Get it sorted! - Anger over postal delays at Dewsbury Office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Get it sorted! - Anger over postal delays at Dewsbury sorting office

http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/ ... _1_2853537" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bad weather and extra Christmas volume are making matters worse, with some people not receiving deliveries for up to a week.

The postal workers’ union is pleading with customers to make allowances. And Royal Mail says the new procedures need time to ‘bed in’.

But one Dewsbury woman ran out of patience when vital medication advice failed to arrive from the hospital and she was urged to ‘fetch her own mail’.

Patricia Dalton, who is 62 and disabled, had to trudge down to the Calder Way sorting office in icy conditions to collect the hospital letter and about six other items waiting at the depot.

Mrs Dalton said she her husband, John, became worried when dosage information for his blood complaint did not arrive at their Staincliffe home.

When the couple rang the hospital, they were told that several other patients had been in contact about missing post.

“We knew the hospital had sent it out, but we had not had mail of any kind for about a week,” she said.

“The sorting office told me they couldn’t say when it would be delivered and that I should fetch it myself.

“I had to go down there in all the ice. Staff were helpful, but when can we expect a proper delivery again?”

Mrs Dalton went to the sorting office on Monday, but problems have been building up for weeks.

A relative of a Calder Way postie, who did not want to be named, told the Reporter that changes included start times being put back.

He said: “The posties are doing their best, but they simply cannot deliver all the mail every day. New ideas being introduced are making things difficult.”

Andy Lee, secretary of the local branch of the CWU postal workers’ union, said: “There have been issues with new working practices. It’s a steep learning curve for us. We are still trialling the changes. The weather hasn’t helped - or the timing, bringing in changes at our busiest time of the year.”

Mr Lee said jobs were being lost, but mainly in the mail centres where new technology is being brought in.

“Mail is piling up,” he said. “But it will get sorted out. We agreed the changes, but not the way in which they are being introduced. Management is trying to push all this through en bloc.

“We are struggling. My message to the public is: hang fire, posties are trying their best. They want to get the mail to you.”

This week Royal mail did not comment on the problems, but three weeks ago it said that changes were being made as part of a £2bn modernisation scheme.

“Some disruption is possible,” said a spokesman. “We are doing all we can to minimise delays while the changes bed in.

[smoothvelvet]

Why did Mrs Dalton not get the information she needed whilst on the phone to the hopital? Surely they did not refuse her the info and tell her that she had to get the actual letter.

[Sippin40oz]

“I had to go down there in all the ice."

I like the way when we dont deliver its 'only a bit of ice' and we are called lazy posties... But when a customer has to venture out to one place to get some letters its suddenly a massive safety hazard!