Strike dates

In the past I have worked for both Parcel Force and TNT (between them for 26 years) so I have knowledge of the the parcels industry. As Tigger says, it does very much depend on the individual driver and whether they give a toss or not. My TNT depot at Bodmin had a lot of very good and conscientious drivers but a lot of the missed deliveries were [not] made by sub-contractors with their own vans. Often they decided that it wasn't in their interests to go to this place or that place because it might have been the only delivery and therefore not viable for them. In these cases they would say something like 'no access' and go back the following day when there was probably another parcel to deliver in the vicinity. I can see their point but it doesn't do the reputation of the parent company much good and results in a 'I didn't get a parcel and they are crap' comment which spreads around the internet. Evri's whole philosophy depends on self-employed drivers with their own vehicles so are going to suffer with the 'can't be arsed' attitude of too many people these days. Can't fault Amazon deliveries though and I'm a BIG Amazon buyer.

Parcel Force, despite the 'Parcel Farce' headlines on the TV in the nineties, were, for me, a bloody good company to work for. Mind you, I was a HGV trunk driver, not a delivery boy, so perhaps it was different for the others.

Can't vouch for TNT now as they were bought out by Fedex and the TNT mark has disappeared forever.

Trivia note: TNT stood for Thomas Nationwide Transport and was originally Australian.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
tijuana taxi said:
Same here, only one I have ever had grief with are the truly useless DHL
Click to expand...
Which DHL? There is the original DHL which IMO are pretty good, then there’s DHL Parcel U.K. which used to be U.K. Mail and are a poor excuse for a courier.

We use DHL (the proper one) for half of our shipping and rarely have any issues.

As a business who ships a lot of parcels everyday we’d never even consider Herpes/Evri but touch wood, personally I’ve never had a problem with them.
 
Last edited:
ecoleman said:
Which DHL? There is the original DHL which IMO are pretty good, then there’s DHL Parcel U.K. which used to be U.K. Mail and are a poor excuse for a courier.

We use DHL (the proper one) for half of our shipping and rarely have any issues.
Click to expand...
Not sure, sounds from what you said it could be the latter.
 
When I worked in a Kia parts dept we used DHL to send stuff to S Korea, always quick and efficient deliveries as I got conformation of parcel arrival from Kia, maybe it’s the domestic workforce that let them down, although this circa 4 years ago now, things change with Covid?
Came home yesterday to find delivery van parked across my drive, not delivering to me but several others in the street, I’d parked tight to the rear doors of the van, driver was not happy when he returned to the van and told us so, his mood changed when my wife told him where she was about to place her umbrella.
 
DHL are the worst for me as despite being in a fairly large town there nearest collection depot is on the moon, utter garbage, best for me is UPS and DPD
 
Well I found out today that there is now a food bank for some of our staff in NICU, that's how bad things are at the coal face :-/
 
Fuji Dave said:
Can't believe how shocking it is with all these strikes, to me I would give the NHS staff just what they want and need. The gov fools can sort out a good pay raise but they won't fact stop helping other countries and sort out your own first end of.
Click to expand...
It always has to be a compromise. If you give them everything, then every other government department will also want everything they demand. If the government departments get everything then everyone else will want everything. And so on ad nauseum until the first group to get everything don't feel special anymore and they will want some more next year. All this would go round and round until inflation reached unsustainable levels and the country would lose it's financial rating and hence go bankrupt...in which case any pay you received would become worthless in a short time.
 
ShinySideUp said:
.... All this would go round and round until inflation reached unsustainable levels and the country would lose it's financial rating and hence go bankrupt...in which case any pay you received would become worthless in a short time.
Click to expand...

There's also the bit that says if you have extra money in your pocket ,you will spend it and get the ecconomy moving again ( I've yet to meet anyone on the street with an off shore tax haven savers account ;)) , giving the treasury more money to reinvest in the countries infrastructure and improve our services.....having said that, with this current lot in number 10, any money raised would go into tax cuts for the wealthy, they have a track record for doing that.
 
mex said:
There's also the bit that says if you have extra money in your pocket ,you will spend it and get the ecconomy moving again ( I've yet to meet anyone on the street with an off shore tax haven savers account ;)) , giving the treasury more money to reinvest in the countries infrastructure and improve our services.....having said that, with this current lot in number 10, any money raised would go into tax cuts for the wealthy, they have a track record for doing that.
Click to expand...
I thought the extra money was needed so they don't have to use food banks not upgrading to the latest iPhone, unless of course they are telling lies, who would have thought that union leaders would embellish the truth :rolleyes:
 
Donnie said:
Well I found out today that there is now a food bank for some of our staff in NICU, that's how bad things are at the coal face :-/
Click to expand...
Things like Boris's wallpaper need to be paid for somehow..
My wife is a gosh nurse - reading your posts on this thread is so sad but they sound so real from what she says.
 
