1st class time of year...

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/edit ... r-1.989421" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Making sure all letters sent to Santa Claus are delivered in time for Christmas is all part of the job for Tommy McCoid.

Thankfully the long-serving Royal Mail worker will have 1300 little helpers to make sure every wish list arrives in Lapland before December 25.

Staff at the city’s main sorting office in Springburn, one of the biggest in Scotland, have just a few days to gather their strength before the busiest time of the year begins.

Every day over the festive season 1200 staff, including an extra 400 seasonal workers, will handle around 6.8million items.

One hundred extra lorries each day are required on top of the usual fleet of 400 to handle the massive load of mail from post offices and mail boxes across Scotland.

With the average adult sending around 52 Christmas cards and with 1568 postboxes in Glasgow alone, staff will be working around the clock to spread festive cheer.

And workers will be facing even more pressure over Christmas to deliver thousands of badly packaged gifts and mis-directed mail.

Tommy is in charge of the intriguingly titled ‘infringements’ section of the mail centre, where he often has to employ a bit of detective work and his

trusty magnifying glass to find out a letter’s intended destination.

Not least the letter simply addressed ‘c/o Geraldine’ on the front of an envelope.

If part of the address is missing the mail room sorting machines can’t process the items and they must be handled manually.

Tommy said: “It is a bit like detective work in here sometimes.

“A lot of people only send cards at Christmas so often most or part of the address is missing.

“I can usually figure it out, but if it is impossible to identify the address it is sent to our head office in Belfast where they will try to return it to the sender.

“At least there is only one Santa Claus.”

During his 28 years with Royal Mail Tommy says the strangest things he has seen sent by post have included a kebab, sand and dog dirt.

He said: “We get people sending purses, sums of money and credit cards in envelopes. We had one envelope that had £300 in cash in it.”

Part of Tommy’s work will also involve re-wrapping badly packaged Christmas presents.

The number of items that need to be re-wrapped increases ten-fold over the festive period, and have included a giant toy giraffe that had burst its wrapping.

If an item has to be re-wrapped it can cause a delay in it being delivered.

Cathy Way, head of logistics at the mail centre, said: “There are a few things we ask customers to do over the festive period.

“If you are sending a parcel, make sure it is wrapped securely and always try to put the post code on items. It is useful to include the sender’s address and we would always advise customers to post items as early as possible.”

Customers are also urged to post valuable items by special delivery, where they are tracked by computer, which differs from recorded delivery which only requires a signature on receipt.

The last posting date for second class delivery is December 18, first class December 21, and December 23 for special delivery.

[Stormproof]

Our MC is swamped with casuals, all this mail has to go somewhere so why don't us in deliveries ever get any help? we just have to cope with the excess stuff coming though. The office runs on management hoping the usual lot will do another delivery on docket and that is on a normal week.

[not me]

Our MC is swamped with casuals, all this mail has to go somewhere so why don't us in deliveries ever get any help? we just have to cope with the excess stuff coming though. The office runs on management hoping the usual lot will do another delivery on docket and that is on a normal week.

aye same when the MC is busy all the mail is crash sorted and sent to the DO's
somehow we have the time

[clashcityrocker]

Strange things sent by post - a kebab ,sand and DOG DIRT. What was that about?
We once had a dirty nappy sent by an unhappy wife to her cheating husbands new muse.
And once on IPS I had a block of blow fall out of a poorly wrapped packet.
But dog dirt - surely that's illegal.