Worst Place I have ever worked at (Caterham DO)

[deans6571]

I worked at the Caterham Delivery Office, doing the DPR afternoon shifts (6 days a week, 1pm to 7pm) over the Xmas period and can say without a shadow of a doubt, it was THE worst job I have ever had.

1. The vans in the yard were a shambles in terms of faults and roadworthyness.
2. Not enough vans for the amount of drivers employed (we had to wait til around 2 to 2:30pm for the morning shifts to come back so we could then load up the vans for the afternoon shifts.
3. Not enough PDA handhelds for staff (same scenario as point 2 above).
4. By the time the vans were loaded up and ready to leave the depot, it was around 2:45pm and we were expected to deliver 100+ parcels before coming back.

The whole job was a joke - I was given literally TWO days of training before I was sent out on my own to deliver parcels. It became apparent that I was expected to deliver at least 20 parcels per hour (and I am talking about the drops, which should be 20 an hour and not the qty of parcels in the hour). This was completely not attainable - if you break this down, it equates to 10 drops per half hour or 5 drops per 15 minutes or 3 drops every 5 minutes, which is impossible.

My shift would start at 1pm and I was given 80+ parcels to deliver in the afternoon and whilst other drivers were prepared to stay out all night to complete their deliveries, I was not so I delivered what I could up until 6:40pm and then brought the remaining parcels back whereby the two depot managers would then have a go at me the next day for bringing stuff back (Dan and Jon their names were).

The reason it took me so long to deliver parcels is because I was employed by RM and not via an agency. This means that I had to follow the correct procedures when delivering parcels i.e knock on door, wait a minute and if no answer, write out the 'Sorry we missed you' red cards in full and post though the door. This takes about 2-3 minutes. That not might sound like a lot but if you multiply that by 5 to 10 houses you knock at, it soon adds up in terms of time you are waiting at a front door. The agency stuff could just do what they wanted so they never wrote out cards and just dumped parcels at a house wherever they wanted.

Both managers were complete bullies and offered ZERO support to me to help me get faster and better. All they were interested in was me delivering the quota of parcels I was given every day (80+ drops). I regularly had my delivery stats looked at and questioned as to why I wasn't delivering as fast as the agency workers. It was one rule for them, and a complete different rule for me.

The day I left that depot was the best decision I ever made.

Bullies, the lot of'em.

[TopperGas]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

[menditsa]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently?
Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

12 parcels dumped under a staircase foot-well in an apartment block, no attempt to deliver to customers, 9 have vanished, no action taken (Agency).

I could do 20 an hour in daylight on a route I did day in day out. In the dark I was doing half that amount.
If I went back to DPR now I'd be allocated a diff route everyday I worked.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

4 weeks over Christmas, on different routes is not enough time to learn an area.

[deans6571]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

I was never given the opportunity to learn an area as I was regularly sent out on different routes every day.

Also, as I said, it was NOT 20 parcels an hour. It was 20 drops per hour, which means you are expected to stop at 20 address in an hour. One road I was given was full of flats so you literally spent 2-3 minutes waiting for someone to buzz the van into the car park. Then you wait another 2-3 minutes waiting to be buzzed into the actual building and you then go up 3-4 flights of stairs to the door number to deliver the parcel. This all takes in excess of 5 -10 minutes in total.

Now multiply that by several blocks of flats on a road (even when they are all on the same road) and you can easily see that 20 drops per hour is not attainable.

[deans6571]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

....because the agency staff got paid by the agency and not via Royal Mail so as long as they came in and did their hours, they got paid. Agency staff never had their stats scrutinized like I did on a weekly basis.

[deans6571]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently?
Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

12 parcels dumped under a staircase foot-well in an apartment block, no attempt to deliver to customers, 9 have vanished, no action taken (Agency).

I could do 20 an hour in daylight on a route I did day in day out. In the dark I was doing half that amount.
If I went back to DPR now I'd be allocated a diff route everyday I worked.

100% this^^^

[deans6571]

? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

4 weeks over Christmas, on different routes is not enough time to learn an area.

100% agree and thats how it was for me - I was never given the opportunity to learn the routes as I was given different ones multiple times in the week.

[fb1969]

I joined in 2012 and left in 2022. Nothing you've said is a surprise, it's been like it for years and the company isn't remotely bothered.

I did two months of afternoon DPR in 2020 and had the same issues. Started at 1230 and waited until long gone 2pm for a van. When the van finally appeared I was often told by the driver to tale a different one as he was in his favourite parking spot etc. Waited for a pda and then longer for one with more than 30% battery.

[Pidleypoo]

Everything you’ve said there is why we can’t keep staff and why experienced posties are leaving in droves.

[TopperGas]

? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

4 weeks over Christmas, on different routes is not enough time to learn an area.

100% agree and thats how it was for me - I was never given the opportunity to learn the routes as I was given different ones multiple times in the week.

How many DPR's did your DO have in total?

[deans6571]

? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

4 weeks over Christmas, on different routes is not enough time to learn an area.

100% agree and thats how it was for me - I was never given the opportunity to learn the routes as I was given different ones multiple times in the week.

How many DPR's did your DO have in total?

Well I started on 25th November'24 and left in the first week of January'25. Was doing DPRs everyday.

[TopperGas]

I meant how many parcels routes in total, or if it's easier to answer how many different routes were you expected to learn/deliver?

[TopperGas]

Why is it one rule for agency and another for RM, if a parcel goes missing I doubt either driver is treated any differently? Delivering 20 parcels an hour is easily achievable once you learn the area.

I was never given the opportunity to learn an area as I was regularly sent out on different routes every day.

Also, as I said, it was NOT 20 parcels an hour. It was 20 drops per hour, which means you are expected to stop at 20 address in an hour. One road I was given was full of flats so you literally spent 2-3 minutes waiting for someone to buzz the van into the car park. Then you wait another 2-3 minutes waiting to be buzzed into the actual building and you then go up 3-4 flights of stairs to the door number to deliver the parcel. This all takes in excess of 5 -10 minutes in total.

Now multiply that by several blocks of flats on a road (even when they are all on the same road) and you can easily see that 20 drops per hour is not attainable.

Unless you were doing flats every day this seems the expectation rather than the norm?

[deans6571]

I meant how many parcels routes in total, or if it's easier to answer how many different routes were you expected to learn/deliver?

I was doing about 2 or 3 different routes a week.

So on a Monday for instance, I would do a route which covered 2-3 walks (80+ parcels).
On Tuesday, I would do a route which covered 2-3 different walks.
On Wednesday, I might do a route which covered part of Monday's walks and Tuesday's walks.#
On Thursday, I might be given a new route which covered 2-3 different walks.

This is what I'm saying - I was given different routes to do pretty much every day so never really had the opportunity to learn these.