Last edited:
ShinySideUp said:
It always has to be a compromise. If you give them everything, then every other government department will also want everything they demand. If the government departments get everything then everyone else will want everything. And so on ad nauseum until the first group to get everything don't feel special anymore and they will want some more next year. All this would go round and round until inflation reached unsustainable levels and the country would lose it's financial rating and hence go bankrupt...in which case any pay you received would become worthless in a short time.
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't seem to be working like that at the moment, two months ago this government (well I think it was this government) gave Barristers a 15% rise which despite junior barristers calling it a “death warrant” for the profession was accepted, so my question for all the government minister who say it's unaffordable for the likes of nurses why was it affordable for Barristers.
 
tarric said:
so my question for all the government minister who say it's unaffordable for the likes of nurses why was it affordable for Barristers.
Click to expand...
I would suggest that most ministers have private health care, so that won't affect them.
However, they need to keep the barristers on side due to all the cock-ups and shady dealings, as the brown stuff is slowly but surely hitting the fan,
 
tarric said:
Well it doesn't seem to be working like that at the moment, two months ago this government (well I think it was this government) gave Barristers a 15% rise which despite junior barristers calling it a “death warrant” for the profession was accepted, so my question for all the government minister who say it's unaffordable for the likes of nurses why was it affordable for Barristers.
Click to expand...
But barristers are such contributors to society, how could we possibly manage without their skills in prevarication, procrastination and obfuscation.

The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy got it a little wrong when they sent out colony ship B with just hairdressers and telephone sanitisers -- Douglas Adams missed out barristers; oh, and people who own petrol-driven leaf blowers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The only ones I see (and hear) in use would need bloody long extension leads!
 
imattersuk said:
I thought the extra money was needed so they don't have to use food banks not upgrading to the latest iPhone, unless of course they are telling lies, who would have thought that union leaders would embellish the truth :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Yes, because the only thing you can spend money on is iphones, not food or heating. Food bank or foraging are your only means to source food - no supermarkets exist anywhere on this sceptered isle.
 
To my patients today, that's what it's like every day, today was not a strike day. I apologise for the care I gave, it was far short of what you deserved. Especially Albert, Beata, Baby Anderson, Carrie-Anne, Barney and Baby F. You (and your mothers) know who you are!
 
First of all we had the STAR SHIPS designed and developed right here in MK, delivering food.

And now penguins running around the hospital.
I wonder how much they cost, compered to a porter or even a nurse.

Opera-Snapshot_2022-12-30_100512_www.facebook.jpg
 
Cobra said:
First of all we had the STAR SHIPS designed and developed right here in MK, delivering food.

And now penguins running around the hospital.
I wonder how much they cost, compered to a porter or even a nurse.

View attachment 377364
Click to expand...
Didn't know about the starships being designed in MK, I've made use of them only the once I have to admit, purely as a novelty, but that's it to be honest. See them here on the streets of Kempston quite a bit though so seem to be popular.

As for the penguin thing, yeah, I hope that the hospital isn't stupid enough to be paying for that and that "working with the Academy of Robotics" means that the Academy are doing the legwork and meeting costs in a bid to trial their product in a real world scenario.
The problem is of course, the more robotics like this introduced that takes over the work traditionally done by human beings, the more human beings not in work :-/ Plus of course, the cost will certainly be significant and could be better spent elsewhere such as nurses, doctors, paramedics etc.
 
Donnie said:
As for the penguin thing, yeah, I hope that the hospital isn't stupid enough to be paying for that and that "working with the Academy of Robotics" means that the Academy are doing the legwork and meeting costs in a bid to trial their product in a real world scenario.
The problem is of course, the more robotics like this introduced that takes over the work traditionally done by human beings, the more human beings not in work :-/ Plus of course, the cost will certainly be significant and could be better spent elsewhere such as nurses, doctors, paramedics etc.
Click to expand...
..... This is true but isn't it also true in the real world that work done by human beings in a great many jobs are gradually being replaced by advancing technology, hence reductions in jobs for people. Reductions in workforces are partly what many of the strikes are about, not just about pay conditions etc.

Not so long ago in the 19th century there was The Industrial Revolution but now there is the Technological Revolution and, like the Industrial Revolution, rightly or wrongly it is seen as progress and it isn't about to stop.

I think this technological evolution has absolutely nothing to do with politics and is not something any government can be blamed for.
 
RedRobin said:
I think this technological evolution has absolutely nothing to do with politics and is not something any government can be blamed for.
Click to expand...
Oh yes they can and the weather... :D its hissing down here.

My point was pretty much the same as Paul's, ( @Donnie )
God knows how much this is costing, ( I can't find anything at the moment) But I wouldn't mind betting it'd go a long way to Front line NHS workers pay rise,
 
Meanwhile I've been out for the morning and of course a parcel arrived.

Royal mail are the only courier that won't leave stuff safe or with a neighbour or come back the next day.

Instead they left a card saying I was welcome to pop down to their office next time it's open. Apparently I can install an app to find out when that night be
 
JonathanRyan said:
Royal mail are the only courier that won't leave stuff safe or with a neighbour
Click to expand...
My old postie used to do either of those, inc. bang on my door to ask if I'd take something in for someone else.
But they have changed so many times in the past couple of years ( the person) that it doesn't seem to happen any more.

As for collect, at the depot, My local one used to be open 7-7 not so long ago, it now seems its only open 3 or 4 hours a day, and not the same times either.

What with all that, the strikes before Christmas, so many cards and parcels not arriving, I think they have shot themselves in the foot.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Meanwhile I've been out for the morning and of course a parcel arrived.

Royal mail are the only courier that won't leave stuff safe or with a neighbour or come back the next day.

Instead they left a card saying I was welcome to pop down to their office next time it's open. Apparently I can install an app to find out when that night be
Click to expand...


Ours do. Sometimes on different roads with the same number or at 10 digits either way... On occasion, they even leave a parcel to us on our front step, despite there being a note on the front door asking them to put it in the cupboard beside them - all the other couriers manage that!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top