Royal Mail service

Hedge · 5 Jun 2015 at 14:50

Also people need to realise things are different with mail compared to 20yrs ago. The sheer amount of junk mail has a huge impact. When you do a post route about 40 percent of houses probably get individual / unique post. Once you add leaflets and other crap the postman's work load is massively increased. That soon becomes 100 percent of the houses on his route. It also means he can carry less so needs to return to get more bags from his car / drop off point.

There isn't a requirement to get mail early morning so don't be disappointed if it comes in the afternoon. It's unavoidable.

Psymonkee · 5 Jun 2015 at 15:48

If the mail comes at 9am or 3pm and both times your at work what does it matter?

No real problems around here at all!

MrMoonX · 5 Jun 2015 at 15:51

Gazanimal said:
IF and it's a big IF you don't get a delivery and there is mail, then the postie will get into serious **** if he doesn't attempt delivery. It's called Wilful Delay and it's a sackable offence.

I'm not saying he's doing it but Saturdays are generally a quieter day of the week for mail so there's a very high chance you don't have any. Some people on the rounds I do only get about 1 letter a week and that's junk mail usually.

It's every Saturday we haven't had any post since we moved in on a Saturday, which we previously did so it's a bit suspect

Gazanimal · 5 Jun 2015 at 17:04

spoffle said:
I've had them card me before without even trying. They had the card ready and just put it through the door. <snip>

If that's the case Spoffle, you need to take it up to Regional level & bypass the local office.

MrMoonX said:
It's every Saturday we haven't had any post since we moved in on a Saturday, which we previously did so it's a bit suspect

I'm not sure of the reason tbh why you'd not get any. I have suspicions with regards staffing etc but a complaint might be in order.

More work is being put onto us and less staff, those big shareholders want their returns.

Gazanimal · 5 Jun 2015 at 17:08

dr_volki said:
our postie is pretty god.
only thing I could moan about, Saturday deliveries are at random times. sometimes he drops stuff off at 9am and sometimes at 2pm

That will be due to "workload" aka "lapsing" where they will split rounds out between other rounds if the mail levels are down. The extra is taken and delivered when the Posties can. It might be morning or afternoon.

Mail delivery has not been guaranteed mornings for a long time now.

Gazanimal · 5 Jun 2015 at 17:10

Hedge said:
Lots of people have issues with receiving post in the afternoon. I worked as a postman for RM about 8 years ago and that's simply down to the position your street comes in the route.

I would sort mail then start posting about 8 or so. By the time you do about 6 bags and have lunch you are into the afternoon. That's not an unusual thing.

It's not possible for everyone to get mail at 9am. It would require like 5 times more staff and they would work less hours.

I'm lucky if I'm ever out on delivery before 9:30am now. More likely 10:00m or after.

Gone are the days of job and finish, it's all "working to workload" so every day can be the same finish time.

Werewolf · 5 Jun 2015 at 18:11

ajf said:
Don't generally have much of a problem around me.
Biggest bug I have with them is if I have a parcel with customs duty the sorting office only accept cash.
Really, it's the 21century! Surely card payments aren't that difficult?

Our sorting office accepts cards I think, but it could be something to do with the size of the office and the other costs.
Given that not all sorting offices actually accept packages to enter the system, I can see that the cost of having card terminals might not be worth it for some.

IIRC you can pay online with a reference code and they'll deliver it the next day (although I may be getting confused with parcel force).

StriderX · 5 Jun 2015 at 18:14

The Royal mail has delivered like 5 packages a day earlier than they said they would, i am outraged

.

bobbarley · 5 Jun 2015 at 19:50

Was absolutely fuming the other day. My sister sent me a birthday card and the cheeky *******s left a letter saying I needed to go and pay something like £1.11 because the postage was 11p short. £1 fee, SERIOUSLY?!

Maximum Triceratops · 5 Jun 2015 at 20:03

bobbarley said:
Was absolutely fuming the other day. My sister sent me a birthday card and the cheeky *******s left a letter saying I needed to go and pay something like £1.11 because the postage was 11p short. £1 fee, SERIOUSLY?!

I would be fuming at your sister too!

khemist · 5 Jun 2015 at 20:14

Gazanimal said:
I'm lucky if I'm ever out on delivery before 9:30am now. More likely 10:00m or after.

Gone are the days of job and finish, it's all "working to workload" so every day can be the same finish time.

First letter for me is about 1020 if i'm lucky.

Gazanimal said:
That will be due to "workload" aka "lapsing" where they will split rounds out between other rounds if the mail levels are down. The extra is taken and delivered when the Posties can. It might be morning or afternoon.

Mail delivery has not been guaranteed mornings for a long time now.

Our lapsing is now part of our delivery everyday now, i've got 4h25mins of mail to deliver and nothing like that to get it delivered.

Some woman had a go at me the other day for delivering her mail at 1410 and said it was not acceptable and she would be complaining, good luck with that, IDIOT!.

Needless to say i will never sign for anything for her or leave items in a safe place again.

