Royal Mail

Le 31/08/2024 à 10:46, Andy Burns a écrit :

Standard delivery?

No. It's a freak. The next time you get any post will be Thursday or Friday, when they catch up on what should have been delivered since Monday. Actually, they concentrate on meeting targets for delivering premium post. Apparently, paying the penalties on failing to meet the targets for the rest is cheaper than employing the staff required to do the job properly.

"free" 24h tracked.

No. I once did a construction job at an International Harvester (Navistar) truck factory in Canada, we reckoned we dragged it kicking and screaming into the 19th century. The 20th century was going to take a little longer.....

Round here in the rural sticks, Royal Mail are the most reliable courier.

Complete opposite experience with RM here. Ordered something on-line on Thursday evening, RM 24 tracked. RM tracking says that they received the package early Friday evening. Tracking indicates nothing moved Sat/Sun and bank holiday Monday. Tuesday tracking indicates received at the regional hub (30 miles away). Wednesday morning I get an email saying the package will be delivered between 11:30am and 3:30pm - nothing arrives. On checking the tracking it indicates it's still at the regional hub. Checking Thursday morning says the package has travelled overnight from the hub to the local delivery office and a bit later I get a second email about the delivery time. This time the package was delivered.

I thought the local service was improving earlier in the year but the past few months it's back to the same delays. RM is the worst delivery service in my area.

I was visiting friends recentlys in a rural location and a discussion with one of the local postman revealed that they are short of staff by

True up here, too, in the back of beyond.

Our main sorting office is 40 miles away in Swindon now. So even sending to someone within our own road, the letter does an 80 mile round trip.

I've found no correlation at all between distance and first or second class. I've had second class stuff posted at 4pm here, arrive next morning at 9am, and first class stuff that's taken a week. I don't send anything First Class now.

Some days, they don't bother to serve our road with deliveries. Postie always parks his van in a spot opposite when he does our road and the surrounding closes. It's parked there for about 20-30 mins. On days we have no mail, there's no sign of the van. (Obviously there are still days we don't get mail, but the van is there !)

I declined the option to pay £1.99 extra for pre 13:00 delivery.

Tracked parcels are getting priority treatment ...

That's always been the way of it. Addresses with just second class or circular type mail simply may not get served for a day. The postie saves it all up for a day when there is a lot or there are important letters to deliver as well.

That was the result caused by bolshie unions at Oxford. Management had enough & moved all the sorting to Swindon & have presumably sold off the Oxford premises.

Yes, although I live no where near Oxford. I think Swindon now has a massive catchment area.

Their automated sorting systems can handle many times the number of letters now being sent, so I expect further rationalisation at the expense of long round trips for many letters.

The same in Essex. Sorting was transferred from Southend-on-sea to Chelmsford although the large purpose built distribution building is still used by RM. The distribution centre had direct access to one of the platforms at the main line railway station/terminus.

Around 30 years ago I used to drink in the same pub as some of the bolshie unionised postal workers and they took great delight in telling stories of how they tried to sabotage the new sorting routine by constantly sending sacks of mail from Chemlsford back there to be re-sorted.

In this part of the sticks we regularly have bank statements and other such dateable mail take 10 days. Which is a bit annoying when it's a bill that we have a week to pay...

IIRC you too are in Cambs.

Andy

Suffolk. Still have a CB postcode.

Who uses paper bank statements?

The only critically delayed letter I got was from addenbrookes, cancelling an appointment I had turned up for the day before...

Businesses. Who is going to rely on their banks being able to produce statements from six years ago when HMRC comes calling? Paper and ink may not last forever, but barring fire, flood etc. they will outlast the requirements of HMRC.

A few months ago I received a hospital appointment by post about two hours after the appointment. Fortunately I was able to reach the appropriate department by phone and have 'didn't turn up' adjusted to 'didn't receive letter'. The NHS takes a dim view of missed appointments.

I insist on a paper copy to tell me about a new appointment, but "DrDoctor", whoever he is, also sends me a text. When this is delivered is as variable as the printed copy. As are the times when I actually turn my mobile on, it is for my use when I need it, it is not On all the time.