Show #149 – The Royal Mail
Apr 13th, 2010 | By Fredcaster | Category: Podcasts
THE FREDCAST CYCLING PODCAST
Episode 149
April 12, 2010
Listen now by clicking here:
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/thefredcast/The_FredCast_149.mp3]
This week’s show is sponsored by JensonUSA, epicPLANET and the FredCast epicTuscon Bundle, and by listeners like you Thank you for your donations!
This episode of The FredCast Cycling Podcast features a guest commentary by John Galloway of The VeloCast. John talks about the Royal Mail’s decision to phase out bicycle deliveries. In the news this week, Idaho, California and Tennessee legislatures all tackle cycling issues, Civia recalls bikes and forks, Bicycling Magazine names its Top 50 Cycling Friendly Cities, Cycling aids Parkinsons patients, and more!
SPONSORED BY:
Click Here for Expanded Show Notes with Links
IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
- California Cell Phone Bill Amended to Reduce Cyclist Fines
- Idaho Considers Bicycle Brake Law
- New Tennessee Law on Cyclists at Automatic Traffic Signals
- Product Recall: Civia Cycles
- Bicycling Magazine Names Top 50 Bicycle Friendly US Cities
- Cycling Aids Parkinsons Patients
- Bahati Foundation Cyclist Killed
- Pro Cycling News
- Arizona Sheriff Uses Pedal Power for Inmate TV
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES
- Guest Commentator John Galloway of VeloCast on Royal Mail Eliminating Deliveries by Bike
- Upcoming Event: Ride of Silence
PODSAFE CYCLING MUSIC
The FredCast Cycling Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
There are many ways you can listen to the show:
- iTunes MP3 Version Subscription
- iTunes Enhanced AAC Version Subscription
- Listen to and/or Download the MP3
- Listen via Windows Media Player
- Listen via RealAudio
- Subscribe to the RSS feed with your pod catching client
The internet has changed the way in which we interact. Postal services are subject to change as the user demands more quality parcel and delivery services.
That’s certainly true and I’m not denying the need for a more streamlined Royal Mail with different priorities as we move forward. However, Deutsche Post, who are cited by RM as a paragon of modern efficiency have just added more bikes to their fleet, DHL, cited as a major competitor? Buying bikes for cargo delivery all at the same time as RM dumps the bicycle.
The simple truth is that for the vast majority of urban deliveries the bicycle remains a perfectly viable tool. On two of the van based duties in our office the daily mileage of the vans is less than 4 miles per duty. I can cycle to the farthest point of each duty in less than 5 minutes. That’s the future the Royal Mail wants to embrace. Don’t even get me started on the economic comparisons between van and bicycle. ;o)
You’re correct to highlight the shift in mail traffic towards packet/parcel delivery as more of us shop online. If you think a bicycle would struggle with that then have a look at the http://www.Copenhaganize.com or http://www.Amsterdize.com websites to look at the huge variety in size, weight and shape of objects that a bicycle can safely and efficiently handle.
Never mind the economic, environmental and health enhancing benefits of the bicycle a mail delivery tool, in many/most urban delivery situations it’s just more damn efficient!
John
Ah Mr Kitchenham,
I see you’re setting up a business as a web middleman for sundry couriers. For that kind of business a bicycle wouldn’t be a viable tool since typically a courier is a franchisee having to cover a huge geographical area to make a living having had to fork out on a loan which he needs to service to finance his van etc. (I chat to many of them every week whilst out on delivery).
I’ll be sure to carry on helping your customers by telling these couriers where an address is when they can’t find it or their GPS is wrong.
It’s easy to race to the bottom in a price war when not burdened by “last mile” letter delivery and that pesky legal commitment to daily delivery to every address in the United Kingdom. ;o)
Good luck with your endeavour.
John
Interesting that you should mention amsterdamimize.com, John. I have a business trip Amsterdam in a couple of weeks and I’ll be taking a ride through town with the folks from amsterdamize.com. I can’t wait!
Fantastic. Be sure to tweet. The guy who got me into cycling lives in the ‘dam so I know the city well. How long are you there for? I could nip over, visit Andy, and buy you a beer! ;o)
John
Hi John,
You are right about the “last mile†its what makes deliveries expensive, we are looking into a local “last mile†solution to see if it would work and if it could be rolled out nationally. Other than that we will still have to use the main carriers to deliver.
Royal Mail are restricted too much by European legislation which hampers their time to launch new services, normally a 18 month completion time. They will continue to lose traffic to private firms that can react a lot more quickly.
The question is, will the conservatives start to privatise parts of RM next year?
Thanks for this John.
I really don’t wish RM to be privatised – it’s a very good service, but needs to both be modernized and renovated. The underlying service is good, but I think that the various components that make up the business – such as the way orders are taken, and how the post offices look, should be upgraded significantly.
The problem the government face is that they don’t have the ability, money or popularity to pull off a modernization of RM, which is what the service requires. That’s why they are looking to privatize, but overall I think it will be a bad idea because it will just degenerate an otherwise sound service.