Hello from New Zealand

Sugarpie · Post by **Sugarpie** » 23 Dec 2009, 08:21

Hi everyone in the UK, how's it been delivering mail over the Christmas break? Down here we have had the usual heaps of Christmas cards - I deliver a run which has an old folks village on it and they get serious amounts of Christmas mail, a lot of it from the UK!!! Must be a lot of retired poms living here or something. But this year we never got any cross cuts!!! Not even one, that is so mean I think. OK sure I made some good money with the overtime but bloody hell I'm cream crackered. And I only get 4 days off including the stats and they make us take an annual leave day for the monday!!! Gee that's not really fair either. I guess it's been cold and snow and ice for you guys, well it's been hot sweltering sweaty weather for us. I think I prefer the cooler weather myself, anyone want to swap??? Hey guys I hope you all have a great Christmas wherever you may be, keep up the good work. Does anyone deliver the Forest Gate area of London? My wife's cousin lives there :)

wolfie citizen smith · Post by **wolfie citizen smith** » 23 Dec 2009, 08:50

well howdy dowdy citizen, Merry Christmas

.....any chance of a uk to new zealand transfer, i fancy a bit of a change

......have a Happy New Year...Power to the People....

glenfiddich · Post by **glenfiddich** » 23 Dec 2009, 19:31

Hello New Zealand all the best to everyone overthere

dounome · Post by **dounome** » 23 Dec 2009, 21:30

Hey Sugarpie....Merry Xmas and Happy New year from Scotland when it comes

Post by **baldrick** » 23 Dec 2009, 21:35

Sugarpie wrote: I guess it's been cold and snow and ice for you guys, well it's been hot sweltering sweaty weather for us. I think I prefer the cooler weather myself, anyone want to swap???

YES PLEASE!!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

opgpat · Post by **opgpat** » 23 Dec 2009, 22:59

You never got any cross-cuts? What are they? Do you mean tips? And when you say 'run' do you mean round? You have funny terminology down there! Amazingly I had a card from NZ in my frame today. Are you paid well? How many bags of mail each day do you deliver on average? Do you get on with your managers or are they like little dictators? I bet the local Maori guys are fit and deliver double quick?

Sugarpie · Post by **Sugarpie** » 24 Dec 2009, 08:29

Hi all, thanks very much for the kind messages. Yeah sorry about the terminology differences, I should have clarified better!! yes by a run I meant round, sometimes called a walk too but we use bikes. We actually have an arrangement with a local taxi company which delivers our bags, usually I get by with 3 maybe 4 on a heavy day but over Christmas hey it's been 6 or more, today was 7. Roughly 900 delivery points on the average run/round at my branch. Luckily we've had no circulars over Christmas which is a pain in the proverbial. The weather really sucks it out of you though, the heat and sunscreen is a must - apparently there's a huge hole in the ozone layer over New Zealand and Australia, lots of melanoma so we have to be careful. I do sympathise with you guys though, we've seen the news footage of the winter in Europe. Take care everyone and have a lovely break, I'm assuming you get some time off over Christmas/New Year? Cheers :)

Sugarpie · Post by **Sugarpie** » 24 Dec 2009, 08:35

Oh yeah and a cross-cut is where we have extra staff who take bits off several runs over Christmas and sort of make up an extra run, we've had it in previous years and it was certainly appreciated but this year NZ Post used the so-called "recession" and the allegedly dropping mail volumes to justify making us deliver a full run. Dubious logic if you ask me. Our managers, support people are generally good, it's just the hierachy of NZ Post which pisses us off, they obviously don't know what it's like on the frontline hence the stupid policy decisions.

red72 · Post by **red72** » 24 Dec 2009, 10:20

You seem to have the same higher management as we do . Merry christmas to you and try to keep cool just as we'll try to keep warm

Exrep · Post by **Exrep** » 24 Dec 2009, 13:12

HAPPY CHRISTMAS New Zeland cool to hear from such a far land.

opgpat · Post by **opgpat** » 03 Jan 2010, 14:43

lol to your cross-cuts. We have the oppostie over here. When the volume is a tad lower in summer we loose one walk in 5 or 6 which is 'absorbed' into other rounds with no extra pay. So no cross-cuts in Xmas or ever we are expected to deliver it all and might get some overtime if lucky. Love the sound of taxis taking your bags out. 7-900 drops is average in our DO but the bags on that is 4 light day to 6, 7 or 8 heavy.

happy new year mate.

Post by **lekker** » 04 Jan 2010, 17:54

red72 wrote:You seem to have the same higher management as we do . Merry christmas to you and try to keep cool just as we'll try to keep warm

Didn't that Elmer Fudd bloke we got a while back used to work for the New Zealand post

Post by **falkor** » 04 Jan 2010, 18:14

Hi Sugarpie,

Happy New Year to you and your colleagues, my brother in law has recently emigrated to Dunedin and we have good friends who live in Omaru.
I drive HGV’s for Royal Mail, my wife and I are hoping to emigrate to NZ within the next couple of years we are thinking of Christchurch or the surrounding area.
Out of interest are you on the north or south island?

Sugarpie · Post by **Sugarpie** » 10 Jan 2010, 03:08

Well we're into 2010 here in New Zealand, we now have to do a "split" 6 days a week. This is on top of our normal run - basically what it means is that a run(or round) gets split up between all the other posties and they have to deliver a set piece of it every day, as you can imagine people are not too happy about because NZ Post justify it by saying the recession has hit them and mail volumes are down, I say bollocks!! Those buggers are creaming it off the top big time, over Christmas we didn't get any cross-cuts(the opposite of a split where we get a piece taken off our run) so they saved money there. I'm not that young so my body is suffering from all the extra work. Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone who wrote in this thread, it's great to be a part of your team, I appreciate you letting me in!! I'd love to be a UK postie but as I'm getting older and it's getting harder to get into the UK, I might not get to do it. Cheers everyone!!! :)

DGP1 · Post by **DGP1** » 10 Jan 2010, 03:12

Sugarpie wrote:Well we're into 2010 here in New Zealand, we now have to do a "split" 6 days a week. This is on top of our normal run - basically what it means is that a run(or round) gets split up between all the other posties and they have to deliver a set piece of it every day, as you can imagine people are not too happy about because NZ Post justify it by saying the recession has hit them and mail volumes are down, I say bollocks!! Those buggers are creaming it off the top big time, over Christmas we didn't get any cross-cuts(the opposite of a split where we get a piece taken off our run) so they saved money there. I'm not that young so my body is suffering from all the extra work. Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone who wrote in this thread, it's great to be a part of your team, I appreciate you letting me in!! I'd love to be a UK postie but as I'm getting older and it's getting harder to get into the UK, I might not get to do it. Cheers everyone!!! :)

You'd not want to try any of our deliveries

imagine 6+ hours deliveries which some in my office have to do now .

ROYALMAILCHAT

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