Royal Mail Loses Penalty Appeal

[Night Tonic]

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 8&zoneid=3

05 February 2008 by Mark White - © Hellmail.co.uk

Royal Mail has lost an appeal against a £9.62 million penalty for failing to protect adequately the mail in its care. The Court of Appeal has upheld the penalty imposed by Postcomm, following an appeal by Royal Mail. The judgment reinforces Postcomm’s position that the penalty is proportionate and reflects the loss suffered by customers.

In a unanimous judgment, the three judges confirmed that Postcomm had a broad discretion to determine the amount of the penalty and that, in reaching its determination, it had made the best assessment it could, given the evidence available to it.

Royal Mail did not dispute Postcomm’s finding that it breached its licence requirements to keep mail safe and secure, nor that this breach was serious; it appealed only against the level of the financial penalty.

On 24 August 2006, Postcomm imposed a financial penalty of £9.62 million on Royal Mail for breaching its licence by failing to properly protect the mail in its care. The penalty followed a review of Royal Mail's mail integrity procedures, during which Postcomm found that some important features of Royal Mail's procedures were not being applied across the business. Royal Mail previously challenged the penalty in the High Court but, following a hearing, the court ruled in favour of Postcomm. The Court of Appeal has now upheld the earlier decision of the High Court.

The most significant weakness found was the poor management of the recruitment and training process for non-contract (agency) staff. In addition, the framework and information systems that Royal Mail had put in place to prevent the loss, theft and damage to mail were not operated effectively. These weaknesses significantly reduced Royal Mail's ability to protect its customers' mail.

© Hellmail.co.uk (05 February 2008)

[F0zziebear]

There is no mention in this article about the joke that are safe drop points. I am not faimilar with the details of this case, but wondered if someone knew if Postcomm had mentioned this?

If not then Postcomm's auditors are blind.

Not training agency staff has been a problem for ages. To be fair to the fire-fighting DOM they bring these people in at short notice. There is an expectation that they have done deliveries before and are then put straight onto a walk. It seems that this process is sometimes missing vitalp oints like whether the person actually knows what they are doing, or are lying? If the office isn't cleared then the DOM either goes out, a line manager in the case of a bigger office, or you record that you failed to clear.

Under Tom Melvins regime if you didn't clear then you got a call asking why. Having Tom on your back was not a good idea. So what do you do?

Secondly once an item of mail comes back to the office because it couldn't be delivered it goes into a potential black hole. Those calling offices are a joke. Personally I would recommend people if they can to get parcels sent to their workplace and if they have an internal mailroom you stand a better chance of getting it safely and securely as is written above.

ciao

F0zz

p.s. Thou shalt not start saying italian words jus 'cos the gaffer is italiano

[Night Tonic]

Problem with safe drops is that its difficult to get evidence that mail is not as secure as it might be but either way, relying on agency staff and not putting in measures to improve security and/or training is why the court upheld the fine. Not sure that anything has changed either.

[plodsie]

Regulator my @rse. Where are the fines for TNT in their recent security breaches? Why am I seeing TNT trucks with no padlocks or even key locks on their back doors? The rules on mail security must apply to everyone, not just us. From now on, I'll be noting the registration of every TNT van I see with their padlocks or key locks missing and reporting them to postcon. These guys carry mail from banks and benefit agencies for God's sakes, how are they getting away with carrying such important data in such an insecure way?

[Night Tonic]

Just read on there that CWU taking POL to employment tribunal for £6million - that'll be fun!

[F0zziebear]

The only winners are the lawyers.

It is true that TNT practices and others have been shown to be dodgy at times, but you don't hear about them getting fined.

It would be fairly easy to get evidence that drop bags are being put in un-safe places. Just take a picture of the bags lying in someone's garden, behing a lamp post (if lucky) or just lying in the street.

There are plenty of failed postal management in postcomm as well, which may explain their performance.

