We must be the exception over here in Solent City, coz for the last week we’ve had at least 1 RM visitation daily, often 2, like today. Letters by foot, package by van.
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Since the strikes of 2021, recruitment was stopped, if any permanent staff left, they were not replaced, Again in Mail Centresthere is a large pool of temporary staff who get a phone call to see if they are available for work, there is a large turnover due to the fact you might get a shift, then not hear anything again for weeks, so money is spent training people, that in all probability, are not seen again.
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That is crazy.
Interesting. This is after my time as I left in 2017.
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Nigel you are going back a very very long time! most deliveries now are at least 5 hours and if you can’t complete the delivery in the time span, you take the mail back for the following day(s) overtime costs the managers their bonus payments.
Don’t forget Nigel is talking pre online shopping!
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I agree, but thats the business model, everything is designed to save money, profit first, service second.
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…but probably realistic achievable workloads for those of differing physical abilities?
It’s everywhere and reprehensible.
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We have had 3 deliveries since the 27th of November, 27 items delivered on the last one…
Penny Blacks had only just been phased out!
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Similar to my experience. I live two miles away from a large sorting office and it’s one delivery a week.
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I thought they were recently looking at twice weekly deliveries.
There’d clearly be an impact on time sensitive mail but personally I’m sure reliability has fallen with various mail correspondence never received in the first place let alone late.
Increased pressure throughout the delivery chain is likely to cause increased human errors (which will never be zero).
The business is quite happy to deliver parcels 7 days a week and does if it’s tracked 24/48, why? Because you pay a premium for the service, and they make profit on it.
Letters are now seen as a nuisance for the business, not much profit in a stamp at £1.70, zilch in 2 second class at 87p
On the whole It’s not the public who want a reduced service, they want a guaranteed service, which as been available for the last 150 plus years, it’s Royal Mail that wants to cut the letter service, and as staff who work for them will tell you , the new buzz word is profit, if they could terminate the letter service tomorrow, they would.
Don’t forget under this privatisation deal, the current service agreements, names etc are only guaranteed until 2030
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Ditto all essential infrastructure and associated services…
A magazine subscription is a good measure of the service provided. I receive a weekly magazine and it currently arrives 1 - 1.5 weeks later than the date on the cover of the mag. Used to be that the mag would be delivered on the publication date or next day!
I had a chat with my local postman recently who was in a state of despair. He has been a postie for many years and you can sense the frustration they experience every day. As others have stated in earlier posts, the problem here seems to be a severe lack of staff combined with management directives that parcels must be prioritised. To the extent that he tells me there is a huge pile of undelivered mail stacked up in the delivery office. He also mentioned - I think it may be Denmark (not sure) where the mail service no longer offer delivery of letters - perhaps an indication of things to come.
Peter
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It’s a tricky subject to discuss without bringing in political issues such as privatisation. I’ve made some edits but it’s not ideal really. So, have a moan by all means, but try to avoid anything that steers into the wider topic of privatisation etc.. Thanks.
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Apologies Richard if I have overstepped the mark.
Prem.
Yes, we had a bulk delivery of mail yesterday. Twenty plus mail and 5+ junk/flyers. One letter dated 28 Nov, so 18 days.
It seems Grantham is suffering recruitment issues and sickness.
The big problem are those important letters, such as hospital appointment letters. My brother in law received a letter for an appointment the day before that appointment. He doesn’t do technology.
It’s all very sad.
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We have a massive problem in our area at the moment with Evri which is having a knock on effect to Royal Mail.
Parcels are being dumped en masse at single locations, many are being stolen or packets ripped open and contents removed (stolen). Local MP’s are trying to help by writing official letters to Evri etc. Some drivers have already been sacked but there’s still many bad eggs out there. It’s such a shame as we had a lovely lady called Jean for many years who was excellent, we even had her phone number so we could text her if we weren’t going to be in. Contrast that with one driver who when I asked if he wouldn’t mind ringing the bell or knocking the door told me he couldn’t wait 3 hours for me to answer and told me to ‘pick up and shut up’, charming!
This is putting enormous pressure on Royal Mail which one Royal Mail driver confirmed to us. We have had parcels delivered late due to he volumes they are having to cope with.
The parcels do turn up though with a smile. The posties are the polar opposite to the Evri drivers and they are still taking care with deliveries. It makes such a difference that they are paid an hourly wage rather than by the parcel delivered.
Parcel Force in our area have been helping out Royal Mail. The driver we had from Parcel Force said it was carnage at the local depot so we just need to be patient.
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