What's The Hardest Type of Delivery?

[Justanotherstar]

No-ones laughing at you - They are probably thinking 'poor bugger' pushing that around.

you do feel a bit of a twat like, and then there's the schoolkids asking you for a 99 with a flake and monkeys blood.

You soon get over feeling a twat, but yes there are plenty of comments.... same ones over and over and you have to chuckle like you never heard it before.....people asking 'can I hop on and have a lift?' 'how many babies have you got in there then ?' 'you need a motor on that'. worst of all there's the narrow bit of pavement and two people side by side coming towards you who have clearly looked at you approaching but leave it till the last minute for one of them to step behind to make way, worse still, don't make way and you end up half off the pavement to make way for them.

I always speed up when people don't look like they're gonna move

HCT are the worst, it's not so bad when you can loop with a bag but a lot of times you have to take the trolly, The HCT1's are not fit for purpose imo and shouldn't be used, I had 1 week using one and my knee problems came back with a vengeance.

[Barbel]

I'd say HCT delivery was the hardest especially when it was a heavy day and you had to push the damn thing up and down kerbs for over a mile before you delivered your first letter. I'm doing a rural at the moment in a lovely Cotswold village on my own and it's been the best round I've had so far. Everyone is really friendly and I see more wildlife than I do humans. Might not be so good if we have a bad winter though.

[plymouth3]

Blocks of flats with 30+ floors when the lift is knackered or an HCT on a hill with a 30% incline in icy conditions.

[glass joe]

Probably a partner delivery where one of you comes in early one starts on time, one is fast other is slow. one takes his break you get what im on about. then the award silence in the van.
I hate rough easte delivers, not the people but they often have dogs where the owners cant control them.

[wacko74]

The hardest part about the rurals in our D.O. is finding something to do in the 1-2 hours between finishing the delivery and going back to the office for your finish time.

Whenever I'm covering a rural it costs me a fortune in newspapers, magazines and snacks.

[Newbie001]

Was asked to cover a HCT duty the other week. Because there was so many packets was told to use the van. Soon found out that the reason a HCT was used was because of parking. And of course the loops make no sense if you're in a van. Must have dead-walked miles. Lesson learnt.

[postslippete]

Van share on a busy round with a very slow and unwilling partner!


Vans are packed to the rafters with bags and packets, always a pain getting the light trolleys out, and then having to wait until your partner finishes. Getting back to the depot last but at least you can claim the excess.

Rural duties in our office appear quite tough because they seem to have extraordinary long drives, but alas, not so many calls as an urban delivery!!

The easiest by far is using the HCT and of course knowing how to use it. A few posties push the HCT to their delivery walk, and then break it down by carrying a bag on their back. It gets through them through the work super fast and understandably they all finish well before their time. Ironically, the ones who push a HCT in our trolley never seem to do any collapsing either! Happy Days!!

[dave72]

I'm rural (15 years) and in my opinion rural used to be the hardest, not the deliveries but what we had to put up with like old style pigeon slot fittings, 2nd deliveries to out slung farms on a rickety pushbike, no drivers to do parcels, no walk sorted bundles, working in what was a stock room at the back of the post office and so on but over the last few years we have had a purpose built office (for 4 of us), RM2000 fittings, sequenced mail and we even had a driver to do just the parcels for a few years (before p&l came in this year)

Now we have the perks, no lapsing to cover and we can't do anything else once we have done our rounds so we are then done

Years ago nobody wanted the rural jobs but now it has come full circle and everyone wants them