Royal Mail flooded with millions of Christmas packages as customers face delays

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/royal-mail-ch ... 46096.html


Royal Mail sorting office in Bristol (CWU/Twitter)

A picture has been released showing a Royal Mail sorting office flooded with packages after customers were warned their presents could be delayed over Christmas.

The image from a Bristol office revealed a mountain of parcels stacked up on the floor as union chiefs said staff were “facing unprecedented workloads” over the festive period.

Similar images from Essex and Manchester also showed packages stacked up at sorting offices.

It comes after Royal Mail said last week some parcel deliveries were taking longer to arrive because of exceptional demand and coronavirus restrictions.

Many have switched to online purchases this year due to the pandemic and offices have been “flooded” since April, according to Communication Workers Union (CWU) branch secretary for Gloucestershire Ian Trehearne, the Telegraph reported.

CWU, which tweeted the image of the swamped Bristol office, said: “Our members in Royal Mail are facing unprecedented workloads. They are doing absolutely everything they can to keep the country connected.

“Pandemic + Christmas + record traffic. Serving the public is engrained in postal workers. Show them some love.”

CWU’s Terry Pullinger added COVID social distancing rules for staff and rising spread of the virus were making the situation worst.

He told the BBC: ‘We could not possibly have anticipated this level of packets and parcels, it seems to be intensifying every day.’

A Royal Mail spokesperson said 33,000 temporary workers had been brought in to support its 115,000 permanent postmen and women, and they were helping to sort parcels, cards and letters.

In total eight centres to deal with the expected growth in parcels were opened, and a Sunday parcel delivery service will run.

A Royal Mail spokesperson added: “We continue to focus on delivering all Christmas mail as quickly and as reliably as we can.

“We anticipate we will deliver more UK parcels in these three and a half weeks than some of our competitors typically handle in an entire year.

“We are very sorry if any of our customers have experienced an extended delivery time.

“Our amazing postmen and postwomen, who have kept the UK connected throughout the pandemic and two lockdowns, are now doing everything that’s needed to get mail to customers ahead of Christmas.

“We always endeavour to keep our customers as informed as we can of any changes to our services. We have a dedicated section on our website.”

[hans solo]

this is what happens when you look to run down a service
mail centre and delivery offices closures
staff reductions and impossible workloads
the pandemic doesnt help but other factors cause delays
rm were gearing up for xmas on cheap with savings
so when the explosion of packets and recently increase in mail not just xmas cards why had none of rm operational managers forseen this coming
everyone in our delivery office told mgmt this would happen
total mismanagement
letters and cards being put to the side to try and clear parcels which isnt happening anyway
cant wait for monday morning

[deltaforce]

It’s a travesty that it’s come to this with our resources and history. In days past we would be listed From 5am to 5pm for at least two weeks before hand plus Sunday and casual staff. And now they claim they were caught out by the unexpected tidal wave of packets. Says it all about the quality of some of RM planning decisions

[mozilla]

He told the BBC: ‘We could not possibly have anticipated this level of packets and parcels"

Well Terry you could have asked anyone who actually works on the front line ; we all knew this was going to happen as has been stated above.

[rambo1]

He told the BBC: ‘We could not possibly have anticipated this level of packets and parcels"

Well Terry you could have asked anyone who actually works on the front line ; we all knew this was going to happen as has been stated above.

This. Exactly. Maybe his head was buried in choc digestives and tea chinwagging with the RM bosses (who's heads were also buried in tea and biscuits).
It really isn't rocket science. Like you said, anyone at the sharp end of things could see this coming for months. They should have advertised and recruited owner drivers of vans to do the packets, like DPD did. By accepting too much work and not having enough resources they have damaged the one thing going for us, quality of service. We're going to lose tons of work in the new yr. By the time they get the holy grail of parcel sorting machines up and running we may not need them. Linos and doms stood doing nothing in the mornings while we're all working full tilt is beyond a joke. Making Christmas decorations while half the office has failed is even worse. I kid you not. The kindness of most of the residents on my walk this year is the only thing keeping me going ATM.