Postal delivery confusion - Georoute Strikes Again

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/news/ ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LETTERS have arrived late or been delivered to the wrong address following a cost-cutting restructure of postal services in Barnstaple.

A number of people contacted the Journal this week to express concern over their mail.

Some said post was now arriving at random times of the day — or sometimes not at all.

Others say they have been delivered the wrong person's post, addressed to an entirely different home.

Anne Arnold, of Fremington, said: "We used to get our mail in the morning, originally about 9.30am. Then it went up to midday and now it is anytime from 3pm onwards."

Matt Brayley, of Barnstaple, said: "Three times in the past two weeks we have been given post that doesn't belong to us.

"It has been for someone with the same house number, but a different street name, somewhere nearby.

"Because it has been for somewhere close I have just dropped it round to the correct address but it makes you wonder if others are doing the same and if we are getting all our post."

Royal Mail spokesman Mike Dalton said significant changes had been made to the way in which deliveries were organised and as a result there had been some disruption to deliveries and delivery times.

He insisted the disruption would be temporary. He said: "The situation is improving on a weekly basis and, within a short space of time, we expect our customers to notice an improvement to the service."

Mr Dalton said the Barnstaple sorting office had undergone a complete restructure and postal staff had been given new routes.

He explained: "We don't keep things the same. A town is organic; it wouldn't make any sense to keep the walks the same.

"For instance, take a postman who's been doing a route for the past seven years. He may take four hours to do it, but the number of homes on that route may have changed, and it may now mean they only take three hours to do it, so we've changed the routes around."

But the Communication Workers' Union is furious with the upheaval and claims local postal staff were not properly consulted about the changes, and the new regime was not workable.

Phil Chadwick, CWU South West Secretary said: "A revision of duties was proposed by Royal Mail to be undertaken using a system known as Georoute. This is a system whereby information such as walking speeds, the nature of the terrain, and that postal staff should not be out walking for more than 3.5 hours continuously, is used to draw up duties that are supposed to be fair, equal and manageable.

"The local CWU agreed to take part in this process, but unfortunately from our point of view there was not the proper and comprehensive consultation with staff to enable a workable outcome.

"We wrote to Royal Mail on March 5 to set out our concerns.

"This letter made no difference as far as we can see."

He said Royal Mail had taken out around 400 hours as part of the process which was the equivalent of ten full time duties.

Royal Mail was "carrying on regardless" of the problems, he said, which was why a worse service was being carried out by postal staff who did not have enough time or knowledge of the new routes, to provide the service the public deserved.

"We are trying to work with Royal Mail management to rectify these problems and hope that they will engage us and their staff in a proper manner instead of what seems to be happening which is that some staff are being told they are not working fast enough," he said.

[robd]

"For instance, take a postman who's been doing a route for the past seven years. He may take four hours to do it, but the number of homes on that route may have changed, and it may now mean they only take three hours to do it, so we've changed the routes around."

???....Does he mean half the estates been bulldozed,or morelikely we expect the postie to go
at 4mph!

[johnsouthwales]

"For instance, take a postman who's been doing a route for the past seven years. He may take four hours to do it, but the number of homes on that route may have changed, and it may now mean they only take three hours to do it, so we've changed the routes around."

haha i was thinking the same..have the houses gone? lollllllllll

it does make you think what planet these people are on...

[bogstandard]

unfortunateley whats more likely to be remembered,
1 RM have introduce ill thought out unworkable practices.
2 the post comes later and later because of point 1, or
3 the postie was finishing an hour earlier than they used to and now they're not.

why anren't the reporters asking questions like,
given that the price of a stamp is going up, the business lays off 10's of thousands of workers, profits go up and up and up, yet the service being offered is abysmal, why isn't the profit being reinvested into the company to improve the deteriorating services that senior managers and goverment officials feel is all we "the great british public" are worth.

[Night Tonic]

I wouldn't be asking that but I might be asking that if the price of the stamp goes up and 10% are laid off, isn't this a way to create a temporary rise in profits ahead of privatisation? Given that the trend is actually downwards, with stamped mail falling, a rapid tightening of the purse strings and a selling off of post office buildings and mail centres will make income soar for a while. Any jump in profit is far more likely to be for the benefit of a prospective buyer.

Does no one think outside the box on this?

[johnsouthwales]

hopefully the press will be asking more questions from now on. and hopefully, other staff will contact local newspapers highlighting . probably the press do not see things like you do, they just get the basics

[DGP1]

I wouldn't be asking that but I might be asking that if the price of the stamp goes up and 10% are laid off, isn't this a way to create a temporary rise in profits ahead of privatisation? Given that the trend is actually downwards, with stamped mail falling, a rapid tightening of the purse strings and a selling off of post office buildings and mail centres will make income soar for a while. Any jump in profit is far more likely to be for the benefit of a prospective buyer.

Does no one think outside the box on this?

I think this has already be posted (I know I've made posts about cutting costs just to temporarily raise profits and whenever it goes bad in 5/10/15 years time the Government has to take Royal Mail back into public hands just like RailTrack).

[F0zziebear]

Similar complaints surfaced after Single Daily Delivery was implemented. Change rarely happens at this pace without disruption being caused. Most successful change happens when everyone is involved, and especially when the union rep and the management get together and re-design the routes in tandem.

[DGP1]

Similar complaints surfaced after Single Daily Delivery was implemented. Change rarely happens at this pace without disruption being caused. Most successful change happens when everyone is involved, and especially when the union rep and the management get together and re-design the routes in tandem.

That's been the problem with this current revision, the management are not listening to the reps. about what can and can't be done and are just forcing them through to achieve their savings, my office told them that some of the revised duties where too big but they went ahaead and put them in anyway (but now it's costing them more in cut offs).

[not me]

Similar complaints surfaced after Single Daily Delivery was implemented. Change rarely happens at this pace without disruption being caused. Most successful change happens when everyone is involved, and especially when the union rep and the management get together and re-design the routes in tandem.

That's been the problem with this current revision, the management are not listening to the reps. about what can and can't be done and are just forcing them through to achieve their savings, my office told them that some of the revised duties where too big but they went ahaead and put them in anyway (but now it's costing them more in cut offs).

we change over next week.ive already told them i wont be working over

[trythat]

Similar complaints surfaced after Single Daily Delivery was implemented. Change rarely happens at this pace without disruption being caused. Most successful change happens when everyone is involved, and especially when the union rep and the management get together and re-design the routes in tandem.

That's been the problem with this current revision, the management are not listening to the reps. about what can and can't be done and are just forcing them through to achieve their savings, my office told them that some of the revised duties where too big but they went ahaead and put them in anyway (but now it's costing them more in cut offs).

We've had 3 stage's of georpute going in, and each one is worse than the last,

1. We're generally told that we're to slow.
2. We don't try hard enough to make it work.
3. The computer is always right.
4. It's only our office thats not working correctly, every where else he's done Geo it worked a charm.
5. We get in touch with other local offices and hear their inn a mess as well, and of course you only have to see the message on here to see that Geo is not working right.
6. This is why I really think the CWU should be doing something nationally about it, we need National agreements and quickly.

[POSTMAN]

This is why I really think the CWU should be doing something nationally about it, we need National agreements and quickly.

RM at the mo won't give one,their argument is,other offices are using it,offices have gone into it a long time ago,so we don't need one.

This is part of why HQ asked negotiationsto be stopped on savings.

[k979aaa]

The fact is communication in the CWU is at best lackluster and worst nonexistent in communications too the members the CWU used too have it's own forum but it was closed down as too many members criticised it for the sell out the way forward agreement was!.