To ask is anyone here a postie?

[Indulgingmum]

We used to have a great post man. Came same time everyday. Perfect.

I think he has left. We no longer get post everyday. And sometimes we have a poor postman coming at 6pm at night.

We have a couple of house guests who we think have opened mail so the two weeks we have them here we have put a "keep safe" in place. So we only get our mail after they leave.

I'm worried now that could be even longer if we don't have a postman.

I'm throwing no shade on postal workers here BTW. I'm just hoping to get insight into what happens when your regular postman leaves or is off or is moved?
Thank you.

Who are these houseguests that are stealing your list?

Why haven't you searched their rooms for evidence and thrown them out?

We have a regular postman who comes at the same time. No post on a Monday anymore though.

He's excellent and when he's off on holiday we always have someone useless who doesn't read the sign about where our post goes.

It's my mum with dementia. She opens any letters she sees. It's not her fault.

But it really just made me more aware of post. I work from home too so lots of my work comes via mail.

I'm a postie, what happens when a round is uncovered really depends on local resources, you might get newbies doing it, other posties doing it on overtime or the round may have been split off and each postie given a slice of it, each area does different things depending on what staff /time is available

@GreenLadybug Thank you so much for your reply! I feel like I've got the jackpot here! Could I ask you What happens on your sorting office end when a house has the "Keepsafe" in place? Thank you I appreciate your time and reply.

We used to have a great postman too, he lives across the road. He is still out working every day but cutbacks mean he isn't doing the same round and when he isn't doing it nobody is. We rarely get mail these days and when we do it tends to be a bit of a pile up - last time w got a delivery was a week past Sunday (yep I had no idea they do Sundays) and we got about 7/8 letters

I’m a postie and agree with GreenLady. In my office not every street has a regular postie. If a duty looses it’s regular postie that becomes an easy ‘win’ for the boss for savings. Several days’ first & second class items accumulate until they are delivered whereas someone will be delivering tracked and special items daily (so performance is unaffected which impacts boss’ bonus).

In such a situation it’s common for Keepsafes and Redirections to be overlooked as responsiblity for that task falls between cracks. If you find this happens to you please complain repeatedly. It might not solve the problem but if you do it enough you might get the cost reimbursed.

You might find in a few weeks you get a new regular. If your house is on a desirable duty the posties will agitate for it to be allocated.

@IzzyGee thank you very much! I'm fascinated by the working on the inside of our post as it is so random somethimes.
Like you say the tracked and small parcels are still delivered but it can be at 5-6 at night.

Very interesting. Thank you

Could I ask you guys, if I rang the sorting office would they tell me what's happening?

We've noticed some letterboxes are not being emptied everyday and some for weeks on end . Someone had to phone the post office to ask them to empty a post box as it was so full .

@Indulgingmum when you set up your keepsake you will have chosen a date from and took , I'd wait a couple days past that date then maybe give the local sorting office a call. No idea if you'd get an answer mind you

I wouldn’t consider deliveries at 5-6pm remarkable. When I started 25 years ago I worked 6 days a week 5-10am. Now I work 5 days a week 8.30-4.30. If you add an hour or two’s overtime that easily takes you into early evening. You might be surprised to hear our work is designed to accommodate the quietest time of year (July & August) and not the busiest (now).

From what Fizzy says……it sounds as though my office is not the worst shambles. Pillar boxes are emptied 6 days a week in my office. It is possible the pillar boxes are full to the brim with something else eg a courier dumping small parcels in it, or a member of the public dumping loads of post they have collected eg from a deceased relatives house, or even an overwhelmed new start dumping post.

Update!

I spoke to the guy delivering our post today. Seems he is our new postman. He doesn't start work until 9am. We are first cul de sac on his round so he gets to us at about 11:30. He said quite often there is nothing for most of the houses in our cul de sac so it's left until the next day.

Seems parcels are delivered by a different postman from now until Xmas.

So interesting. I genuinely thought posties had to start at 5am.

What an education I've got today. Genuine thanks to all the post people to reply. Thank you.

Can you get a lockable box into which your post is delivered, to circumvent any opening of the post? My friend has one at the end of his drive, so the postman only has to drop the post in there and then friend goes down once a day or so with the key and collects the post from that.

In his case it's because the dog will destroy anything that comes through the front door and often take a pop at the postman too.