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Does end of Covid restrictions end Royal Mail excuses?

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TrueBlueTerrier
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Does end of Covid restrictions end Royal Mail excuses?

Post by TrueBlueTerrier »

https://tamebay.com/2022/02/does-end-of ... il-excuses

Royal Mail have missed their third Quater 1st Class delivery target of 93% of mail being delivered by next day by over 16%, worse than the 10% under-performance in their second quarter. In the third quarter of their financial year they only achieved 76.8% of 1st Class mail being delivered on time. Royal Mail excuses include Covid absences.

During the last quarter, the ongoing impact of the pandemic and COVID related self-isolation and absence impacted service levels. Our focus is to restore our service to the high standards our customers would normally receive. – Royal Mail

Their latest Quality of Service report for the third quarter up to also reveals that Royal Mail also missed their 2nd Class delivery target of 98.5% by almost 5%, delivering only 93.8% of mail on time.

Ofcom recognised significant pressures on Royal Mail during the pandemic and waived the obligations to delivery the post on time but since then Royal Mail excuses have remained the same, pointing out that up to 15,000 employees at a time were off sick or self isolating.

Ofcom has recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic qualified as a ‘regulatory emergency period’. The regulatory emergency period commenced in March 2020 and ended on 31 August 2021. This meant that during this period Royal Mail was not required to sustain the Universal Service without interruptions, suspension or restriction, according to the regulator. Ofcom acknowledged that due to factors outside our control it would not always be possible for us to meet our regulatory obligations, which included our Quality of Service targets. – Royal Mail


How long can Royal Mail excuses be based on Covid?
The question that has to be asked, however, is how long Royal Mail excuses can be based on Covid? Today, all legal restrictions in England have been removed leaving ‘personal responsibility’ being the reason people might decide it’s better to stay at home when they are diseased, rather than infect others. However, Royal Mail can’t be the only company who have been impacted by Covid absences and, while other carriers are under no obligation to deliver on time and report their performance we’ve not seen huge nationwide complaints of under performance.

At some point the Royal Mail excuses will have to stop and they’ll either have to deliver the post on time or Ofcom will surely step in and decide that something has to be done. It’s somewhat telling that Royal Mail have stopped automatically distributing their Quality of Service Reports and have paused publishing them alongside their press releases, preferring instead to slide them out on their Quality of Service web page with little or no commentary.

Having said that, Royal Mail’s reporting only covers the postal services that are of least interest to online retailers – letters are included in the reporting but parcels are not. If the parcels get through on time do we really care if our credit cards statements and spam mail is delivered late. You might prefer to received your birthday card on time, but you’d probably rather get your online purchases on time than anything in an envelope.

We’ll be looking out for the fourth quarter report from Royal Mail in three months time and are hoping service levels have been restored. Royal Mail need to throw all their resources at getting the nations mail delivered on time if they are to maintain faith in their service. This might mean starting to pay a lot of overtime to hard working Posties with less importance given to shareholder returns.
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ted_e_bear
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Re: Does end of Covid restrictions end Royal Mail excuses?

Post by ted_e_bear »

Can imagine them all sat round a table at RM HQ, frantically scratching their heads for the next excuse, Sly saying, quick now we've sent Terry off for the biscuits we need something we can blame on him for f***ing it up :chuckle
ebbzie
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Re: Does end of Covid restrictions end Royal Mail excuses?

Post by ebbzie »

This might mean starting to pay a lot of overtime to hard working Posties with less importance given to shareholder returns. :left:
like this would ever happen
iHateD2Ds
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Re: Does end of Covid restrictions end Royal Mail excuses?

Post by iHateD2Ds »

Covid will remain a big financial cost to due to absence,no matter how threatening sick conduct codes are.
Preventive measures are key to sustainability ,something that Royal Mail fails to understand and practice.
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