Fife postal worker says Royal Mail's new system was failing

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Fife postal worker says Royal Mail's new system was failing long before winter arrived


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Presents and cards are still sitting in Fife depots after Royal Mail failed to clear its festive backlog.
By Aileen Robertson
Published in the Courier : 28.12.10
Published online : 28.12.10 @ 11.25am

Last week, there were nearly 50,000 parcels and 500,000 items of mail waiting in Dunfermline alone, it has been claimed.

The Courier understands Royal Mail was on the verge of closing all other Fife delivery offices so staff could concentrate on clearing the mountain of undelivered mail at the Dunfermline depot in Woodmill Street.

This was averted when postal workers from as far afield as Alloa and Falkirk were brought in to tackle the problem, according to a source.

Despite Royal Mail splashing out on overtime payments for hundreds of staff, many Fifers have still not received their season's greetings.

A postal worker, who is based in a Fife rural office and asked not to be named, said, "There are still hundreds of parcels and thousands of items of mail -- and that's in a small office.

"We're going to try to start getting them out on Wednesday, but that's stuff people never got for Christmas. If we hadn't worked overtime, the situation would have been even worse."

The Courier has already reported that the Royal Mail blamed recent severe weather for its failure to deliver Christmas post to residents in the east of Dundee.
Miscalculated

The source said a new delivery system -- known as The Way Forward -- is at the root of disruption in Fife and throughout the UK. He said new software is being used to calculate details including how long deliveries should take and how much mail should be taken on each round, and the results are plunging the post into chaos.

"It's even miscalculated the distance we have to walk," he said. "Every Christmas before, we managed to get everything out. There is not one office where this system has actually worked.

"Royal mail will make the excuse it was mainly the weather that caused the problem. It was not, as for months leading up to December we had been telling management the system was failing.

"Even during the summer, mail was getting left because we couldn't get it delivered."

The source said staff were unable to pick up mail from some offices, so it was left waiting another day.

He added, "Even special deliveries, which is guaranteed for the next day, were being left. I asked my manager how we could take money from people for special next day delivery when we couldn't do it."

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said, "There is some mail still to be delivered in Dunfermline delivery office and our top priority, when our postmen and women return to work on Wednesday, is delivering this mail to our customers."

[DGP1]

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said, "There is some mail still to be delivered in Dunfermline delivery office and our top priority, when our postmen and women return to work on Wednesday, is delivering this mail to our customers."

She really is being made to work for her money, can you imagine how hard she'd have to work if she didn't just read the same excuse out time after time

[sareknees]

Seen as theres only "some" mail to be delivered.... heres an idea - Get all the doms + linos out delivering apology letters to every door who never received there Crimbo cards + packets. Inside it they can put a sheet of stamps + some gift vouchers As they so like there door to door items THE WAY FORWARD - ah you have to laugh at that. Introduce a 4th class stamp as its taking a month for thousands of items to get to destinations SAD

[dvbuk55]

Not only did RM/CWU think that all the mail could be delivered, but D2D as well...............pretty much goes to show how out of touch these people are.

[bexhil palace]

Not only did RM/CWU think that all the mail could be delivered, but D2D as well...............pretty much goes to show how out of touch these people are.

Sadly so did the Union

[bexhil palace]

Not only did RM/CWU think that all the mail could be delivered, but D2D as well...............pretty much goes to show how out of touch these people are.

Sadly so did the Union

I really should read the replies properly before posting

[shimmyrule]

no door to doors done for 4 weeks by all of dundee east, piled up under frames, and as said earlier, reckon also around 500000 letters at dundee east, in frames, canten again, and on ips frames, shockin

[tetley smooth]

Some Dely Offices in north west are in a complete mess. Mountains of xmas packets and parcels still to be delivered, thousands of xmas cards still to be sorted. Why have the managers not asked for volunteers to deliver the pkts on the bank hols Mon and Tues this week. At least the vans would have been available. Unlike in the previous weeks as the Dely offices have tried to do xmas on the cheap this time and hired hardly any extra vans. The problems where apparant early in the pressure period, but as is the usual, the we are in charge and we know best lines where sent from higher management. Xmas mail forecasts, clearance plans etc. There are some super duper higher management thanking the gods for sending the snow, a guaranteed get out of jail card for them to play. But we who work on the front line know the truth, some colleagues of mine have done 25 to 30 years and say they have never failed at xmas. This year they gave up and blamed the new systems of work and managers bluffing their way from one crisis to the next. They genuinley feel bad about failing the public, pity the heirachy dont have the same convictions.

