England : London Sunday London ride

[Mista Preston]

OK football is off tomorrow... so will be out for a cycle..



Oh no... perhaps not

Are you having a laugh Ian. It fooked out there !

 

[StuAff]

Just thinking about your 'logistics' in inclement times, that's all dear boy. (Best not join the 'Fridays' then )

It's probably clubs like Paragon & Dynamo that have put me off- sure 99% aren't like that- but 'the Fridays' is of course a very different matter anyway. More than happy to do my own thing (or not) depending on the weather. And epic adventures of the FNRttC & Mouseketeer ilk are worth a bit of 'logistics'!


As for postal pricing, freely available- no insider info needed. See this (DHL/Deutsche Post!!) information. http://www.dp-dhl.com/content/dam/ueber_uns/publikationen/letter_price_survey_03_2010.pdf

 

[ianrauk]

Are you having a laugh Ian. It fooked out there !

Eer yes Clive...lol

 

[Sittingduck]

I might see how far I can get on my Boardman in the morning... how bad can it be? Certainly won't be much traffic about.

 

[Aperitif]

I might see how far I can get on my 'board, man in the morning... Hey dudes, how bad can it be? Certainly won't be much traffic about....totally rad! Hang loose - it's way to go dude! Slip slidin' away. Cool.

FTFY Anthony.

 

[Aperitif]

As for postal pricing, freely available- no insider info needed.

That seems like a very long advert to say how efficient the German Postal Service is Stu. Is that wot the GPO'Mail mandarins base their cost increases upon?

 

[StuAff]

That seems like a very long advert to say how efficient the German Postal Service is Stu. Is that wot the GPO'Mail mandarins base their cost increases upon?

LOL. I doubt it. Deutsche Post was allowed by its regulator to have higher price increases a few years ago to allow for investment before the German postal market was opened up for competition. It's easy to be efficient if you can spend a few bob on new machinery! Royal Mail just got dumped in it by the regulator (whose modus operandi seems to be helping the competition rather than protecting the universal service- if we don't do it, none of them will). The letters business is loss making, and volumes are declining- those prices increases only mitigate the problem, not end it.

 

[Aperitif]

At Deutsche Post, the postage price of a domestic
letter has remained unchanged at 0.55 Euro since
2003. Prior to that, the postage price for standard
mail actually declined by 0.01 Euro. It has now
been thirteen years since the last domestic price
increase in Germany (1997).
Conclusion: adjusting letter prices for the cost
of labour and purchasing power illustrates once
again that, measured in the context of Germany’s
economic situation, Deutsche Post’s postage rates
are amongst the most favourable in Europe.

 

[StuAff]

Yup, but that's not the whole story. They were fined 24m Euros by the European Commission in 2001 for anti-competitive activities in the parcel market, for example. it also had to refund €572m in state aid in 2002 (whereas successive British governments treated RM as a piggy bank for decades). As in most industries, they subsidise some products with higher margins on others. Deutsche Post has been able to invest massively worldwide- they own DHL and Exel, for example and make half their profits overseas.

 

[Aperitif]

Lord Mandleson's Dept. reported on the EU...

The report made clear that the chief cause of Royal Mail’s huge losses was Britain’s keenness to comply with three EU postal services directives, designed to end national postal monopolies by 2010 and to promote “cross-border” integration of the EU’s postal services. As a result Royal Mail had to surrender the most profitable part of its operations, when bulk business mailing was opened up to rival firms. It still has to deliver business mail, for a knock-down price of 14p an item, while the 19 companies that bid successfully for the business of collecting and sorting them cream off all the profits.

This was a major factor turning Royal Mail’s profits into a £179 million annual loss. Driven into desperate cost-cutting exercises, it drastically reduced post-box collections and ended those on Sunday altogether, while making vain attempts to raise revenue, such as its mad “size and weight” pricing scheme. But then EU law kicked in a second time, when our Government was not allowed to make up the resulting deficit under EU state-aid rules

 

[StuAff]

Lord Mandleson's Dept. reported on the EU...

Yup, I would agree with most of that.

 

[Aperitif]

Yup, I would agree with most of that.

I can't even do a second class stamp on the pedals at the moment Stu - be careful out there...no 'pushing the envelope' on your bike!

 

[Mista Preston]

Yup, but that's not the whole story. They were fined 24m Euros by the European Commission in 2001 for anti-competitive activities in the parcel market, for example. it also had to refund €572m in state aid in 2002 (whereas successive British governments treated RM as a piggy bank for decades). As in most industries, they subsidise some products with higher margins on others. Deutsche Post has been able to invest massively worldwide- they own DHL and Exel, for example and make half their profits overseas.

These companies are not welcome in this thread

 

[topcat1]

i'll be going out on my mountain bike

















at 23.30 to commute to work

 

[dellzeqq]

it's ice, ice, ice round here. Walking to the tube station is the only option!