Royal Mail delivery

[nxjen]

thank you trousaprezz for your post confirming what I had suspected which why I?ve been cutting them some slack.

Over the last six months,I?ve received tracked parcels through Royal Mail from Superdrug, Amazon and Marks and Spencer, large corporates who have not been, as far as I know, using Royal Mail before. So it seems like Royal Mail have been going after this courier type business and treating it as a priority (who?d want to upset those companies I mentioned) without increasing resources, in fact the opposite due to circumstances admittedly outside their control. This has been at the cost of the ordinary letter post.

So while I can understand the new business Royal Mail has taken on must be very lucrative for them, they really have to get their act together, increase their resources including space, to serve the traditional customer who sends and receives mail via ordinary first and second class letter post.

[garages2018]

NXJEN & LYNNE

Your reply's is how I see it. They took on cheap parcel postage and the staff that would

do the post is delivering these item's at the expense of the normal post box service

[gumshoe]

I can see why RM are prioritising parcels (indeed, most of the things that have turned up on time have been tracked). The issue is that they are also supposed to be fulfilling their universal service obligation as well, which covers letters - which they haven?t been. I received mail yesterday that was postmarked 11 Dec! I think many people on this thread have been good at acknowledging the strains of the service and the valiant individual efforts of posties - the issue is that we have a privatised service trying to deliver a public service and failing because it isn?t resourcing correctly.

[Trinnydad]

@ Trousaprezz

What you say matches exactly with the facts. Letter volumes have been in steady decline during the last 15 years and now RM's revenue from letters now exceeds that of parcels and that trend will continue.

Inevitably, RM has to undertake a massive rebalancing and create new depots for distribution of parcels on an automated basis. Forget manual sorting. That is labour intensive and error prone.

The courier companies already are fully automated and they achieve tis by having the sender apply a label with a barcode.

It is inevitable that RM will have to go over to using printed labels.

[Trousaprezz]

Agree 100% with Gumshoe, a privatised company engaged in what is most definitely a public service and, as Sue says, the closing of the East Dulwich office has made things infinitely worse as well.

Whilst I?ve been working at home I?ve seen the reality of the laissez faire economy applied to the delivery sector in all its glory, with vans emblazoned with all the competing logos ? Royal Mail, Parcelforce, UPS, DHL, DPD (often more than one of these!) circling my block looking for parking spaces...then there are the unmarked white vans used by Amazon, Hermes and Yodel and finally individuals in battered private cars with packages all over the back seat. And don?t even mention the ubiquitous Ocado vans! I suppose it?s the logical conclusion of deregulation and, while there is clearly enough work to justify such competition, there is a certain irony when two drivers from different companies end up knocking at the same front door (if only to take a parcel for a neighbour who isn?t in?).

[Sue]

I don't really understand all this, but then I haven't been keeping track of Royal Mail since privatisation.

What happened to Parcel Force?

Many moons ago the Post Office split into Counters (the physical Post Offices on our high streets), Royal Mail (letters) and Parcel Force (parcels).

If memory serves, ParcelForce had dedicated automated centres for dealing with the parcels, certainly on the outgoing side.

Have parcels and letters been combined again, then?

Surely they can't all be being processed together in the same places??

A long time ago I worked for the Post Office - and then Royal Mail after the split - but not on the operational side (thank God!)

ETA: I just reread the post (hoho) above and it seems that Parcel Force still exists, so how does it interact with Royal Mail, if at all?

[singalto]

I think Parcel Force deals with the heavier parcels sent from post offices.

[dresswaves]

Also seems to make a difference what postperson you have. I'm in SE15, Highshore Road always been my Sorting Office. We have a lovely postman, see him most days and Christmas post has been fine, received all the cards I expected. My Mum, a couple of streets away, still in SE15 but different route has had hardly any post since November. Doesn't seem to have a regular postperson, the postwoman who used to deliver hasn't been seen recently. One Christmas card arrived late November and then none until 3 came on 29th Dec postmarked 18th Dec. She normally gets about 25 cards. It's her 92nd birthday on Monday, I doubt she'll get any cards in the post.

[Bic Basher]

I had a ton of post today delivered.

