Getting letters delivered by Royal Mail seems to be nearly impossible for my constituents judging by the message they are sending me, so I should hardly be surprised that the company has not yet replied to the email I sent them on Friday 2 June about their service standards.
To compound things even more, a large part of my message to Royal Mail (to read it, click here) re-asked questions about staffing, capacity and pressures the company face, which they failed to address in a reply to a message I sent them back in March.
A pattern of non-answers and inaccuracies from Royal Mail is quite clear to see.
Yet my constituents are experiencing very real problems with post deliveries, causing them to miss hospital appointments because letters do not turn up in time, as well as the delays compounding grief and heartache.
This was the case for the mother who received beautiful letters meant for her adult son. He never got to see them because they arrived after he had died.
A bundle of post my constituent received after her son’s death also contained the order of service for the funeral which had taken place weeks before.
Furthermore, with reports about a significant increase in postal votes being delivered late in the recent local council elections in May, and therefore not being counted, post delays have the potential to impact on our democratic processes.
The lack of courtesy shown by Royal Mail by their non-response and silence on this serious issue speaks volumes.
Yet alarmingly, this attitude appears to be something that runs deep at Royal Mail, with the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee calling Royal Mail’s chief executive, Simon Thompson, back to a parliamentary meeting because of concerns raised about inaccuracies in his earlier testimony.
Some of the evidence discussed at the recent select committee meeting included examples of bar charts being displayed in delivery offices to compare the “stand still” time gathered via the tracking devices (postal delivery assistants PDAs) used.
While the use of tracking devices is something discussed with CWU (Communication Workers Union), using data in this way breaches any agreement in place over the use of tracking technology.
Furthermore, there have been multiple posters displayed in some delivery offices stating that it’s ok to deliver letters the next day and that postal workers need to “focus on tracked and special delivery items”.
And it’s at senior management level where the problems appear to lie, with reports of postal workers under pressure to prioritise parcels over letters and with questions being raised about the “toxic” working environment.
With Ofcom currently investigating Royal Mail’s failure to meet its delivery targets in 2022-23, it’s vital that regulators take action.
In Brighton, Royal Mail was way off its delivery targets, which will come as no surprise to many of my constituents. In quarter three last year, first class stamped deliveries fell to just 44.1 per cent of its 93 per cent target.
I opposed the privatisation of Royal Mail, a proposal mooted around by Gordon Brown in the dying days of the previous Labour government, which was pursued and voted through by the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition that followed.
They are failing the whole country. The issue is what can we do about it to improve it. The answer to that is nothing. We can all boycott sending letters and use email but that would worsen the situation and Royal Mail would be absolutely delighted to lose the costly burden of letter delivery. Royal Mail should be adhering to a Universal service Obligation meaning a one price goes anywhere in the country. This was a condition of its sale . Please don’t be thinking that Amazon or suchlike will be taking on letter delivery because that will never happen. It’s a free market and no one has come forward yet. The outgoing CEO in his comments makes it clear in his comments that parcel delivery is the future and had already made approaches to the government to reduce its letter obligation. For five hundred years Royal Mail survived without the need for private investment. I appreciate it had its share of problems mainly due to the government of the day either redirecting its profits or plundering its pension surplus. But I’m sure those individuals buying shares in it at the initial offering weren’t doing it because they wanted to invest in a great British company. Look to Thames Water still paying dividends to shareholders whilst their network is crumbling and dumping raw sewage into rivers.
Our lovely postie ( who always has gone that extra mile, without getting a mega-bonus!) says that he has never seen morale so low & the service such a mess. He & his colleagues are very upset about the situation as they are simply unable to provide the level of service they aspire to.
I watched the Commons select committee CL referred to. I’ld encourage everyone to take a look, it’s still available… also do watch the same committee drilling down on the ghastly Post Office sub postmasters ‘Horizon software scandal, putting the Post Office ‘Fat Cats’ on the spot! This is also on the Parliament tv channel.
This is where the real work is done; forget the performative idiocy of PM’s Questions & the like!
Exactly as it is.
Important letters dated 23rd of May arrived 3 weeks later. Letters only delivered one day a week. Usually Friday or Saturday.
I was claiming on average 3 parcels a week that were lost. In return I was given 8 first class stamps. There goes the profit. Over the last year I must have had over 70 refunds.Didn’t do my eBay shop any good. I lost revenue because of it. Customers never came back.
I was told by the postman that the area the postmen and women had increased so much that they had to have a van in order to deliver.
Royal Mail had employed agency workers who worked 0900 to 1400. They had to be back at the depot by 1400. Probably true….
The posties have to concentrate on tracked on parcels ie post a birthday card with a stamp post a birthday card tracked The tracked one will get there first
Why all the complaints n moan when we know privatisation mean degradation of service n employees it’s shite an will get worse but u guarantee the dividend will be delivered 1st class the whole world is a stage .
Privatisation has been a complete disaster in every case, as has the corporation status of FE Colleges. The ConLab party’s policy always leads to the grubby lining their pockets at the expense of the public, and the employees.