Gazanimal · 5 Jun 2015 at 20:26

bobbarley said:
Was absolutely fuming the other day. My sister sent me a birthday card and the cheeky *******s left a letter saying I needed to go and pay something like £1.11 because the postage was 11p short. £1 fee, SERIOUSLY?!

Unfortunately for you your sister just stuck a stamp on it and thought it'd get there, but they clamp down on underpostage now, although I agree the £1 charge is ridiculous and I hate delivering the grey cards.

khemist said:
First letter for me is about 1020 if i'm lucky.

Our lapsing is now part of our delivery everyday now, i've got 4h25mins of mail to deliver and nothing like that to get it delivered.

Some woman had a go at me the other day for delivering her mail at 1410 and said it was not acceptable and she would be complaining, good luck with that, IDIOT!.

Needless to say i will never sign for anything for her or leave items in a safe place again.

After closing the delivery office in the town where we deliver and moving us all 10 miles away they have us out later, using vans, travelling 20mins in traffic both ways and pulling more overtime all in the shape of money saving. Yes folks that's what the RM bosses are like...lol.

Five.Stars · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:01

bobbarley said:
Is it just me or is the entirety of the Royal Mail just shocking these days? Prices constantly go up and it takes them longer than ever to deliver something! There was a time when first class was pretty much guaranteed to be next day, now it takes 3 or more for something to arrive.

Then of course there's all the deliveries when you're out working. No problem just head to he sorting office to collect. Oh hang on no, they're only open during office hours!! The local depot to me doesn't even have a single late evening opening hour session, it just shuts at 12pm every day.

It's no wonder it's going down the pan.

/grrrrr rant over.

LOL, they made £749 million profit last year!

Five.Stars · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:19

khemist said:
First letter for me is about 1020 if i'm lucky.

Our lapsing is now part of our delivery everyday now, i've got 4h25mins of mail to deliver and nothing like that to get it delivered.

Some woman had a go at me the other day for delivering her mail at 1410 and said it was not acceptable and she would be complaining, good luck with that, IDIOT!.

Needless to say i will never sign for anything for her or leave items in a safe place again.

You shouldn't be doing that anyway, for her or for anyone. It is fraudulent and if you are caught will almost certainly lead to dismissal.

varkanoid · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:21

Five.Stars said:
LOL, they made £749 million profit last year!

What you dont realise though is the whole £749 million goes to the government then they turn round and give the Royal Mail about a 1/4 of that back. Then it wasnt always the whole share if they had not met targets they would be fined on top. I remember one year it was put that RM made over 1 billion but in fact they only got just over £100 million from the government.

It used to anger me when I worked for them the press and people saying they've made millions and millions but most of it goes to the government but that doesnt get publicised well.

They've also been talking about privatising Royal Mail for years and I worked for them back in the 90's and its still not happened. At one point it was very near that RM would lose the £1 item or less monopoly and I saw plans for other companies like TNT etc to have their own post boxes. A proposal was in the works so each company could have it. It was prepared to be passed before local councils. Somebody did a mock up of what our streets would look like and instead of just red boxes there were several boxes on each street of different coloured ones all in a row. It was hideous.

khemist · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:24

Five.Stars said:
You shouldn't be doing that anyway, for her or for anyone. It is fraudulent and if you are caught will almost certainly lead to dismissal.

I don't know anyone that doesn't do it, i do it for certain people, not randoms.

Five.Stars · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:29

varkanoid said:
What you dont realise though is the whole £749 million goes to the government then they turn round and give the Royal Mail about a 1/4 of that back. Then it wasnt always the whole share if they had not met targets they would be fined on top. I remember one year it was put that RM made over 1 billion but in fact they only got just over £100 million from the government.

It used to anger me when I worked for them the press and people saying they've made millions and millions but most of it goes to the government but that doesnt get publicised well.

They've also been talking about privatising Royal Mail for years and I worked for them back in the 90's and its still not happened. At one point it was very near that RM would lose the £1 item or less monopoly and I saw plans for other companies like TNT etc to have their own post boxes. A proposal was in the works so each company could have it. It was prepared to be passed before local councils. Somebody did a mock up of what our streets would look like and instead of just red boxes there were several boxes on each street of different coloured ones all in a row. It was hideous.

Royal Mail was privatised in 2013.

Five.Stars · 5 Jun 2015 at 21:33

khemist said:
I don't know anyone that doesn't do it, i do it for certain people, not randoms.

Well please heed this advice, stop doing it. And if you genuinely wish to risk your employment by doing this, at the very least do not ever admit to doing so, even on the internet.

Lunatic Dreyfus · 5 Jun 2015 at 23:37

Middle and Senior management only care about profit. Line managers are desisped by staff and their bosses in turn. Delivery staff have reached the point of not really caring that much any more. The company is dying a long steady death.

Welcome to Royal Mail. Enjoy your stay.

Five.Stars said:
Well please heed this advice, stop doing it. And if you genuinely wish to risk your employment by doing this, at the very least do not ever admit to doing so, even on the internet.

You sound like my manager.

willhub · 6 Jun 2015 at 12:08

Customers get more demanding as time goes by and expect miracles.