[singalto]

I live on one of the roads mentioned by garages2018 and the service has been abysmal since Silvester rd closed as we were at the end of the new walks. The postie we had at the time said that they had longer walks but, as they had to come from Peckham, they had less time for deliveries. Instead of starting where they had finished the next day, they would go back to the beginning of their walk! I have received two items of post in nearly 4 weeks. However, tracked parcels were all out for delivery as they are the office?s priority.

[bob]

3 cards delivered to day

Bob S

[gumshoe]

Sue - Parcelforce is the parcels arm of Royal Mail and is therefore a private company, there are various service agreements between Royal Mail and Post Office (which remains a public body, under the auspices of BEIS as an arms length body). In a not so distant former life, I looked after the archives of both companies hence knowing far too much about their various business administration histories... anyway, I received some post today (Sunday) so they are at least attempting to sort out the backlog.

[Pugwash]

Re letter about cramped premises in Highshore Road. I have been involved in undertaking 2 risk assessments of work premises in the past year. My understanding is that any employer breaching covid conditions in the work place, can be fined. I think you have to notify Environmental Health/Covid Marshalls of the situation. One of the premises we undertook a risk assessment is used by several organisations and they were also required to provide a written risk assessment.

Why can't RM not use another premises on a short term basis to undertake some of it's tasks? There must be a number of shops/businesses who have had to close down in the ED area or in SE15 which could be adapted. What is the postal workers union doing to support it's members?

[singalto]

Still no post! I have received two items of post in nearly a month!

[Nigello]

Pugwaah - great questions. Please address them to the right people to ensure at least the vague hope of a result.

[tomskip]

2 Christmas cards delivered today. Both posted 18 December.

[Sue]

I got a Christmas card today, posted a week before Christmas.

And a letter dated 20 December giving me "important advice" about "extra precautionary shielding measures" because of Tier 4.

Oh, well done, Royal Mail, that's arrived just as we are probably about to go into Tier 5 ......

I still haven't received my "urgent" letter, though, GRRRRRR.

What I wonder is how all these letters are actually stored in the delivery office. Because surely the obvious thing to do would be to sort them into streets as they come in, or at least to take some time to sort the piles out now into streets, but that can't be happening, otherwise they wouldn't be being delivered in tiny dribs and drabs?

[redjam]

Received 7 Christmas cards today! Just in time for twelfth night, nice.

[Lynne]

We could all save them for next year. At this rate, we'll be lucky to get any then

[mrwb]

I also received Christmas cards in the last couple of days.

Totally laughably awful service.

Clearly privatisation and closing our local sorting office has been a total disaster. To be expected these days I guess.

[Blah Blah]

Has anyone tried going to the sorting office itself to get their mail? No post here since mid December either and wondering if that is an option?

[Lynne]

Yes, Blah Blah, Been twice, very reluctantly but they did find some post for us. take some ID with you

[singalto]

I contacted the RM CEO yesterday and received 9 items of post about an hour ago!

[Sue]

singalto Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I contacted the RM CEO yesterday and received 9

> items of post about an hour ago!

Thanks singalto, seems that's the way to go, then!

[Sue]

Just seen this posted on the Nunhead Rocks Facebook group:

Dear all. Local councillor has replied thusly to a neighbour regarding the lack of mail delivery.

".......The situation within Peckham Sorting Office is currently pretty dire. They have sadly lost staff due to Covid and several staff are currently off sick or are quarantining/shielding. The extra staff recruited for the Christmas period have had their contracts extended but they are still very short staffed. Staff are working overtime, 7 days a week. Royal Mail is dealing with Covid test drop off/pick up and this is taking priority over other deliveries (and is very time consuming). The next priority are parcels and packets and then signed for/recorded deliveries. Due to the sheer volume of deliveries and staff shortages letter deliveries have suffered in the local area. They have a huge backlog of letter mail that they are trying to clear. It is not something that is particularly affecting Rye Hill, but all areas served by Peckham Sorting Office. (I do believe this as today, I received my first letter post since the 19th and it included post sent first class on the 18th December, I?m on Linden Grove). I was told the post will be delivered but they couldn?t tell me how soon.

It was suggested that post could be collected from the sorting office. They are allowing people to collect post for their neighbours as long as they can show either a print out or photo of their neighbour?s ID (so one person can pick up for a few households)."

End of quote.