Delivery To Neighbour

[S6 Stroller]

Forgive me if this has been brought up elsewhere but I couldn't find it.

Just a quick question. How has this been given the go ahead by Ofcom? Surely the party sending the item says where it gets delivered? I know if I send a parcel I want it delivered to the address I've put on the bloody thing or collected from RM. I don't give a rat's arse if the person it's being sent to says it's okay to deliver it to whoever my opposite number sees fit. This is going to be a complete 'O/T and complaints generator'.

RM seems to waver between who 'their' customers are as and when they choose, dependent on what they're trying to achieve. In this case the person receiving the item is being perceived as the valued customer because it suits but generally they see 'their' customer as the person sending the item. We all know this is being brought in to cut down on the queues of people collecting packets and not for the convenience of 'our' customers. I note it's down to our discretion whether we leave a parcel with a neighbour or not. I suspect reserves will be, quite rightly, not chancing it as they have nothing to base an informed decision on. I'm sure that will be fine and nobody will get bollocked for it. Yeah right.

[Richard007]

I will carry on as before I've no time on my delivery to toss around knocking on loads of doors and then having to go back to original address to put a card through to tell them where the parcel is , if customer is not in they get a card simples

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Surely the party sending the item says where it gets delivered? I know if I send a parcel I want it delivered to the address I've put on the bloody thing or collected from RM. I don't give a rat's arse if the person it's being sent to says it's okay to deliver it to whoever my opposite number sees fit.

Whilst not in full support of this scheme, nor pleased at how the CWU have handled it I think the answer to this is if you as a sender select Royal Mail to deliver your item, then you are accepting in principle all their terms and conditions. Delivery to a neighbour will from implementation now be part of the T&Cs so in a contractual sense (by accepting their T&Cs) you have given them permission to do so.

I suppose, a way round this would be to put an instruction on the actual parcel to the effect that it shouldn't be left with a neighbour. But I don't how that would be handled, except badly, if a postie ignored the instruction and left it with a neighbour.

[gazzariah]

As i sit over this forum the plain thinking is this HOW MUCH MORE ARE WE EXPECTED TO DO ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS BEFORE THE SHIP SINKS? Our customers are allready
becoming acidic where have you been postie, in the old days we had our delivery before ,8AM oclock i am going complain to royal mail . THIS IS A RM NEVER NEVER LAND CONCEPT ,SCREW THE CUSTOMER. SCREW THE WORK FORCE, CHEAPEN THE SERVICE AND ABOVE ALL ELSE TAKE AWAY THE HEARTS AND MINDS ,OF THE MANY WHO HAVE
FELT THAT THEY ARE IMPORTANT TO THE COMPANY not any more.

[worktotime]

no chance of me running backwards and forwards to deliver parcels to every tom,dick,and harry, weve been told every week in wtl not to leave pkts and parcels with a neighbour so how can a firm do such a u turn and there is no extra time added on to your delivery on this p&l way of working , so its a card as usual , unless a neighbour comes out and says ill take it in for them .

[DirtyHarry]

I will carry on as before I've no time on my delivery to toss around knocking on loads of doors and then having to go back to original address to put a card through to tell them where the parcel is , if customer is not in they get a card simples

Same here.

[DB1100]

I will carry on as before I've no time on my delivery to toss around knocking on loads of doors and then having to go back to original address to put a card through to tell them where the parcel is , if customer is not in they get a card simples

Same here.

Yep,me as well

[DiamondSmiles]

See the News section for Bob Gibson's letter on this subject.

One quote is interesting.....

'Also it is the OPG's sole decision whether to deliver to an alternative address or not'

So carry on as usual folks!

[Flashman_]

Also as its at the OPG`s discretion that means they have passed on the responsibility to to us. They will therefore have no defense if something goes missing.

[Lounge Lizard]

It was wrong of the CWU on our behalf to accept this lowering of Royal Mail's standards to those of our competitors but that's history now.
However we are clearly told that "Delivery OPGs will have the flexibility to make a judgment whether it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour .... it is the OPG’s sole decision whether to deliver to an alternative address or not" and it looks as if nearly all on here, and many others too, will be deciding that it's NOT "appropriate to deliver to a neighbour". How then will Royal Mail deal with this new scheme effectively being ignored and might we expect DOMs to be asking us why we made a judgment that it was not appropriate to deliver to a neighbour, and will a routine "he might be working nights and wouldn't want to be woken up" reason be acceptable ? Interesting times.

[supersamuk]

It is upto the delivery person to decide whether to leave with a neighbour. So in effect if you do this and the neighbour denies receiving the item (Definitley possible in the area i deliver in), then the blame falls squarley on you and not RM. By leaving with a neighbour you open yourself upto all kinds of scams with no defence from RM it would seem.

[S6 Stroller]

Surely the party sending the item says where it gets delivered? I know if I send a parcel I want it delivered to the address I've put on the bloody thing or collected from RM. I don't give a rat's arse if the person it's being sent to says it's okay to deliver it to whoever my opposite number sees fit.

Whilst not in full support of this scheme, nor pleased at how the CWU have handled it I think the answer to this is if you as a sender select Royal Mail to deliver your item, then you are accepting in principle all their terms and conditions. Delivery to a neighbour will from implementation now be part of the T&Cs so in a contractual sense (by accepting their T&Cs) you have given them permission to do so.

I suppose, a way round this would be to put an instruction on the actual parcel to the effect that it shouldn't be left with a neighbour. But I don't how that would be handled, except badly, if a postie ignored the instruction and left it with a neighbour.

That's the only way I could think of that RM could sneak this in and, if that is how it's been done, it's despicable. You can't make such a massive change to such a key area of RM practice and hide it in T&Cs. It's not an online purchase where you are prompted to read them. This is downright devious, that's why I can't believe Ofcom signed it off...or CWU agreed with it.

[Danelectro]

I have and many other posties had been delivering to neighbours unofficially for years and also did various other favours like changing a frail pensioners light bulb or fixing a window they couldnt open etc etc although this was when you could build up trust with residents, so you knew everyone on your delivery and knew who they wanted to take a packet in for them.Also the workloads were more manageable and far less attendance calls so there was at least some time for human contact...

But this is BT2010,this is park and loop, this is efficiency,this is rocket up yer arse time - so until they update the Geo route software to take account/acknowledge the extra time needed delivering to neighbours then they can only either expect more parcels and packets to be delivered to neighbours or more cut offs which will result in a large amount of residents not even receiving an attempted delivery, nevermind to their neighbour.....oh Mr Gibson I do believe you are on a 35 hour week and are doing all you can for us to have the same privilege but im not sure most people thought that meant increasing the workload and giving less time to complete it in.

[mdm]

By and large I've always returned packets to the D.O. Now it's official policy to attempt it now when we are on Park and Crap and there is no time to do it in, is sheer bloody lunacy. Needles to say i won't be going to any neighbour unless said neighbour comes out and says they will take it. This company and the CWU are run by complete morons.

[S6 Stroller]

By and large I've always returned packets to the D.O. Now it's official policy to attempt it now when we are on Park and Crap and there is no time to do it in, is sheer bloody lunacy. Needles to say i won't be going to any neighbour unless said neighbour comes out and says they will take it. This company and the CWU are run by complete morons.

Apart from CWU reps, I've yet to meet a postie who has an opposing view to this. When you boil it down, it is as simple as that. Their consistent attention to, and promotion of, matters that make the job harder is, in a perverse kind of way, a thing to be admired. That kind of dogged determination in the face of logic, common sense and irrefutable evidence, is the kind of approach that gave rise to the popularity of the floor level letterbox