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The company I work for ships hundreds of packages through RM. The RM tech I've seen is a mess. Makes me wonder what it's like behind the scenes. Just one lowlig

by Vuska 5y ago

The company I work for ships hundreds of packages through RM. The RM tech I've seen is a mess. Makes me wonder what it's like behind the scenes. Just one lowlight I've come across, this comment can be found in the HTML for one of their portals:

emdowling 5y ago
One nitpick: Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate companies with independent boards. Royal Mail is the network and carrier, while the Post Office is the primary entry point into that network (they also offer access to a bunch of other services not related to the Royal Mail). Doesn't make your point any less valid, but wanted to call out the distinction.
- BillinghamJ 5y ago
  As a sub-nitpick, I would definitely say Royal Mail itself is certainly the primary entry point into the network too. But Post Office is super helpful in providing supporting services for many government-related things like passport photos, certification, applying for things etc
- lloydatkinson 5y ago
  Sounds like the kind of bullshit BT and OpenReach pull too. Claim to be two unrelated companies and yet one owns parts of the other and the same boards run both - all so they can pass customer problems between the two I definitely.
  - DanBC 5y ago
    They have different boards. https://www.openreach.com/about-us/our-leadership-and-governance/our-board https://www.openreach.com/about-us/our-leadership-and-govern... https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-company/group-governance/board-of-directors https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-company/group-governance/boa... Openreach Mike McTighe Chairman Clive Selley CEO Matt Davies Chief Finance Officer Edward Astle Non-executive Board member Liz Benison Non-executive Board member Andrew Barron Non-executive Board member Jon Furmston Secretary to the board Simon Lowth BT Group nominee BT Jan du Plessis Chairman Philip Jansen Chief Executive Simon Lowth Group Chief Financial Officer Adel Al-Saleh Non-independent, non-executive director Sir Ian Cheshire Independent non-executive director Iain Conn Senior independent director and independent non-executive director Isabel Hudson Independent non-executive director Mike Inglis Independent non-executive director Matthew Key Independent non-executive director Allison Kirkby Independent non-executive director Leena Nair Independent non-executive director Sara Weller Independent non-executive director Rachel Canham Company Secretary & General Counsel, Governance
  - gambiting 5y ago
    I'm honestly surprised anyone complains about that split - it was introduced specifically so that BT wouldn't control the entire telecom infrastructure in this country, and OpenReach was formed to provide equal access to all operators - BT being only one of them. This is an extremely good solution to what used to be a massive inequality problem previously. So no, BT and Openreach aren't split for some bullshit reason, they were ordered by the court to split in order to protect consumer rights and increase competition, goals which were overwhelmingly achieved due to that split. And yes, the negative side is that every time something goes wrong, BT really can't fix it any faster, it's all down to OpenReach to maintain the network. But on the other hand, it always goes through OpenReach, whether you are with TalkTalk, BT or Sky, so the entity responsible for maintaing the network isn't the entity selling you broadband for home.
    - emdowling 5y ago
      This sounds like a similar situation to Telstra in Australia, which was forced to split into two entities - one a wholesale network provider that was open to all operators, the other a consumer operator that (supposedly) operates under the same rules as everyone else.
    - zinok 5y ago
      It would be an extremely good solution if it worked as intended. In fact Openreach were not fully independent from BT for most of their existence, and they operated the network in a way which was extremely favorable to BT for a long time. Thus, the two companies extracted an exorbitant rent for the formerly public goods they controlled. The fact that some of this rent went to inefficiencies of running two separate companies on an illusionary arm's length basis does not really improve matters.
- Silhouette 5y ago
  One nitpick: Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate companies with independent boards. Though as a nitpick of your nitpick, they weren't truly independent until the relevant provisions of the Postal Services Act 2011 came into effect on 1 April 2012. What we know today as the "Post Office" and "Royal Mail" had a long history before that.
  - emdowling 5y ago
    TIL. Thanks! I've only lived in the UK for 6 years so don't know much about the history before that. Appreciate it!
chrisseaton 5y ago
I think you're possibly confusing the Royal Mail with the Post Office, there. You're talking about the Royal Mail. This article is about the Post Office.
- afandian 5y ago
  This started in Royal Mail and was inherited by Post Office. https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/our-media-centre#/pressreleases/post-office-apologises-for-serious-failures-in-historical-prosecutions-3093498 https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/our-media-centre#/pressre...

by Vuska 5y ago

emdowling 5y ago

One nitpick: Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate companies with independent boards. Royal Mail is the network and carrier, while the Post Office is the primary entry point into that network (they also offer access to a bunch of other services not related to the Royal Mail). Doesn't make your point any less valid, but wanted to call out the distinction.

