Royal Mail performance monitoring investigation

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail performance monitoring investigation - preliminary findings

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17 February 2010

Postcomm has issued a preliminary (‘minded to’) finding on its investigation into the alleged manipulation of quality of service performance monitoring by some staff at Royal Mail locations in the west of Scotland including Glasgow, and also Belfast.

The regulator, responsible for issuing and enforcing all postal operators’ licence conditions, is ‘minded to’ conclude that Royal Mail has failed and is failing to comply since July 2006 with two parts of a condition of its licence relating to quality of service.

The preliminary findings from a 10-month inquiry reveal that Royal Mail’s processes for monitoring the measurement of its performance have been flawed resulting in the company failing to discover the problem for itself. Instead the issue came to light as a result of an informant approaching Postcomm.

However, Postcomm’s findings did not reveal any material difference to Royal Mail’s published quality of service figures over the same period.

Postcomm chief executive Tim Brown said: “This ‘minded to’ stage is an important part of our investigation process because it gives Royal Mail, or any other party, the chance to consider and respond to the detail of our findings before we make a final decision.”

The final decision is unlikely to be made before May. Following this stage, if Royal Mail is found to be in breach of its licence conditions, if appropriate, Postcomm would consider potential sanctions.

Royal Mail has co-operated fully and openly throughout the investigation.

To comply with one aspect of condition 4 of its licence (requiring an independent assessment of its performance monitoring), Royal Mail has contracted with a market research company called Research International to monitor its quality of service performance.

Another aspect of condition 4 requires Royal Mail to ensure that ‘panellists working for Research International should be anonymous. These members of the public/businesses send and receive ‘test’ letters through the post in order to record time and day of sending/delivery.

Detailed allegations of wrongdoing came to light in February 2009 when Postcomm was given evidence by an ‘informant’ who was an employee of Royal Mail.

The informant alleged Royal Mail staff, including senior managers, had managed to identify panellists working for Research International within Scotland’s Motherwell and other postcode areas and had put together a spreadsheet of their names and addresses.

The informant alleged these spreadsheets were used to ensure panellists received their letters in good time to ensure performance targets were met.

Postcomm’s investigation included gathering information from Royal Mail and Research International and assessing any impact on Royal Mail’s quality of service results in order to identify the extent of any breach of Royal Mail’s licence.

Areas of concern for Postcomm include the following:

* Spreadsheets with panellists’ names and addresses were circulated among Royal Mail staff for a number of years. Employees, at various levels and in locations across Scotland and Belfast, were familiar with the system to identify panellists.
* The ‘test’ items sent to panellists were designed to be easily identifiable by panellists but had also become recognisable to Royal Mail staff
* Royal Mail’s corporate governance mechanisms did not identify these failings over a number of years

The relevant clauses of condition 4, of which we are ‘minded to’ find Royal Mail in breach, are as follows:

* Condition 4.8 (a) (ii): to monitor its performance of each of the scheduled services and standardised measures, in relation to the scheduled standards using a testing methodology that is applied independently of the licensee
* Condition 4.8 (a) (iii): to monitor its performance of each of the scheduled services and standardised measures, in relation to the scheduled standards using a testing methodology that is compliant with Article 16 of the Postal Services Directive (requiring anonymity of panellists).

Ends

* More more information please the document: Royal Mail quality of serice investigation (pdf, 491KB)

[The FraudSquad]

The informant alleged Royal Mail staff, including senior managers, had managed to identify panellists working for Research International within Scotland’s Motherwell and other postcode areas and had put together a spreadsheet of their names and addresses.

i can verify this to be true, for i have had times in the past where i have went with managers to post office counters and checked through mail posted by certain people/businesses

[BELIAL]

However, Postcomm’s findings did not reveal any material difference to Royal Mail’s published quality of service figures over the same period.
Wellcome to the alternative reality that is postconn. Kafka ,eat your heart out :mfo

[Lemuel]

panellists in my area were known to management and special attention was paid to delivery of their mail by 0930 at the latest, every other customer would be lucky to get their mail by 3pm, if at all.

The delivery service is in crisis and no amount of regulation will cure it. It is a direct consequence of successive budget cuts over the last 5 years.

[daymo1977]

Same thing in the office I used to work at, all the staff knew which the test letters were, and used to make sure that they got there in spec!!

[camphill888]

The postal watchdog is considering taking action against Royal Mail after finding quality tests had been rigged.

Postcomm, acting on an insider tip-off, found that addresses involved in testing deliveries in some areas had been passed on to staff.

Staff had also learned to recognise test mail and were able to prioritise it to ensure it arrived on time.

Royal Mail said that there had been "no material impact whatsoever" on its quality of service figures.

[postietaz]

MUGS
#

[postietaz]

CROZIERS BOYZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ DIVS
:mfo :mfo :mfo

[Pat Ostman]

staff = managers = bonuses of course

Daily whail will blame it on posties no doubt

[norbert]

panellists in my area were known to management and special attention was paid to delivery of their mail by 0930 at the latest, every other customer would be lucky to get their mail by 3pm, if at all.

The delivery service is in crisis and no amount of regulation will cure it. It is a direct consequence of successive budget cuts over the last 5 years.

know of a PHG doing 60 odd irregularity checks in one night to find the " special letters " , the lino was under a lot of pressure from above in the name of quality control .

The way I see it , is from what I've seen from working in factories and warehouses for agencies , crisps , bl***dy cat flaps , popcorn , ice cream , junk mail etc , is that RM have always done production , logistics , planning etc , etc ; very , very badly , I've spoken to people who have worked for Parcel Carriers and they can't believe how badly geared up RM are , add all the cuts on top and quell surprise - it doesn't work

RM's top down 70's style is too much , the emperor's new clothes , add New Liebour's Stalinist desire to regulate and count + control everything & throw bonuses at the idiots in charge - it's no wonder everything is a mess .

[DGP1]

I know of several managers from NI that got off with the tampering the general feeling is that they kept their mouths shut and where rewarded with promotions.

[norbert]

I know of several managers from NI that got off with the tampering the general feeling is that they kept their mouths shut and where rewarded with promotions.

suppose that's better than that big RM " Gardening Centre " - sounds about right , the big brush and the magic RM carpet

[DGP1]

I know of several managers from NI that got off with the tampering the general feeling is that they kept their mouths shut and where rewarded with promotions.

suppose that's better than that big RM " Gardening Centre " - sounds about right , the big brush and the magic RM carpet

Surely that carpet is too lumpy to walk on now

[norbert]

I know of several managers from NI that got off with the tampering the general feeling is that they kept their mouths shut and where rewarded with promotions.

suppose that's better than that big RM " Gardening Centre " - sounds about right , the big brush and the magic RM carpet

Surely that carpet is too lumpy to walk on now

I wonder how RM would class the accidents .......sorry incidents from walking on said carpet ...... would it be " operational reasons " or " someone's fault " for some vague / obscure reason and would RM's notorious RMAP kick in ?

[dvbuk55]

I know of several managers from NI that got off with the tampering the general feeling is that they kept their mouths shut and where rewarded with promotions.

suppose that's better than that big RM " Gardening Centre " - sounds about right , the big brush and the magic RM carpet

Surely that carpet is too lumpy to walk on now

Bit like your mattress DG, stuffed with all those white fivers