Undelivered mail on a mass scale.

[Wiggins79]

OK, not sure how wide spread this is. I work as a day-off relief in 2 different spdo's. In each of them there are severe staff shortages. In one, the holiday relief left for another job and nobody has replaced him and neither has the job been advertised. In the other, 2 people have taken ill-health retirement and another on long-term sick (and I do mean long-term: cancer). In the case of the 2 jobs empty due to retirement, again neither job has been advertised or filled.

The result of this is that due to people taking their legally entitled holidays, more often than not, unless people in the offices agree to work extra on overtime entire rounds are being left undelivered. And this includes, tracked parcels and recorded deliveries, 1st class and 2nd class mail and, shock-horror d2d's. Quite often these rounds can go undelivered for 3-4 days in a row. All this with managers fully aware.

As the day-off relief I often find myself in the position of being faced with 3-4 days worth of mail/ packets, and being expected to somehow get it all into a single HCT. The result being I now regularly cut-off. Then I have to face the wrath of the public who have clearly being waiting for the first person in RM uniform to have a go at. I'm sick to death of explaining to people why it is happening, and urging them to make a complaint. More often than not they can't be bothered and prefer to slag you off instead.

Having spoken to other people in local spdo's this current situation isn't isolated to the 2 offices I know about. This is happening all over. Continuous wilful delay of mail, by management consent.

The one person who did make a complaint was told that there was categorically no way mail and parcels were being left undelivered on a regular basis. When he told them it was, they basically accused him of lying and making it up in an attempt to cause trouble.

In both offices we regularly take photo's of the undelivered rounds build up of mail etc. partly to cover our own backs and also to keep the evidence should we need it of what is happening.

All the rounds in both offices have no time to do lapsing on the empty rounds due to a flawed revision where we lost the use of bikes and changed to shared van or HCT. Everybody has been putting overtime in just to complete their own rounds since February, and even during the supposed summer quiet period there has been no room for manoeuvre.

My question is who can I report this to? Obviously, line managers are fully aware of the situation and happily covering it up so that's no good. And the scale of the situation suggests they can't be hiding it from at least their immediate superiors, so must be doing it with their tacit agreement. Just think how much money they are saving! Is it worth trying to find someone further up the chain to report this to? How far up does it go? The cynical part of me suspects very high up.
What about the regulator? If the scale of delayed mail was factored into the quality of service figures then they'd be dropping well below the level ofcomm require before the proverbial hits the fan.

Any advice on this issue would be appreciated as we are all at the end of our tether with the situation, and sick of management getting away with it.

[GT85]

Email Moya....

Launched in October 2010 by Moya Greene, Just Say it gives Royal Mail employees the ability to get in touch with her about any subject that is on their mind.

[Wiggins79]

Email Moya....

Launched in October 2010 by Moya Greene, Just Say it gives Royal Mail employees the ability to get in touch with her about any subject that is on their mind.

I did consider that, but then I started to wonder if actually they were fully aware of this kind of thing and it's all just preparation for when they ditch the USO and go 5 days a week etc. Or am I just being paranoid?

What is the email address now, just in case?

[clashcityrocker]

Unless you actually know that the failed mail isn't being properly reported (do you have access to the DODR on a daily basis) then I would mind my own business.
It would be foolhardy in the extreme to start accusing managers of something they haven't done.

[Wiggins79]

Unless you actually know that the failed mail isn't being properly reported (do you have access to the DODR on a daily basis) then I would mind my own business.
It would be foolhardy in the extreme to start accusing managers of something they haven't done.

That was everybody's feeling for the last few months, until the one person to actually complain about it was told he was making it up.
And no, we have no computers at the spdo's so whatever DODR is, then we don't have access to it.

[fishtank]

I would imagine it would be almost impossible to hide the fact that tracked items were sitting in an SPDO and not being delivered on a regular basis.

[clashcityrocker]

It isn't an offence for the mail to be delayed.
It happens regularly when there is inclement weather.
A high level of sickness is another case.
The DOM has to do his best to get the work covered, and if he can't he has to report the failure.
Wrongly reporting the failure is a sackable offence.

Unless you know what is being reported I would leave well alone, difficult though that might be.
And I don't think you would be the first one on RMC to put his job on the line by making false accusations on here.

[LukeyBoy]

This sounds exactly like where I work but we are yet to see a revision so it can't be the same office.
They are not offering any type of service it doesn't help that any type of overtime is now "Banned" from our office,even if you thought you might go 20 mins over the would rather you left it then pay the 20 mins.
Like you I have thought about reporting it higher-the local rep knows what's going on but has just said that if you are leaving stuff and your manager has told you,you're ass is covered.
The thing that if find stupid is your are told to leave stacks of trays/packets on your own round as long as the absorbed rounds are taken out.
I mean at the end of the day it's crap yes and you do wonder how they get away with it.But I just think it's simple I still start and finish at the same time it's as easy as that.