F0zz

[norbert]

Regulator my @rse. Where are the fines for TNT in their recent security breaches? Why am I seeing TNT trucks with no padlocks or even key locks on their back doors? The rules on mail security must apply to everyone, not just us. From now on, I'll be noting the registration of every TNT van I see with their padlocks or key locks missing and reporting them to postcon. These guys carry mail from banks and benefit agencies for God's sakes, how are they getting away with carrying such important data in such an insecure way?

Postcon deliberately turn a blind eye to dodgy corporate practices , it'd cost TNT money to get proper locks , there will be no loyalty given or none expected with TNT staff , they'd probably be under pressure to get drops done and their managers probably aren't interested .

Postcon in their parallel universe believe that continually fining RM will make RM more efficient and "As good as those firms " , it's not that simple .

You'll get more of this , I've seen it in another service as the new idea was to run a service held together by contracts instead of the old military top down chain of command . Fozzie is right , you'll get more lawyers on the gravy train and more beaurocracy, fragmentation , poor service , buck passing and lack of accountancy and quell surprise it costs more .

The bit about Uncle Tom is right , all you'll get is a culture of fear with that backward command and control type , Top down has been rejected by Business as the chicken's come home to roost ,

My experience is that type of career manager that goes on the road to Damascus and becomes more corporate than thou is the worst of all types . Some managers are stupid enough to fall for that nonsense , Unite haven't . You just get brutally cynical unmotivated managers and negativity and it carries on down the food chain with bullying etc .

[Captain Scarlet]

There is no mention in this article about the joke that are safe drop points. I am not faimilar with the details of this case, but wondered if someone knew if Postcomm had mentioned this?

If not then Postcomm's auditors are blind.

Not training agency staff has been a problem for ages. To be fair to the fire-fighting DOM they bring these people in at short notice. There is an expectation that they have done deliveries before and are then put straight onto a walk. It seems that this process is sometimes missing vitalp oints like whether the person actually knows what they are doing, or are lying? If the office isn't cleared then the DOM either goes out, a line manager in the case of a bigger office, or you record that you failed to clear.

Under Tom Melvins regime if you didn't clear then you got a call asking why. Having Tom on your back was not a good idea. So what do you do?

Secondly once an item of mail comes back to the office because it couldn't be delivered it goes into a potential black hole. Those calling offices are a joke. Personally I would recommend people if they can to get parcels sent to their workplace and if they have an internal mailroom you stand a better chance of getting it safely and securely as is written above.

ciao

F0zz

p.s. Thou shalt not start saying italian words jus 'cos the gaffer is italiano

Is your gaffer called Italo then?

[POSTMAN]

The 'casual workers' situation is a serious joke,and many a time i've had a row with my managers about it.
Most of them do not have a clue,and most of the stuff is dumped.
One time i took these 2 gals out,they had no idea where they were going or what to do,and they had 3 bags of mail.
3 very heavy bags of mail,i couldn't even pick them up,and i had to dump them on an estate and let them get on with it.
Needless to say,not a single letter was delivered,and the old bill picked the bags up from a street in the evening!!!

These people are never trained and not properly vetted ,just think how you got the job and what you had to go through to get it and what documents you had to produce and what you had to sign.

How times change eh,for a few quid in savings.

[dvbuk55]

The 'casual workers' situation is a serious joke,and many a time i've had a row with my managers about it.
Most of them do not have a clue,and most of the stuff is dumped.
One time i took these 2 gals out,they had no idea where they were going or what to do,and they had 3 bags of mail.
3 very heavy bags of mail,i couldn't even pick them up,and i had to dump them on an estate and let them get on with it.
Needless to say,not a single letter was delivered,and the old bill picked the bags up from a street in the evening!!!

These people are never trained and not properly vetted ,just think how you got the job and what you had to go through to get it and what documents you had to produce and what you had to sign.

How times change eh,for a few quid in savings.

They were probably too tired to deliver after you'd eventually dropped them off postie

[james]

no doubt royal mail deserve a fine for the standard at times ar shocking ! but enough is enough can postcom only fine the ROYAL MAIL does none of the other super postal firms comply do any standards ? Are we alone the only company to be judged? The government as a lotto answer for !