BillinghamJ 5y ago
As a sub-nitpick, I would definitely say Royal Mail itself is certainly the primary entry point into the network too. But Post Office is super helpful in providing supporting services for many government-related things like passport photos, certification, applying for things etc
lloydatkinson 5y ago
Sounds like the kind of bullshit BT and OpenReach pull too. Claim to be two unrelated companies and yet one owns parts of the other and the same boards run both - all so they can pass customer problems between the two I definitely.
- DanBC 5y ago
  They have different boards. https://www.openreach.com/about-us/our-leadership-and-governance/our-board https://www.openreach.com/about-us/our-leadership-and-govern... https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-company/group-governance/board-of-directors https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-company/group-governance/boa... Openreach Mike McTighe Chairman Clive Selley CEO Matt Davies Chief Finance Officer Edward Astle Non-executive Board member Liz Benison Non-executive Board member Andrew Barron Non-executive Board member Jon Furmston Secretary to the board Simon Lowth BT Group nominee BT Jan du Plessis Chairman Philip Jansen Chief Executive Simon Lowth Group Chief Financial Officer Adel Al-Saleh Non-independent, non-executive director Sir Ian Cheshire Independent non-executive director Iain Conn Senior independent director and independent non-executive director Isabel Hudson Independent non-executive director Mike Inglis Independent non-executive director Matthew Key Independent non-executive director Allison Kirkby Independent non-executive director Leena Nair Independent non-executive director Sara Weller Independent non-executive director Rachel Canham Company Secretary & General Counsel, Governance
- gambiting 5y ago
  I'm honestly surprised anyone complains about that split - it was introduced specifically so that BT wouldn't control the entire telecom infrastructure in this country, and OpenReach was formed to provide equal access to all operators - BT being only one of them. This is an extremely good solution to what used to be a massive inequality problem previously. So no, BT and Openreach aren't split for some bullshit reason, they were ordered by the court to split in order to protect consumer rights and increase competition, goals which were overwhelmingly achieved due to that split. And yes, the negative side is that every time something goes wrong, BT really can't fix it any faster, it's all down to OpenReach to maintain the network. But on the other hand, it always goes through OpenReach, whether you are with TalkTalk, BT or Sky, so the entity responsible for maintaing the network isn't the entity selling you broadband for home.
  - emdowling 5y ago
    This sounds like a similar situation to Telstra in Australia, which was forced to split into two entities - one a wholesale network provider that was open to all operators, the other a consumer operator that (supposedly) operates under the same rules as everyone else.
  - zinok 5y ago
    It would be an extremely good solution if it worked as intended. In fact Openreach were not fully independent from BT for most of their existence, and they operated the network in a way which was extremely favorable to BT for a long time. Thus, the two companies extracted an exorbitant rent for the formerly public goods they controlled. The fact that some of this rent went to inefficiencies of running two separate companies on an illusionary arm's length basis does not really improve matters.
Silhouette 5y ago
One nitpick: Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate companies with independent boards. Though as a nitpick of your nitpick, they weren't truly independent until the relevant provisions of the Postal Services Act 2011 came into effect on 1 April 2012. What we know today as the "Post Office" and "Royal Mail" had a long history before that.
- emdowling 5y ago
  TIL. Thanks! I've only lived in the UK for 6 years so don't know much about the history before that. Appreciate it!

chrisseaton 5y ago

I think you're possibly confusing the Royal Mail with the Post Office, there. You're talking about the Royal Mail. This article is about the Post Office.

afandian 5y ago
This started in Royal Mail and was inherited by Post Office. https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/our-media-centre#/pressreleases/post-office-apologises-for-serious-failures-in-historical-prosecutions-3093498 https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/our-media-centre#/pressre...