Are there any posties on the board?
I have sent three letters first class to friends in Burnley two weeks ago, and they still haven't arrived.
I was chatting with a couple of guys after the palace match, and they said there were staffing issues in the Burnley delivery office.
Can anyone shed any light?

My postie friend has suggested posting any Christmas Cards by the middle of this month to have any chance of them arriving in December! He says the organisation has gone to pot (polite version)

Parcels is becoming their main business now

brexit wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:32 am

Are there any posties on the board?
I have sent three letters first class to friends in Burnley two weeks ago, and they still haven't arrived.
I was chatting with a couple of guys after the palace match, and they said there were staffing issues in the Burnley delivery office.
Can anyone shed any light?

Loads of staff have left, and haven't been replaced, parcels are prioritised.

I've stopped sending stuff first class. It's a ripoff.
You don't get anywhere near next day delivery.
The post office is a second class service in every meaning of the words.

mikeS wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 12, 2023 12:18 pm

I've stopped sending stuff first class. It's a ripoff.
You don't get anywhere near next day delivery.
The post office is a second class service in every meaning of the words.

Doesn't matter what class you send it if the delivery office has no staff.

Eloise Laws wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:57 am

My postie friend has suggested posting any Christmas Cards by the middle of this month to have any chance of them arriving in December! He says the organisation has gone to pot (polite version)

Agree with this. I play golf with a lad who works for the Royal Mail. He's told me they've increased their workloads so much that their rounds are totally unachievable, then there are also major staffing level issues to go with that.

In his words the only way they can get their rounds completed is by working several extra hours a day 6 days a week, for not a particularly great salary. This is leading to undelivered letters and parcels etc getting lost back at sorting offices.

He is 100% certain industrial action is around the corner..

I quit my job as a postman on the first day right after they handed me my first letter to deliver.
I looked at it and thought, “This isn’t for me.”

claretandy wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 12, 2023 12:18 pm

Loads of staff have left, and haven't been replaced, parcels are prioritised.

Thanks that would explain it

It was my 70th birthday on 3rd Nov. Not a single card arrived on that day so I thought “That’s what you get for being Billy Nomates” I got back home from work on Wed 8th to find a shed load of cards all with first class stamps, all posted well before 3rd Nov(one from Moonpig). Still it could have been worse, I could have lived in Liverpool where my stepson’s cards were regularly never delivered at all.

No, you were right first time.

Always seems to plenty stood outside the surrounding bars

Fair play to them!

Another triumph of privatisation.

Chobulous wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 12, 2023 1:04 pm

It was my 70th birthday on 3rd Nov. Not a single card arrived on that day so I thought “That’s what you get for being Billy Nomates” I got back home from work on Wed 8th to find a shed load of cards all with first class stamps, all posted well before 3rd Nov(one from Moonpig). Still it could have been worse, I could have lived in Liverpool where my stepson’s cards were regularly never delivered at all.

Maybe went through someone else’s door who were on holiday and they have posted through your box on return? Our long established postie here in Shrewsbury is absolutely hopeless. We live in a block of 9 flats and our mail is regularly going through neighbours letter boxes and vice versa.
Once I was waiting for a new digital tachograph card and he posted it through our Bulgarian neighbours letter box across the landing who happened to be on a three week holiday in Bulgaria.
When I challenged him in a nice way he said he had a lot on his mind. Well it must still be on his mind because he is still hopeless. I even get mail for houses on the adjoining road, and for the main road down into town. If he wasn’t walking around glued to social media on his phone his performance might improve.

I've worked in 4 depots over the last 12 months and have seen first-hand the reality of what goes on.

The letters are organised for every house, every day but not all of them get taken out(due to staff shortages) and the ones that get taken out are often brought back(due to completely unrealistic demands of the managers). If you're in the middle of the run and get your mail around midday then there's a good chance you'll get your mail every day but if you're at the end of the run ie 10 am or 2 pm then it's highly likely you'll only get mail every other day as the posties double up the following day the mail that they don't deliver.

Parcels are the priority above all else(other than Special Delivery), tracked parcels must be attempted(and to be fair are 99% of the time). 1st/2nd class letters are treated as equal at the depot so my advice is don't pay for 1st class as you'll get the same service as 2nd class(most of the time). The bigger depots have special delivery drivers who just deliver the parcels(again tracked is the priority) and the smaller depots do both. Mondays is the quietest day of the week and often the day that they 'catch up', delivering non-tracked/recorded parcels.

The posties do graft to be fair to them, despite getting all the **** none of it is their fault.

Royal Mail fined £5.6m for missing delivery targets https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67401045

I work in the parcel delivery industry for a rival company. During the boom in lockdown money was good and some fantastic people were recruited to drive and sort as Internet shopping really took off.Nowadays the job is pretty much minimum wage and the workload is even heavier.My union is currently in dispute over money and colleagues are now favouring industrial action.Quality of new staff is poor.For the wages we are lucky to find an English speaker.(Please understand this is not a racist slur but it really does make a difference if you are unable to communicate easily. )
Anyway our quality of service is much reduced,as is productivity to the extent that it feels like the company is on the brink,highlighted by further cuts to our budget.
If the industry was valued like it used to be wages and conditions would return to a manageable level.If not,we will all end up back in shops once more.
Apart from the usual greed the biggest cause is undoubtedly like any other unskilled business,the massive labour shortage a this level.
Although I don't work for I RM I totally understand why there are in the mess they are in.

Live in South Manchester and have had 7 Deliveries since 12 June. Complained to their PO complaints dept. and still no joy. Have to go to the sorting office before 10 to collect as they have admitted my house is no longer on a round. I live on a normal street and next door is the end of a round and they get their mail. I have missed hospital appointments among other things. It's a complete shambles. I am about to up my complaint up to the third level.

i had a parcel sat at Burnley DO for nearly 3 weeks, went in a couple of times and didnt even have anyone to go and look for it.

eventually on my 3rd visit they got it.

royal mail are shite, even Evri perform better. for a fraction of the cost

i send approximately 10-15 parcels a week and they are consistent within 72hrs

wont use RM again

I sent an important legal document from work Special Delivery before 1 pm the next day. Cost the business over £8 and it arrived 2 days later. The client was on the phone giving us grief saying it hadn't been sent but luckily I had the receipt & tracking number. Currently awaiting a response to my claim but that's not the point. Shambolic effort.

Zonal posting causing the issue.

We seem to get our post fine, although most of it is junk mail so they may as well not bother.

Postman- was once a decent job I thought. Certainly better than just walking the streets all day.

We live in Hurst near Wokingham and have an excellent rural po and great postman
We regularly send letters to East Lancs and they always get delivered on time.

Things might improve

https://www.independent.co.uk/business/ ... 48285.html

Just today received two first class letters postmarked 7th November. Probably quicker to collect them direct from the Circ.

claret2018 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 13, 2023 1:28 pm

We seem to get our post fine, although most of it is junk mail so they may as well not bother.

It's sensitively not referred to as junk mail by the royal mail, forgot what they call it now

Was a temp postie during COVID when my business wents tats up