[deltaforce]

In the present climate, I would be suprised if any sector manager would let this go on if they were aware of it. Tracked items would show up as failed on the system. Around my sector, managers are required to deliver any walks and mails that are brought back or not covered or face the consequences.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Email Moya....

Launched in October 2010 by Moya Greene, Just Say it gives Royal Mail employees the ability to get in touch with her about any subject that is on their mind.

I did consider that, but then I started to wonder if actually they were fully aware of this kind of thing and it's all just preparation for when they ditch the USO and go 5 days a week etc. Or am I just being paranoid?

What is the email address now, just in case?

defo email moya, it will stop the situation usually pretty quickly too, email address is justsayit@royalmail.com

[Wiggins79]

Cheers for all the advice guys. Interesting what you said about tracked items. We always used to scan them in in the morning when they arrived as ready for delivery, then a few weeks ago we were told to stop doing this....

Ultimately, what this comes down to as far as I can tell is rounds/ jobs being left empty and not advertised. Surely this is policy from on high, i.e no more hiring of staff no matter what effect it has on service.

Either way, thanks for the email for Moya. I'll try that, but not actually accuse anyone of purposefully trying to cover the situation up. Just voice my concerns about the service people are getting on the delivery end of the service.

[Lounge Lizard]

OK, not sure how wide spread this is. I work as a day-off relief in 2 different spdo's. In each of them there are severe staff shortages. In one, the holiday relief left for another job and nobody has replaced him and neither has the job been advertised. In the other, 2 people have taken ill-health retirement and another on long-term sick (and I do mean long-term: cancer). In the case of the 2 jobs empty due to retirement, again neither job has been advertised or filled.

The result of this is that due to people taking their legally entitled holidays, more often than not, unless people in the offices agree to work extra on overtime entire rounds are being left undelivered. And this includes, tracked parcels and recorded deliveries, 1st class and 2nd class mail and, shock-horror d2d's. Quite often these rounds can go undelivered for 3-4 days in a row. All this with managers fully aware.

As the day-off relief I often find myself in the position of being faced with 3-4 days worth of mail/ packets, and being expected to somehow get it all into a single HCT. The result being I now regularly cut-off. Then I have to face the wrath of the public who have clearly being waiting for the first person in RM uniform to have a go at. I'm sick to death of explaining to people why it is happening, and urging them to make a complaint. More often than not they can't be bothered and prefer to slag you off instead.

Having spoken to other people in local spdo's this current situation isn't isolated to the 2 offices I know about. This is happening all over. Continuous wilful delay of mail, by management consent.

The one person who did make a complaint was told that there was categorically no way mail and parcels were being left undelivered on a regular basis. When he told them it was, they basically accused him of lying and making it up in an attempt to cause trouble.

In both offices we regularly take photo's of the undelivered rounds build up of mail etc. partly to cover our own backs and also to keep the evidence should we need it of what is happening.

All the rounds in both offices have no time to do lapsing on the empty rounds due to a flawed revision where we lost the use of bikes and changed to shared van or HCT. Everybody has been putting overtime in just to complete their own rounds since February, and even during the supposed summer quiet period there has been no room for manoeuvre.

My question is who can I report this to? Obviously, line managers are fully aware of the situation and happily covering it up so that's no good. And the scale of the situation suggests they can't be hiding it from at least their immediate superiors, so must be doing it with their tacit agreement. Just think how much money they are saving! Is it worth trying to find someone further up the chain to report this to? How far up does it go? The cynical part of me suspects very high up.
What about the regulator? If the scale of delayed mail was factored into the quality of service figures then they'd be dropping well below the level ofcomm require before the proverbial hits the fan.

Any advice on this issue would be appreciated as we are all at the end of our tether with the situation, and sick of management getting away with it.

"All this with managers fully aware". Yes managers might be aware of the backlogs but it's often a case of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind as far as SPDOs are concerned.
And many RM employees would be envious of not seeing a DOM from one month till the next. When the cat's away ......

[ganda]

It does need addressing, If it is not being reported, it needs bringing to the attention of a higher authority. If it is being reported and nothing is being done to rectify the situation, then questions need to be asked. Just remember if you put your head above the parapet, you will become a target of revenge.

[Darren Bent]

You need to report it, but do it anonymous which means Royal Mail won't know who report it. So if the Dom or manager find out they can't identify who the person report it.

[Lounge Lizard]

You need to report it, but do it anonymous which means Royal Mail won't know who report it. So if the Dom or manager find out they can't identify who the person report it.

But if there's only two or three working at an SPDO it won't be difficult for them to work out who grassed them up.