Royal Mail Vans! What is the problem??

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2012
Posts
7,809
Here's the thing,

Pretty well every RM van I see looks as if it has come from the losing side of a demolition derby!

I have seen ones with this years plate on them that almost look like "Christine" after she had been smashed up with sledgehammers! :eek:

There are plenty of companies/organisations that run vans around urban (Or even rural) areas but none of them ever look as battered as the RM ones!

What is it with RM van drivers, really??

(Joking aside, this is a serious question! RM Vans are almost always covered with massive dents, even the very newest ones, What is going on here??)
 
The ones round here all have the most insanely faded paint ever. It just looks nasty.
 
Strange really. I meet RM vans in the weirdest of places, on farms, single track rock layered roads, caravan sites, everywhere you'd expect them to have a rough time, and they're all in decent shape except some mud usually.
 
The Royal mail is the largest operator of commercial vehicles in the UK believe it or not, little surprise a fair percentage have dings tbh.
 
Zero resale value in a RM van given the massive amount of stop-start driving they must do. Unless its not roadworthy, why bother losing the time off the road for cosmetic damage when they're bound for the scrap heap anyway.

They're still tidier than the typical builder's van !
 
peterwalkley said:
Zero resale value in a RM van given the massive amount of stop-start driving they must do. Unless its not roadworthy, why bother losing the time off the road for cosmetic damage when they're bound for the scrap heap anyway.

They're still tidier than the typical builder's van !
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Good answer!

(And sensible company policy really)
 
95% of the vans are lease now (Fleet & Maintenance services have lost more than half their staff in the last couple of years) and the majority of RM garages has dropped massively due to them being lease vehicles.

I had one around 2003 and the fuel pump was turned right down, had to deliver a load of servers to Cardiff and it took forever to get to 70 but it used next to no juice, it was mint as well as I only used it to drive from Chesterfield to Matlock a couple of days a week, had about 6k miles on it at 5 years old when I handed it back, was quoted £500 to buy it (they were sent to auction in bulk in them days) but didn't have a use for a van at the time.
 
RM ones seem ok around here, our regular postie's van is in great nick

I cant say the same for Yodel van (we get Yodel deliveries at work 6 days a week) and the one comes to us has body panel on the left side front sticking out with a massive dent in the side, the way he drives, I can see why
 
The newer local van is spotless and the older one is equally fine, if a little faded. :p

Not a dent or scratch.
 
The one that does the main round in the village has the drivers side wings caved in. It's not surprising really as our stupid council has marked parking spaces right up to the junctions now so you actually have to pull out into the road to see if anything is coming.
 
ttaskmaster said:
The RM has the highest turnover (and IIRC, profit as well), but I thought someone like BT Fleet had a larger fleet?
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Can't find the source, but given the number of post delivery vans, parcel force vans and Royal Mail & parcel force HGV's around the country then it's easy to see why they are so big, BT is relatively small by comparison and they don't have numerous huge delivery hubs around the country.
 
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