am 100% against this privatisation because I think its destroying value.
But as an ordinary guy without the benefit of public sector pension, looking for somewhere to put my pension savings where they won't continue to be raided by inflation, I am undecided.