Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

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Craig64
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Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Craig64 »

Hi folks

So, within the UK it is hammered home that “we must” stay at home.
And in the same message, we are told that travel to work is allowed, only if absolutely essential.
What exactly does that mean?

Am I alone in thinking that UK Government needs now, to properly define the limitations?

Please consider my own personal situation as an example:

Being self employed, running an on-line business, I operate entirely from home, processing all of my orders within the confines of my property. I travel to my local post office six days per week to hand over my packages for onward delivery. Following Monday’s lock down announcement, I temporarily suspended my trading.

If you were a government advisor, what directive would you offer to folks in my position?

Should I resume trading, travelling daily to my local post office (which can include waiting in a queue of customers for between 5 minutes and 30 minutes)? Bear in mind my daily travels to my local post office are NOT to and from work. They are part and parcel of completing my work, which is quite a different thing.

Or should I remain closed for business and lodge my claim for the newly announced self employed grant (which in my case will reimburse me for about 55% of my current regular income)?

This is quite a dilemma for me, because from current guidelines, I am not at all sure what I should be doing, to do the right thing.

Your thoughts will be much appreciated.
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Craig
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Craig64 »

Oh, sorry, moderators, please could you move my new topic to the off topic section.
I thought it would appear there, as I intended, but I was mistaken. Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by jtc »

Delivery drivers are considered important enough to keep working. Why not continue in business but move to using a collection delivery service? Schedule twice or thrice weekly collections and ensure customers know - blame the current situation but make reference to doing your best and staying open etc...
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by welshlad »

Craig64 wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:55 am Oh, sorry, moderators, please could you move my new topic to the off topic section.
I thought it would appear there, as I intended, but I was mistaken. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Sorted! :thumbup:
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by welshlad »

If you can work entirely from home then why not continue doing so? And Jon's suggestion for a collection delivery service sounds excellent.

If your Post Office is walkable, why not include it in your daily permitted walk/exercise? Or just do one or two dispatches per week to limit trips to the PO - preferably at a time when you know it will be quiet with few people?

If your PO isn't walkable, then I wouldn't drive there. I'd go for the collection delivery service option instead.
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Bungle-ator »

Definitely still trade and as suggested, cut down your post office trips or have a courier collect.

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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by nbg »

Craig not sure if you have already seen them, but as far as I can see from a quick look the extent of the guidance is covered within these two documents, that provide more detail than has been covered in headline news coverage.

The difficulty is because they are not written in the same form as legislation, there are bits that anyone used to reading statute could interpret in more than one way.

It may be that you have already seen them, if so apologies.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... rs__1_.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... idance.pdf

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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Craig64 »

Hi All

I very much appreciate your input and responses, thank you very much. Those links Neil, were also very helpful as I had not seen that information previously.

The nature of my business is that the items supplied are small value, high volume. Royal Mail is the only cost effective way of delivering 95% of my orders, so I am pretty much stuck with them. Other alternatives that I checked out would be either too costly to stay profitable, or logistically impossible.

Also if I move away from guaranteed same day dispatch it will have consequences for non delivery claims and feedback ratings etc, so I dare not risk dispatching less than 6 days per week. Even when dispatching daily in normal times, I have customers seeking refunds if the item has alledgedly not arrived the next day after it was expected, and even sometimes on the same day that it is due.

My post office is not within walking distance so I do have to drive there and back. I think this is going to have to boil down to whether or not I am happy to risk the daily social contact at the post office. Often it can be very minimal, because my mail is franked at home and simply handed over. However if a person is having a passport checked or some other lengthy service, there can soon be a lengthy queue of people. In that example, one might suggest, simply leave and pop back the next day. But that option is ruled out because franked postal items are date critical are not accepted by the post office if the date is not current.

Anyway, thank you again for time and suggestions.
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Craig
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by nbg »

Anyone know how much more the Royal Mail “collections” service would cost, in addition to normal postage rate?

https://www.royalmail.com/business/serv ... oking-form

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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Craig64 »

When I looked at this, to have mail collected for the six days per week, annual cost including VAT is up to £2,798.
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by StrapMeister »

My 2p worth...
There's a lot of people at home who will probably be shopping online as retail therapy.
Therefore, I believe that now, more than ever, online businesses are very important.
If you feel comfortable with being safe, and safe to others, in a queue at a Post Office then I say continue to provide your service.
You can always tie in your journey with going out to get daily necessities.
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by what-time-is-it »

If you have some scales and know whether your items are large letter/parcels etc I would either print off the postage labels from home, or buy the stamps so that you can stick them on at home. Then you can simply drop off the packets at your local post office and spend the bare minimum of time queuing or waiting.

Edited, have just noticed you have a franking machine.
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Craig64 »

Thank you for your further contributions.
Even with franked mail, those items that need sending signed for (higher value orders) have to be processed separately over the counter, which can mean being in a queue. I normally have at least some in this category each day.

In view of the developments today, with the shocking news of 3 key people in government now getting infected, I have decided that for the time being, I am going to remain closed for business, with maximum priority on self isolation, despite the financial worries.

Thank you all for your input on this topic, and try and stay safe.
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Craig
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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

Best wishes Craig.

Maybe you will be able to use your down time profitably and do all those little jobs one never has time to do.

Perhaps even stuff like analysing your systems, stock ordering process, the items you stock etc. (not wishing to teach Grandmother to suck eggs).

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Re: Covid 19 Lock down - UK Ambiguities?

Post by PaulJS »

I have followed your thread and hesitated to contribute, however.........obviously we don't know your full circumstances. If you or anyone you come into contact with is in a high risk category then you are doing the right thing. We shut down our holiday let business weeks ago because we have to look after the outlaws who are nudging 80 and one is on kidney dialysis.

We are not personally concerned about the virus as we are both barely 50 and in very good health, but we have to think of others.

However, if you are not in the above situation then I think you are over reacting. You live in Lincolnshire not Westminster so if you are just managing your own health then it seems reasonable to carry on, maybe with some business adjustment.

Why not exclude high value orders for the time being so that you can be in and out of the PO as quickly as possible? Park up and wait for any queue to subside before going in?

At the end of the day this is not the black death and I think we all need to bear in mind that the advice has to apply to the most built up high density areas of the country and so, as I have said in other posts, one size does not fit all.

TBH I can't see why, with a bit of savvy, you can not continue your business.

Also, and maybe my maths is failing me, but if the self employed bail out max of £2.5K per month is going to give you 55% of your normal income then you must be over the £50K pa threshold qualifying income anyway?

At this time there is a balance to be struck between following the isolation protocols and keeping the wheels turning.

Cheers,

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