Royal Mail - Sorry, you were out

[jctg]

Oh, and casual workers at RM are not paid more than permanent ones. As if the CWU would stand for that!

[Dez]

There was one occasion when East Dulwich sorting office refused to deliver a large item to my door and insisted on me collecting it because they said it was too big. I had no way of collecting it so the package was returned to the sender who then used another courier to deliver it!

[Dez]

When I lived in Paddington there was a problem with casual workers who were unable to read English. Perhaps RM isn't allowed to discriminate against such applicants despite the fact that it would seem like a necessary requirement for the job.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I heard a couple of callers from different parts of London complain about exactly the same thing today on the BBC - so it's not our local posties in ED

[Huguenot]

Good heavens Dez, neither you nor the PO could put it through your letterbox? What was it, a fridge?

[Dez]

No, a fridge would go through our letterbox ok, but this was an exercise cycle which was the wrong shape.

[Huguenot]

News just out

[RosieH]

According to the news this morning, there's currently something of a dispute between the postal workers / their union and the managers. The report said that posties are obliged to complete their rounds at a rate of 4mph, and if they don't are risking getting into trouble with management, and one guy complained of bullying. Upshot - some of them aren't stopping to collect signatures etc in order to make the rounds in the allotted time.

Management dispute their story and say the actual required rate is slower (think it was 2.5mph).

So in a nutshell, that could be your answer right there. Appalling state of affairs, not necessarily the posties' fault perhaps.

[Dez]

Oh dear, that's disgraceful, I feel almost pity for the workers now. I like walking, and my average of just over 4mph is faster than most people move before they break into a jog.

[bignumber5]

this happens to me pretty frequently - most particularly a pain when i've arranged to have something delivered on a day when i'm off, so i dutifully get up at 7 for the 8-6 time slot and stay in all day only to get one of these cards and a speedy getaway at 5.20. Tend to throw major tantrums at "help"line staff, not very constructive but highly cathartic.

[Moos]

Our Peckham posties are very good with parcels - we're always having them drop them off with neighbours or having neighbours' parcels delivered to us. Seems to be working really well, they'll definitely have earned their Christmas envelope this year!

[Huguenot]

There's a great word - catharsis. An emotional cleansing, a spriritual renewal, a release from tension, a purge.

It's Greek you know. Nothing to do with the Cathars as group, except of course they were 'pure'/purged too.

I always wanted to be a Cathar, much cooler than being a Huguenot. More mountains and castles by far. The Pyrenees have always been just way better than the Alps. More imagination and less cuckoo clocks.

[Dez]

Although my culprit had a van so the 4mph directive wouldn't apply. Perhaps Royal Mail should be held accountable for the environmental pollution damage resulting from all the deliberately wasted journeys.

[Sue]

RosieH Wrote:

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

> According to the news this morning, there's

> currently something of a dispute between the

> postal workers / their union and the managers.

> The report said that posties are obliged to

> complete their rounds at a rate of 4mph, and if

> they don't are risking getting into trouble with

> management, and one guy complained of bullying.

> Upshot - some of them aren't stopping to collect

> signatures etc in order to make the rounds in the

> allotted time.

>

> Management dispute their story and say the actual

> required rate is slower (think it was 2.5mph).

>

> So in a nutshell, that could be your answer right

> there. Appalling state of affairs, not

> necessarily the posties' fault perhaps.

xxxxx

Back in the day, whenever the managers were timing the posties' rounds, the union used to instruct the posties to walk as slowly as possible.

I think there was a "finish and go" policy at the sorting office, so it was in the posties' interests that their round appeared to take as long as possible to complete.

And then of course when they actually did the round in real life, it took much less time so they all got to go home early.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I know - shocking isn't it?

But wait - isn't that when people hark back to a golden age of 2 deliveries a day and a postie being able to stop and chatter?

Do people want efficiencies really? (I don't - not always anyway)

[Sue]

Yes - hurrah! Two deliveries a day!

