I'm a postie ask me anything

[Postieonthego]

In light of the two recent thread - postman being a checker fcuker - and - how many parcel are too many. What do you want to ask a postie?

Aw 💛

I’ve noticed some of the stamps on my Christmas cards are stamped, why is this?

Or bath towel 🫢

Is it ok to ask how much you are paid?

Would you recommend it as a job?

How realistic is it to secure flexible or part time hours?

I presume you need to be able to drive? Does the postal service provide the vans?

Thank you for your hard work and service. Our local posties are brilliant. We saw one of them yesterday and my DS4 announced he wants to be one when he's a grown up.

Generally it is no issue at all if you have a van. At this time of year when that van is completely full I would try not to collect a parcel at the start of the day. On the PDA it tells the postman the size of the parcel, so you can plan whether or not it will fit in his/her bag.

Once had to collect a small parcel and it was a microwave!

Slightly above minimum wage overtime, Sunday etc are paid at the same rate, No one is in it for the money.

The Royal Mail provide the vans. Not every postie can drive - there are some walking duties, but being able to drive gives more flexibility.

For me after years working in various offices that were rather bitchy it's good to be out on my own or with one other person.

Personally I don't think stamps are expensive.
Consider the price of a stamp against the price of a coffee and you might think it is cheap.

Do you mean 'franked' which is basically to stop you using them more than once.

The 'Pat' thing is far less now than in previous years.
'Don't be giving me any bills' - is the most frequent.

Last night when I was working until 8pm and was soaked to my underwear I delivered an Amazon parcel and the customer said this should have been here on Tuesday. I find that difficult as I have no control over the whole process, just the end delivery.

Trousers get wet and take time to dry. Legs dry more quickly.
It really is that simple.

Would you agree that management are a law unto themselves. They aren’t supposed to use your devices to track you and yet they do. You could accidentally leave a letter in your racking and be on a disciplinary yet a manager will stop a whole delivery going out without consequences. The process of dealing with staff is horrendous and although Royal Mail and the post office split in 2012, like horizon where evidence was ignored the management at Royal Mail must have had the same training.

I appreciate that some people are having to wait for letters. Certain postcodes are now being mentioned on the news.

Where I work there is a day crew- what you see with the 'postie', parcel support and a night crew to get the collected mail and parcels out. We also have lorries that collect the mail and take it to a central hub - usually a large city and then get it to wherever it needs to go.

This can be really quick if all the cogs fit well together.

However this year there have been hundreds of parcels with incorrect addresses. Many posties going to a house twice to find people not in an no safe place to leave the parcel. When you order make sure your house number is on the order! Amazon pack items are very poorly packaged, so cans of coke will be rolling around the office/van or the wine you purchased is smashed and leaking into other parcels. So that will slow down the process.

Your postcode is still the most powerful piece of information to get a parcel/letter to you.

Big question.
After working in lovely Woke London for a while there are some practises in the Royal Mail that astonish me. People being told off in front of others, favouritism, a disregard for mental health.

There was a drive recently for us to all wear high visibility clothing - which I agree with. In the summer a postie I know, loaded his van was all ready to go when he popped back into the office for the toilet. He had taken his high-vis off as he was leaving the yard. When he was ready to go out the manager noticed his lack of a high-vis and told him he wasn't to go out without one. He explained he'd just taken it off and it was in the van. The manager said he couldn't let him go to his van without one. So the postie said can I just borrow one then. The manager said you have your own. The postie then just sat on the floor, and pretended to meditate, chanting and everything, in the way of everyone. Manager soon gave him a high vis.

My postwoman has always been fantastic. What is the job on the whole like?

I ask because a friend recently signed up to deliver for Evri to earn extra money and it is a complete shambles.

She was paid between 20-60 pence per parcel, which is paid once only, so if a person is not home you are not paid for attempting the delivery (she was encouraged to 'just leave it somewhere') then having to pay for her DBS check, fuel, mobile data to access the app and the costs that come from driving your own vehicle. The 'app' couriers use is also unreliable and her route had her driving up and down the same road delivering 5 parcels out of order, taking her an hour and she was paid about £3 for it!

It was like one of those pyramid schemes, she lost money really for the week she delivered for them. I cannot imagine many people make much money doing this, and can see why couriers get desperate and just leave parcels anywhere.

How does Royal Mail compare?

At RM you are paid for your hours, if you work over you get paid - although that is at the same rate. Fuel is paid for by RM.

If you are doing 'parcel support' which is delivering parcels only, your PDA gives you a route. Someone who knows an area well may go against this route as it's not always the best. This is especially the case with new estates. The PDA does also, on occasions, think there are roads that don't exist, and also as you are driving doesn't consider alleyways and paths that are beneficial to the postie.

People not being in is a huge issue. So the postie will try to put a parcel somewhere safe. The recycling bin is a favourite - a good postie will know when the bin men are coming and act accordingly, but a parcel box or an open garage are like manna from heaven.

Why does post for my next-door neighbour come through my letterbox on a regular basis?

Is Tracked 24 prioritised over Tracked 48? I send both for my small business and I don't see any difference in when they arrive - it's very rare a Tracked 24 will arrive within 24 hours of being posted, but usually Tracked 48 arrives in 48 hours, so I'm thinking of stopping the Tracked 24 upgrade, as it sets unrealistic expectations)

Do you judge people who don’t tip their postie?

I see some of the posties in my area with a cart type thing that they lock to a lamppost and then use it to deliver from in batches. Do all posties have access to this type of thing? You seem to be carrying more and more with the small parcels too, so I guess they're necessary to protect your backs?

Also, do you have techniques for getting stuff in letterboxes? I hand posted Christmas cards to a few neighbours this week and they all had tight letterboxes with draught guards that made it almost impossible to put a single item through.

Lastly, I bet you hate the door bows that some people put up at Christmas that obstruct the letterbox.as well as being a bit naff, do these people not think about things like post access?

Do most places have regular posties? I ask add I'm sure we don't have a 'regular' (although maybe I'm just not very observant) 😆

Are you meant to just leave parcels on the doorstep? Often the postie rings the bell and then disappears before I get to the door leaving the parcel on the mat (tbf, basically every carrier does this) - DH usually wfh, it's under cover and set back from the road so isn't a huge deal, but it surprises me that it's allowed.

Do you have to check id for alcohol? We had a delivery from Yodel the other day that was clearly beer.... again left on doorstep and gone before I got there.

Sorry... loads of questions there!

I would love some advice. Our postie delivers leaflets (not addressed to us). Are they getting paid extra for delivery these (in that case I might just keep putting them in the recycling) or is there’s a way to make it stop? How can I opt out of this?

I don't buy coffee so wouldn't know about the price but I suppose the cost of £3.40 for a random person somewhere in the world could make a difference to their day. It's just the cost and I'm still smarting that my Italian friend never received the parcel containing Christmas gifts I sent her years ago.

ok so my elderly mum lives in UK, how do i opt her out of it?

This is to register to be removed from marketing mailing lists. Not sure what you can do about unaddressed junk mail (leaflets, etc) though.

ETA: for some reason it keeps deleting the link. It’s mpsonline . org . uk (without the spaces)

www.mpsonline.org.uk

Do you wear shorts in the depth of winter, as one of our posties does?