A huge Royal Mail exposè is coming...

[Skimm]

I saw my postie today after not seeing one for weeks and asked whats been happening with the mail recently. He took out his ear phones and wouldn't stop talking.

He said that its chaos at the depot, they are being giving thousand of letter to post and when you complain they say ai don't care what you do with them, dont bring them back.

They are also being told to prioritize parcels and that letters aren't important. People are quiting or going off sick so the RM are having to hire agency workers who are dumping letters in bushes and quiting within days.

I haven't had post in over 3 week. I have only noticed as I'm waiting to recieve 2 v.important letters that were sent 3 and 2 weeks ago. So who knows how long its been going on.

I have phoned the help line and been told that 50% off the staff in my local depot are either sick or absent and that they have shut down certain postcodes to deliveries. They said after the complaint I will recieve post within 72hr. It never happened and I've had to complain again.

If you search online you will see I'm not the only one. It seems to be happening nationwide in cities and rural areas. The issue is that RM are denying that there is an issue.

They are suppose to deliver post to every postcode Monday to Saturday and now I've been told that they are closing down certain postcodes over the phone but then denying it on social media.

I still didn't get my mail today so I'm starting to wonder if I'm one if the people whobhave had their letters dumped.

Same where I live. I think they did it during covid when people were around to receive things, but if they won't deliver, they can't have it both ways and should extend the opening hours back to 7-7 or similar. At least on a couple of days a week.

Supplying drinking water and dealing with sewage were also “drains” on the taxpayer, as was providing public transport. Essential services cost money. Who knew? The clever thing is, they still are drains on the taxpayer, despite bringing in money for shareholders, because we need them, but foreign investors don’t feel the same need for clean water and contained sewage as we do, nor for dealing with tiresome little letter deliveries, so the public will always pay for the consequences of private greed. By trying to divest itself of responsibility for essential services, the state is really just trying to return to a situation where the majority live unhealthy, unsanitary lives and the minority spend a lot of money trying to keep themselves safe from the odious masses - then realising it can’t be seen to be doing that, so spending taxpayers’ money on trying to paper over chasms as if they were cracks.

I didn't say it was. It remains a leading seller of Royal Mail's products and services and the location at which it became apparent that the 'shrinkflation' of a stamp (much higher price for delivery in the event that staff are available and feel inclined to choose the correct letterbox) made me feel rewarded in delivering my own local post personally.

It is a regulatory obligation - they do have to comply.

But as I said, the fines are much lower than actually staffing the service properly.

Ofcom needs to find its teeth.

I am also not sure why it's so awful to take letters out with you when you are going to the street with various parcels anyway.

What is an obligation that is routinely ignored called?
Pointless?

RM are not the only employer experiencing capacity issues due to difficulties with recruitment and retention of staff in low paid roles.

What are all the people doing who would normally work these low paid roles in RM, hospitality, customer service etc? Nothing works, it's all gone to shit. Have all these workers left the UK? Are they all on the dole? Where are they?

Retired and wondering what went wrong with social care? Working in supermarkets, because the pay is better?

I think part of the problem is, politicians simplistically painted the public/private divide as a laziness/greed issue - public sector lazy and lacking innovation, and private sector greedy but innovative and motivated. The idea of being motivated by public service rather than profit was downgraded or ignored, so nowadays that’s just another way of saying you are being a mug. We have lost security and control and, surprise, surprise, discovered that the profit motive does not always lead to places anyone wanted to go.

The postman said that aswell. He said what happened to delivering a package and a letter together?

Today I have seen Parcel Force vans but no postie.

It's probably certain areas. I've not had any problems at all. Still get daily deliveries. In fact we have had extra deliveries since November.

So there's a few postmen come in a van and start the deliveries. There was one day I was expecting a parcel and asked them as I'd had tracking to say it wld be delivered that day. He said oh there's another van that comes later just doing parcels at this time of year. I've even had parcels delivered at 8pm. So in my area they are doing more than usual at this time of year.

An ex postie DH knows is now a Tesco delivery driver. I think it's pretty much minimum wage, but apparently low stress, good working environment and a staff discount on your shopping.

That's interesting @Mammillaria . I'd have thought Tesco delivery driving was quite stressful!

Brexit drove them all away

RM was doing well at delivering post prior to privatisation.

What you call "the NHS" is a patchwork of thousands of organisations, most of which are privatised (e.g. GPs, pharmacies, dentists...) and delivering services to the State under contract.

No one dies because their driving licence takes a while to process so it's less unreasonable for the Govt to find savings by cutting DVLA staff than it is for RM to cut staff.

So is mine. I know it's not the case for everyone but the person who delivers the buts I get is brilliant and goes above and beyond. I've had items sent to me go missing but it's been at the senders end and I know other areas have nightmares, they have the reputation they do for a reason but I don't often mention that my local driver is amazing because people eye roll and imply you're lying or think you must work for them. There's good and bad in every job.

Genuinely curious what good people think renationalising a failing, not-fit-for-purpose business like RM will actually do besides be a drain on the taxpayer?

@Unwittington well…. It’s tte same for the railways isn’t it? The government had no choice but to renationalise the track side of things. They also have had to intervene when railway companies have been shit - TP been a recent example.
And the same with banks when they are failing. Remember the crash and northern rock?
or what is likely to be a similar situation with Thames Water who can’t actually pay fur all the repairs it needs to do.

In most cases, the word re nationalisation might not be used. But they are certainly under control the government because not doing so is either dangerous or not sustainable
(see fur example the fact you can’t let Thames Water fail and see London Wo water).

Not everything is fit to be in the hands of the private sector. Or not Wo a huge cost to the population as a whole.
We need to let go of the idea that private is automatically better.

Have you got an SG postmark as well?

No, EN8, just outside the M25.

The real problem is that RM should not have to deliver to every single house very single day and definitely not on a Saturday.

It is just unachievable with so few letters being sent.

Most other countries have stopped their postal service having to do this, but yet again our useless government does nothing.

Have seen the Postman again but still no mail...

Only got two items in the post today. One was a card - v nice - and the other was a card saying I'd need to pay £5 to see whatever it was that had insufficient postage. Apparently counterfeit stamps is a thing now.

I felt bad not using the correct stamps on some cards in the summer :(
I hadn't realized that the bar code ones are now the only ones you can use etc.
Our post office sorting office made the Telegraph as its so bad now ;(
Our posties are all lovely, but it is all parcels now and barely any letters

My greatest worry is important letters and documents going missing. My smear test letters were sent twice and never arrived. Someone mentioned a parking fine that didn't arrive. What about court summons that you don't receive?
This could have serious implications for people's lives.

The NHS, tax office etc all tend to write to you still , so it is worrying that things are so behind

We’ve been receiving post (letters and parcels) without any issue thankfully

Oh! No problems with my post, been surprised how fast deliveries have been this year.