9 replies to this topic

[ckn]

I know that Christmas results in slower deliveries but I just got a letter in that was sent on 26th November along with two first class letters sent 6th and 8th December from less than 50 miles away. I also posted my Christmas cards on the 9th of December and only 2 of the 30-odd I sent have arrived according to a quick check I did last night. I'm expecting the ones sent to Scotland to get there around February, depending on the weather.

Have the Royal Mail skimped on sorting office staff for the busy period? Normally around here I see a few adverts looking for casual labour in the sorting office for the Christmas rush but not seen a single one this year.

[Futtocks]

Have the Royal Mail skimped on sorting office staff for the busy period? Normally around here I see a few adverts looking for casual labour in the sorting office for the Christmas rush but not seen a single one this year.

There's a forum member on another site I use who's been doing some casual work at his local sorting office.

[Griff9of13]

I have a friend who works for Royal Mail as an maintenance engineer who tells me that round here sorting is no longer carried out at local offices but in a distribution hub in Warrington and delivered to local offices pre-sorted. That is why the post now gets delivered anywhere between 10am and 4pm, and at the moment if at all.

[weloveyouwakefield2]

It was on the radio that Royal Mail are setting on more staff to do evening deliveries?

[thirteenthman]

I have a friend who works for Royal Mail as an maintenance engineer who tells me that round here sorting is no longer carried out at local offices but in a distribution hub in Warrington and delivered to local offices pre-sorted. That is why the post now gets delivered anywhere between 10am and 4pm, and at the moment if at all.

The mail centres in Liverpool and Crewe were shut and operations and staff were moved to Warrington earlier this year. I have family in Crewe and according to them the postal service there is appalling. They've made the postmen's rounds bigger and as a results several postman have gone off sick, and the postman that are left cannot cope with the workload. Not sure if they're having similar problems in Liverpool.

[Tommy The C5t]

My friend works at Royal Mail and he says that they've been working till 8pm on Sundays to clear the massive backlog of parcels and mail.

He's happy because he's getting double time and earning over £450+ a week.

[Amber Avenger]

They should keep them on for early January, as I know a few people, myself included, sending stuff back unopened to places like Amazon as it just hasn't come in time.

[Griff9of13]

The mail centres in Liverpool and Crewe were shut and operations and staff were moved to Warrington earlier this year. I have family in Crewe and according to them the postal service there is appalling. They've made the postmen's rounds bigger and as a results several postman have gone off sick, and the postman that are left cannot cope with the workload. Not sure if they're having similar problems in Liverpool.

Pretty much. I am told the mail is piled floor to celling in the Warrington depot. And in the mean time local office staff are sat around waiting for their post to arrive.

As I said the guy I know is a maintenance engineer covering the whole of the north west. They have recently introduced a new multi million pound computer system to handle their work to replace the old semi manual way they had of working. He now is allocated calls on first available first serve basis and now will have to drive to somewhere Lancaster to change a fuse, while in the meantime a colleague has to drive in the opposite direction to fix something in Liverpool just because their availability was 10 minutes apart. What they used to do was have a bloke dealing with the calls and then sending the nearest available person not the one who was free but 60 miles away. He says he now spends most of the day travelling from site to site rather than fixing things.

Brave new world.

[High Peak Rhino]

If your posted item ends up at the bottom of the pile at Christmas in the sorting office, it will stay there.

Also 1st and 2nd class posting at Christmas goes out of the window, all treated as one, or at least it used to be a few years ago.

[voteronniegibbs]

I know that Christmas results in slower deliveries but I just got a letter in that was sent on 26th November along with two first class letters sent 6th and 8th December from less than 50 miles away. I also posted my Christmas cards on the 9th of December and only 2 of the 30-odd I sent have arrived according to a quick check I did last night. I'm expecting the ones sent to Scotland to get there around February, depending on the weather.

Have the Royal Mail skimped on sorting office staff for the busy period? Normally around here I see a few adverts looking for casual labour in the sorting office for the Christmas rush but not seen a single one this year.

what do you expect from a company that charges it's customers a fee ( called registered and recorded mail), that is actually an insurance policy against THEM losing or knackering your parcel