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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why the post arrives so late these days?

27 replies

Rhine · 16/05/2014 11:06

I remember when I was a kid, you'd get up at about 7.30am and the post would be lying on the mat waiting for you. Now it seems to be getting later and later. It's a pain in the arse when your waiting for something. It's got worse since our lovely old postman retired. Now we have a postie who looks about twelve and your lucky if the mail arrives before noon, he just seems to amble long like he has all the time in the world.

Why is the post so late these days? What is going on a Royal Mail?

OP posts:
Coumarin · 16/05/2014 12:23

Ours comes at 2.30. I'm sure there's a good reason for it but curious what it is.

Chocotrekkie · 16/05/2014 12:25

Ours brings all the parcels round in his van early on before 8.30/9 ish which is fab as he catches me before work.

He then starts again on foot doing the letters.

bronya · 16/05/2014 12:36

I think it's because there are fewer people delivering it. So it can take all day to get through their allocation of houses.

ChristopherRobin · 16/05/2014 12:39

Ours always comes at 2ish, right when DD is having her nap, so the dog does mad and I'm lucky if she doesn't wake her. It's got better lately though, as it was coming at 4-5pm!

Wineandchoccy · 16/05/2014 12:43

My husband is a postman, they keep moving the start times. Used to be 4.30am, then 6am now he starts at 7am so they usually get out on the rounds at 9am - 9.30am.

They have also merged 2 rounds with 2 postman, 1 in a van doing the parcels and the other delivering on foot so the order of delivery has changed as well.

mumontheroad · 16/05/2014 12:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wineoclocktimeye · 16/05/2014 13:22

I asked our Postie this and he said that the PO used to employ sorters who came in early to sort and put the post in delivery order. They don't anymore so when he gets in, he has to sort his post which means he leaves later.

He also said that means he sometimes doesnt have time to finish his round and so in order to make sure its not the people at the end who dont get post some days, he often has to miss certain roads or Crescents (like ours) out so he can fit his whole round in.

wobblyweebles · 16/05/2014 14:10

It's not just the Royal Mail btw. My post arrives around 3.30pm and I am not in the UK.

WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo · 16/05/2014 14:27

Er, wasn't it an actual thing, back in 2004 or so? Changes to postal delivery times that officially spread them out later over the day and scrapped second deliveries?

ouryve · 16/05/2014 14:32

Have never had post that early, in the past, even when there was such a thing as second post (and, when there was, we were at the end of the first post round, which the postie did backwards for second post, so there was often little over an hour between the two deliveries)

Though I will add that we were getting very early parcel post before Christmas - often came before 8am, with letter post following about 2-3 hours later.

Salazar · 16/05/2014 14:33

Fewer posties, bigger routes, longer to get round?

RiverRocks · 16/05/2014 14:34

They used to start at 5am, and as soon as they had their letters sorted, they could get out.

Now, the rounds are bigger, they don't start until 7am and are not allowed under any circumstances to leave the sorting office before a certain time even if they are all sorted (possibly 9am, can't remember exactly).

Gone are the days when my dad used to leave at 4am and be back for not long after 11am having literally (in the literal and not figurative sense of the word) run his round.

SunnyRandall · 16/05/2014 14:34

Royal Mail are advertising for postmen/women in my area and the shifts are 10am-3pm to include an hour of sorting before starting deliveries.

RedToothBrush · 16/05/2014 14:42

The Rise of Home Deliveries!

My Postie loves me.

actually I think he is overly flirty but thats another story!

Sizzlesthedog · 16/05/2014 15:15

Usually after lunch here. I remember when you'd get up in the morning to find the milk on the doorstep and the post on the mat.

But I'm really old.

bauhausfan · 16/05/2014 17:18

No doubt it will be cuts in staff to ensure the profitability of the newly privatised Royal Mail.

TheCunnyFunt · 16/05/2014 18:41

Yup, ours doesn't arrive until about 2-3pm now. So the postman has to sort their own post out? Does that apply to every sorting office? We are always getting the wrong post, right street, wrong number. Or more stupidly, right number, completely wrong street, not even right area of town Confused it's really frustrating and I'm paranoid that one day, something important will end up somewhere unknown and the person who receives it won't be honest enough to return it :(

treaclesoda · 16/05/2014 19:06

ours has got earlier recently, they must have rearranged the order that they do the houses in. It arrives around 11am, when it used to be about 4pm.

As a child I think it used to arrive before I left for school.

windchime · 16/05/2014 19:09

I do hope the moneyed shareholders of Royal Mail are pleased with their postal service Confused

voodoochimp · 16/05/2014 19:11

We have 2 lots of post.

One from royal mail.

One from TNT.

Not sure how they decide between them who delivers what mail ???

RoseLavenderBlue · 16/05/2014 19:21

Two years ago I got a job as a postie for the Royal Mail. I only lasted two days.... The job was advertised as 7.30-12.30 five days over six. On the first day I was to learn the round with one of the post women. I asked what time she wold finish (bearing in mind I was expecting to finish at 12.30). She just looked at her colleague as if they couldn't believe my naivety. Whenever you finish the round was the answer. It was about 3pm with no break.

The next day I had to be in by 7 to sort the mail and leave to do the round at about 9.30. The two of us had to return to the office twice to refill our bikes. So that was 6 bike loads of mail for one round which I was expected to do by myself on the 4th day. It was pouring with rain, I fell off the bike, and dropped letters into a puddle, had no lunch or break. The manager came round in his car looking for me at about 3.45 and I told him I would not be coming back the next day. It was really grim.

I know it would have got easier once I had learnt the round, but I was mostly annoyed at having applied for the job based on certain hours but expected to work much way beyond that. Also I emailed the line manager to explain my reasons for leaving and I did not even get a reply. Hats off to all posties, I don't know how you do it.

mumontheroad · 16/05/2014 19:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Woobeedoo · 16/05/2014 20:04

We had a postman who delivered mail at 7pm. Yes, PM. I'm sure they were working full-time elsewhere and doing the post on the side.

We now have a trainee who is incapable of reading door numbers and their sole mission is to get rid of the post through whatever letterboxes they get to first.

Shoopshoop2 · 16/05/2014 20:10

Ours arrives at about 10.30. They deliver to all the businesses first.

grocklebox · 16/05/2014 20:11

YABU.
Is chat closed today or something?