Second class post, I need answers!

[GinWithLime]

I know I am being unreasonable by demanding an answer. I saw a post on Facebook and now I need answers.

What happens to second class post? Why does it take longer? Do they just file it at the back and send it off a few days later?

My DB is a postie, he says there is no difference between 1st and 2nd class nowadays (there used to be, when we had 2 deliveries a day). He never buys 1st class stamps. So there's that.

What a damn good question!

Stamps have different raised lines on them, I think first class has one and second class has three (might be wrong on exact numbers but you get the idea!). A scanner reads the lines and separates the post by first and second.

First will get packed as a priority onto fast moving transport that evening to get to their destination the next day.

Second class will be held back until the following day where it will be sorted and put on transport to go to that location’s sorting offices a day or so afterwards.

I've had second class items arrive at their destination less than 24 hours after they were posted. I don't see how 1st class could be any faster unless they have a time machine!

I've always assumed (with no actual knowledge) that it just depends how much post there is?

If they can fit all the post on the lorries they have, great, if not first will be prioritised? Then repeat at the next sorting place til it gets to its final destination. So you might get into the first lorry at the district sorting office but then at the central one your letter might be delayed if there was a lot of post?

My postie and another family friend who is a postie says there is no difference and to not bother buying 1st class stamps - so I don't!

At xmas our small local village post office had so much post they couldn't get all of in the collect van.

So the postmistress said they ended up having to prioritise the 1st class parcels over the second (I guess they were easier to sort than small letter and took more space.

Second class went the next day instead.

I used to work at a Mail sorting office and there was definitely a difference between 1st and 2nd.

All Mail had to be processed by 9pm...1st had to be sorted ready for next destination, 2nd was sorted after 9 pm and didn’t leave mail centre that night.

Local 2nd class mail would be sorted through the night and may or may not be out for post the following day.

It is a while since I worked there though!

@nothingcomestonothing

My DB is a postie, he says there is no difference between 1st and 2nd class nowadays (there used to be, when we had 2 deliveries a day). He never buys 1st class stamps. So there's that.

Thank you so much for this. I've suspected it for a while but it's so nice to have someone else support me.

The last thing I posted 2nd class (birthday card posted in plenty of time) arrived the next day.

Ooh, I feel outraged and ripped off for all those years of first-class stamp-buying...

That Facebook post has now been added to OP - with the answer from a Royal Mail person

I just bought a pack of first class stamps and I feel robbed. I shall only purchase second class from now on

Easy to do a test. Post 2 letters to yourself (or to someone in another part of the country) in the the same post box at the same time, 1 with a 1st class stamp on it and the other with a 2nd and see when they arrive.
Of course a fully scientific test would need a lot of letters so you can work out the average/mean/mod etc.

Maybe it does make a difference at busy periods, but not most of the time?

After all, if they know they can deal with everything they have, it makes no sense to sort out the to bother sorting first and second class.

But if at Christmas, or if they have a problem like a machine breakdown, and they have more than they can send out from the sorting facility by the cut off time, it then makes sense to sort and prioritise the first class mail.

I don;t think it makes a lot of difference, and have thought that for many years.
I do live close to a central London sorting office though, so things are going from A to B in most cases. Maybe if something's journey has more legs to it it makes a difference?