And you could even predict when they were going to arrive!

But "once over the ground" was a continually talked-about theme even back in the seventies. As was moving to a system like they have in some other countries where you collect your mail from the post office, or some other central point.

Maybe you're right and people don't want efficiencies - on the other hand, nor do they want to pay double the price for their stamps, and as I understand it the main reason for bringing in one delivery a day was to save costs.

Edited to say: I seem to be lucky as I've had very good service from the posties lately, which hasn't always been the case in ED in the past, and all in all I think we should be grateful we do actually get our post delivered to the door.

[PeckhamRose]

Yes, that was back in the day when it was a service, a service to the community, and the postie was a respected and important part of it.

Those days are gone. And I am over it.

But I am not for this level of bullying, bad service, and the workers who do care (our postie is very kind and caring and pays attention) being paid less than the casuals, and the fact that the PO / RM is now a limited company aiming for profits. Even the Americans have still got a good postal service which is better than ours. Anyway, as I said before, talking on here about it won't sort it, so I wrote to Harriet. She'll sort it. Yeah, right.

[Sue]

But the casuals don't get sick pay or a pension or many employment rights - surely casuals/agency staff are always paid more than permanent staff, for those reasons?

[PeckhamRose]

But they often mis-deliver (or completely NOT deliver when it comes to parcels). Why should they be paid more? Pay the same, maybe. But not more.

[cathg]

I had one of those "sorry you were out today" cards when I was in, but what bothers me is slightly different. I don't know about other letter boxes, but our box says daily collection is at 5.30pm, but they frequently empty it during the day too. In fact they've just been. I guess they don't want to tell us there are more collections ? if they did we'd only go and post more letters wouldn't we?

[elizlondon]

I just wanted to say that here in Ulverscroft Rd the postie is lovely and really helpful, usually comes round at about 11-12. The guy who does the parcels in the van is not so friendly, but never puts a card through the door unless I'm actually out (but then, he probably knows that I'm often in during the day), and almost always delivers between 9.20-9.50.

Sounds like I'm quite fortunate!

Agree with you Sue, I'd have thought that casuals are almost always paid a higher hourly rate in most industries as they don't get the other benefits.

[Sue]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

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

> But they often mis-deliver (or completely NOT

> deliver when it comes to parcels). Why should they

> be paid more? Pay the same, maybe. But not more.

xxxxxx

Because at certain times of the year it's essential to the mail service to have casuals, and if they aren't paid a reasonable rate they'll go and work elsewhere. Then everyone will complain they aren't getting their letters and parcels delivered.

[Sue]

cathg Wrote:

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

> I had one of those "sorry you were out today"

> cards when I was in, but what bothers me is

> slightly different. I don't know about other

> letter boxes, but our box says daily collection is

> at 5.30pm, but they frequently empty it during the

> day too. In fact they've just been. I guess they

> don't want to tell us there are more collections ?

> if they did we'd only go and post more letters

> wouldn't we?

xxxxxx

I imagine they just put the time of the last collection on the box, as this will be most important to people wanting to know if they've caught the last post or not.

Also this time of year boxes are emptied more frequently as otherwise Christmas cards would be overflowing through the slot and onto the street :)

[Fuschia]

I got a "sorry you were out" card when I was in on Friday.

I got talking last year to our regular postman after the strike, he was doing a "mop up" sort of delivery by van, he said there was a huge huge backlog at the depot and casual staff were in a real mess trying to help clear it. He seems very nice, he never puts cards through when I'm in. I get the impression the staff there are a bit hard done by.

[ruffers]

I had this last week and on a Saturday, if you follow their "leave it three hours rule", you have a slot of about an hour to go collect your stuff - thanks for deciding my diary!

Anyway, off I trotted and happened to suggest to the fellah in the post office that I was in at the time and maybe the postman hadn't actually knocked and didn't have my parcel and ran away as discussed... Not impressed.