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.

They also have had to intervene when railway companies have been shit - TP been a recent example

Its still shit now despite the amazing government intervention. In fact it is now harming the economy of the north as no one can get anywhere.

This isn’t new information

Yep, my hubby is a postie and they have been told by the bosses, that under no circumstances should they deliver any letters or cards. I havent had any mail for 3 weeks. I know my family and friends have cards, I havent had them and they havent had mine.

My husband recently took voluntary redundancy this year from RM its gone down hill. He got a chance and took it to leave after 6 years.

So the bosses don't sit on their bottoms giving orders , they pull their fingers out , roll their sleeves up and get stuck in themselves, otherwise they will all (bosses too ) end up without jobs .

Me too. It's certainly made me realise how stressful it must be to be a postie these days if they think being a delivery driver is easier! I'd have thought that walking around delivering letters and parcels wouldn't be so bad.

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

I disagree - if they are coming with parcels they can come with letters.

But if they must miss a day, then make it Wednesday, so you never have to go more than one day without deliveries.

Yes I agree.

Like access to GPs (or lack thereof), this seems to be something that has happened or at least got significantly worse since covid. Before that, the postal services were pretty good. In fact it wasn't that long ago that Royal Mail were making profits. What has changed?

We have been getting post once a week if we are lucky,it went to 10 days last week so went to the sorting office and the place was bursting at the seams with mail.

I did read that some sorting offices are simply not big enough to accommodate all these big parcels and what not , so they are a priority simply to get it cleared
taking on this service wasn't thought through enough maybe?

Someone on high needs paying to think this through. Someone who can work a spreadsheet. I get the impression that managers are not so much expected to plan properly these days, as to fire fight. But maybe t'was ever thus.

We suddenly got 10 Xmas cards today ..all postmarked between 12 and 17 th December !

The hiring of agency staff and dumped sacks of mail has been going on for years. The RM is such disarray and it's not going to get any better sadly.

The trouble is, RM threw out the baby with the bathwater getting rid of the more experienced staff. Once upon a time being a Postie was a valued member of the community. You know the saying.... "to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing". That's what privatisation has given us.

And our youngsters don"t have the work ethic of previous generations...they don"t want to be pounding streets day in day out, they'd sooner be sitting at home answering call centre lines.
Ask school leavers these days what they'd like to do after leaving ...."become a celebrity" is the answer!

It may have been going on for years @Sadandhurt23 but for me this is by far the worst year yet as a small business owner. Just today, I've had 10 refund requests from customers who are claiming their order has not been received. At this rate, I can't continue to operate like this.

It's all well and good people saying letters aren't important but there are plenty of businesses who rely on Royal Mail to send their products to their customers. My products are small, so have to be sent as letters. For us, there is simply no other option. Customers would not pay parcel/ courier prices for something so small. We either continue to operate whilst being accused of being a scam artists or we close down, fueling the belief that letters aren't important.

@Morecushionsplease I’m not saying it doesn’t matter because it’s been happening for years. I 100% agree with you. I too run a small business so I get it. More recently I have had letters for hospital appointments turn up days after the event. Test results have gone missing too, it’s a nightmare. Our postie is run off his feet with parcel deliveries, we never see him with actual post anymore.

Not surprised. The profits go to the shareholders now it’s privatised instead of into the infrastructure and staff. Privatisation does not work!

And yet my son applied for seasonal work at the RM twice and heard nothing from them! Strong lad with work experience, was looking for something temporary due to strikes in the studios. So many people looking for work and willing to work 😓

This is really disheartening. My postie always looks so cheerful. I actually have plans to apply next year because I’m sick of being behind a desk. but might have to read some more experiences first. Tbf it seems every single year the RM is shocked that Christmas is a thing and people might want to post cards and parcels

DH used to work as a Christmas Casual in the evening at our local main depot to earn some extra cash for xmas. He stopped doing it 2 years ago. There had been a massive change at the depot the perm people had all been made redundant and instead the place was being run by agency staff. Sadly the agency managers were terrible and showed complete disregard to health and safety e.g. no high vis worn in the loading bay (DH used to take his own) and one woman had been given a fit note saying she couldn't do lifting and the manager told her he didn't give a fuck what her dr to said and to get on with it or fuck off. DH was just sorting letters so offered to switch duties with her and the manager said they'd both be fired if they did. I can't blame anyone for not wanting to work in that environement. The PO should never have been privatised.

I feel for those who were wrongly accused of theft by Royal mail and that court case dragged on for many years. It was appalling and some lost everything and even their own lives too :(
There is a bbc drama that's been made about it all as well ( think it's on bbc next year?)
Sorry to derail, but the place needs a shake up

If there is so few letters sent why is it that RM can’t cope with the amount if deliveries they need to do so have cutback to delivering only 2 or 3 days a week??

Either they don’t have enough work and they should twiddling their fingers.
Or they have too much work so they need to cut back on tte service they deliver….

And yet, lots of the public vilified the postal workers during the strikes....

If only they knew the ins and outs of what happens behind closed doors.

The volume of letters has decreased dramatically so they cannot afford to employ as many people as they did, yet they are still expected to deliver to every single house 6 days a week.

That is why the existing workers are struggling.

So at them moment they are having to go through the motions of fulfilling their onerous legal requirments with many fewer staff which is why letters are being dumped etc.

I've heard from someone on our local Facebook page that our postie has said they've been told parcels take priority, so you'll get post if you have a parcel. Our depot should be on top of things this week.

Usually I see our postie but not seen him in days, I work from home so usually he knocks on my door with parcels for others in the block of flats. I last got a letter on Friday and seem to get lots in one go at the moment.

Oh that’s interesting, same where I live. I thought it was a local thing due to staffing shortages but must be a national policy??

They are clearly trying to push everyone online to reschedule their parcel deliveries. I found it far easier nipping into the sitting office for my parcel.