Royal Mail/Postal Strikes

[FridaySe]

Small rant here

Am I the only one who thinks it's ridiculous when someone goes on strike asking for more money when they aren't doing the job they are paid for?

The Royal Mail service in my area is a joke.
I can send a letter or package first class from Glasgow to Plymouth and it arrives the next day, however if a similar letter or package is sent to me from Plmouth, it takes a minimum of 2 days.

Added to this, the mail isn't delivered until about 9 am, if you're lucky. Quite often it's later in the day.

The postmen in my area don't bring out an Amazon delivery or anything that's slightly larger than normal. Without fail I get delivered the little red postcard saying they tried to deliver my package but no one was in. Even though there is always some one in when they "attempt" to deliver the package.

It's gotten so bad that any delivery I want to be sure will arrive on time I get sent to my work.


Am I the only person experiencing this or are there others?

[Trumpton]

The RM postal strikes have been called off. You mentioned mail arriving at Glasgow taking 2 days to reach you. Yes, you're right about that as the same does happen to my post. I get my morning delivery between 8 and 8.30 am usually. Although occasonally it arrives after 10 am!

The Glasgow sorting office at Springburn is stuck in the 1970's when industrial "relations" are concerned.

[planeterotica]

My earliest delivery is 10am and often its much later but i dont suppose everyone can have their mail delivered first and i seldom get any mail on a Monday or Tuesday but get loads on a Wendesday as they save it up and deliver it with the junk mail !sad!

[Trumpton]

planeterotica wrote:

> My earliest delivery is 10am and often its much later but i
> dont suppose everyone can have their mail delivered first and i
> seldom get any mail on a Monday or Tuesday but get loads on a
> Wendesday as they save it up and deliver it with the junk mail
> !sad!

That shouldn't happen. If you can prove it then go and make an official complaint at the sorting office. They'll give you a complaint form to fill in. You might be entitled to compensation!

[randyandy]

I don't agree with the postal strikes for reasons I gave on another post however you seem to be confusing the problems with Royal Mail (bad management, poor quality of service etc ) and the people striking (the 'posties').

As a former 'postie' I know a lot if not all of the problems people experience and the late deliveries you mention aren't down to the 'postie' delivering the mail.

[randyandy]

As a former 'postie' mail isn't or at least should be stockpiled.

If you can prove it you have very good grounds for official complaint.

Deliberate delay is (or was) a criminal offence which results (resulted) in immediate sacking.

[planeterotica]

randyandy wrote:

> As a former 'postie' mail isn't or at least should be
> stockpiled.
>
> If you can prove it you have very good grounds for official
> complaint.
>
> Deliberate delay is (or was) a criminal offence which results
> (resulted) in immediate sacking.
>
planeterotica wrote:

It was a postie who told me that this was happening, he said that mail during weekdays sometimes sits there for two days before any attempt is made to deliver it, i dont blame the posties as they are told what to do by the supervisors who in turn take their orders from higher managment but to try and prove this would be nigh impossible !sad!

[Trumpton]

The post should not sit there for two days before it's delivered as to deliberately delay the post is a criminal offence.

The RM has got itself into a pickle. They are wanting to cut it's workforce by about one third, but this does result in shortage of staff especially during the holiday periods. So the RM then have to employ casual staff, some of who English is not their first language and as these people had only been in this country a few months it means that they struggle to understand what's occuring!

[randyandy]

To prove it isn't nigh impossible for the Royal Mail I used to work in the department that did it.

The wording of the sections have change since I was there but the principals of how to do it are them same.

Contact your office and ask for the 'quality performance' section (think it is called performance analysis now) and explain what is happening.

They will probably give some crap offer of apology usually free stamps to but say you want a test letter exercise undertaken and mention QTL's which should motivate them a bit more.

QTL's (keep in mind the name may have changed) are electronic test letters that are put in the mail system and are able to monitor flow of mail (how long it rests in the bag box etc)

They can work out it if it has been sat around for an hour never mind a few days

[Trumpton]

Many years ago I worked for the RM as a night sorter. We had PHG's (Postman Higher Grade) whose job it was to walk round the sorting office checking how fast and accurate our sorting was. Hundreds of bags of mail would arrive each night and by knocking-off time if all the mail hadn't been correctly sorted we had to stay until it was done! None of this leaving early business.

These PHG's were senior posties who had been with the RM/GPO for decades and they acted a little like a sergeant-major, but they got the job done properly. I don't think there is this same level of organisation within the RM today?