[dvbuk55]

Some Dely Offices in north west are in a complete mess. Mountains of xmas packets and parcels still to be delivered, thousands of xmas cards still to be sorted. Why have the managers not asked for volunteers to deliver the pkts on the bank hols Mon and Tues this week. At least the vans would have been available. Unlike in the previous weeks as the Dely offices have tried to do xmas on the cheap this time and hired hardly any extra vans. The problems where apparant early in the pressure period, but as is the usual, the we are in charge and we know best lines where sent from higher management. Xmas mail forecasts, clearance plans etc. There are some super duper higher management thanking the gods for sending the snow, a guaranteed get out of jail card for them to play. But we who work on the front line know the truth, some colleagues of mine have done 25 to 30 years and say they have never failed at xmas. This year they gave up and blamed the new systems of work and managers bluffing their way from one crisis to the next. They genuinley feel bad about failing the public, pity the heirachy dont have the same convictions.

I'm from the North West over 20 years and never seen anything like it, so much so I'm dreading tomorrow. I just hope there's FA on and gives us a chance to get sorted out a bit. I'm still waiting for a packet sent on the 15th of December, which was part of a christmas present but not essential, however it was a bespoke item which I couldn't buy elsewhere.

[Lounge Lizard]

Some Dely Offices in north west are in a complete mess. Mountains of xmas packets and parcels still to be delivered, thousands of xmas cards still to be sorted. Why have the managers not asked for volunteers to deliver the pkts on the bank hols Mon and Tues this week. At least the vans would have been available. Unlike in the previous weeks as the Dely offices have tried to do xmas on the cheap this time and hired hardly any extra vans. The problems where apparant early in the pressure period, but as is the usual, the we are in charge and we know best lines where sent from higher management. Xmas mail forecasts, clearance plans etc. There are some super duper higher management thanking the gods for sending the snow, a guaranteed get out of jail card for them to play. But we who work on the front line know the truth, some colleagues of mine have done 25 to 30 years and say they have never failed at xmas. This year they gave up and blamed the new systems of work and managers bluffing their way from one crisis to the next. They genuinley feel bad about failing the public, pity the heirachy dont have the same convictions.

I'm from the North West over 20 years and never seen anything like it, so much so I'm dreading tomorrow. I just hope there's FA on and gives us a chance to get sorted out a bit. I'm still waiting for a packet sent on the 15th of December, which was part of a christmas present but not essential, however it was a bespoke item which I couldn't buy elsewhere.

All my life I've dreamed of a Christmas when I would be given a bespoke item which couldn't be bought many places but it's never happened.

[maureentrix]

i work in the ne section my adom said my performance was below standard .this after 10 yrs without complaint , i also think the problem is the georouting they us is flawed and the time allocated for packets is still based on dated figures . we are told packets are the way forward but no allowance is made for the extra time taken

[ad0128]

our office cleared but then we havnt had revision yet.

due in January

[dvbuk55]

Some Dely Offices in north west are in a complete mess. Mountains of xmas packets and parcels still to be delivered, thousands of xmas cards still to be sorted. Why have the managers not asked for volunteers to deliver the pkts on the bank hols Mon and Tues this week. At least the vans would have been available. Unlike in the previous weeks as the Dely offices have tried to do xmas on the cheap this time and hired hardly any extra vans. The problems where apparant early in the pressure period, but as is the usual, the we are in charge and we know best lines where sent from higher management. Xmas mail forecasts, clearance plans etc. There are some super duper higher management thanking the gods for sending the snow, a guaranteed get out of jail card for them to play. But we who work on the front line know the truth, some colleagues of mine have done 25 to 30 years and say they have never failed at xmas. This year they gave up and blamed the new systems of work and managers bluffing their way from one crisis to the next. They genuinley feel bad about failing the public, pity the heirachy dont have the same convictions.

I'm from the North West over 20 years and never seen anything like it, so much so I'm dreading tomorrow. I just hope there's FA on and gives us a chance to get sorted out a bit. I'm still waiting for a packet sent on the 15th of December, which was part of a christmas present but not essential, however it was a bespoke item which I couldn't buy elsewhere.

All my life I've dreamed of a Christmas when I would be given a bespoke item which couldn't be bought many places but it's never happened.

It is sad ll that nobody has ever considered you worthy of a bespoke item who knows though you could well be in line in future

[Godric]

The source said a new delivery system -- known as The Way Forward -- is at the root of disruption in Fife and throughout the UK. He said new software is being used to calculate details including how long deliveries should take and how much mail should be taken on each round, and the results are plunging the post into chaos.

"It's even miscalculated the distance we have to walk," he said. "Every Christmas before, we managed to get everything out. There is not one office where this system has actually worked.

probably on purpose as well knowing how royal fail management work