Dundee's mail backlog could hit six figures

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Dundee ... gures.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie has called on Royal Mail to sit up and take notice of the problems with the delivery of mail in his constituency.

It emerged the mountain of undelivered Christmas mail items in Dundee East could run to a staggering six figures.

The depot serving the DD4 and DD5 postcode areas has suffered serious backlogs of mail since November as a result of a new system of working, then the bad weather.

Staff struggled to complete their rounds on time under the new arrangement of sending out teams of staff to deliver letters and parcels from vans.

Mail was sent out to other depots for sorting and return to Dundee East for despatch by enlarged teams of staff drafted in from far afield.

The emergency action cleared most of the first backlog, only for the bad weather to arrive and cause it to grow again.

Some of the Royal Mail's senior Scottish officials visited to see the problems—and even help on deliveries—and they promised to pull out all the stops to make it up to their Dundee East customers in time for Christmas.

On Sunday, Royal Mail admitted it had failed to clear the Christmas mail mountain on time, although it was unable to confirm that it ran to thousands of letters and parcels.

The Courier has learned the actual figure for held up-mail items in Dundee East could run into six figures—a figure which tallies with the understanding of the situation by Mr Hosie.

The problems have also come to the attention of Consumer Focus, the UK-wide statutory consumer watchdog body which seeks to persuade businesses, public services and policy makers to put consumers at the heart of what they do.

A spokesman for Consumer Focus Scotland, "It is understandable that the recent bad weather set things back and deliveries in many parts of Scotland were disrupted in the run-up to Christmas.

"The problems that consumers in Dundee East have been facing appear to be on a different scale with people reporting disrupted deliveries long before the snow set in.


Restore confidence

"We realise that Royal Mail has been putting in extra effort to try to address this but it needs to act quickly to restore confidence.

"People need to be able to rely on Royal Mail because, for most consumers, it is the only option."

Mr Hosie, who has received a deluge of complaints from constituents about the issue, said, "I welcome the input of Consumer Focus about the difficulties faced by the consumers in Dundee East.

"I think it is telling that Consumer Focus has chosen to comment specifically on this sorting office, and I hope Royal Mail management pay a great deal of attention to what has been said, particularly as Consumer Focus has powers to refer issues to the regulator for specific investigations."

The Courier has been inundated with complaints from readers about the problems at Dundee East.

The latest batch to arrive included one from Ian Milne, who has been waiting for two parcels posted to him on December 6.

He visited the depot in West Pitkerro with a card to collect a parcel and stood in a queue for 45 minutes.

When he asked if there was anything else he could collect, he was told "they were not allowed to look."

He said, "If they had done this I'm sure lots to parcels and letters would have been given to the owners, thus saving such a big backlog."

Another reader who visited the depot to collect a parcel did not blame the staff there and delivery staff, but accused management over what she described as "this shambles."

That reader asked to remain anonymous as did the next one, a woman from Monifieth, who said the Christmas of her little grandson and daughter were spoiled when the children's mail-ordered gifts did not turn up.

Her daughter is a single parent who worked hard for money to buy her children Christmas presents, but six of them have not appeared.

[blue1873]

Come now folks, it's just teething problems with the new
delivery methods hopefully it will be all be sorted in
time for Easter .......well there is no way RM are
going to admit to making a complete Roger Hunt of it now
are they,think WE know them better than that
"bunch of chancers"

[sareknees]

Must be over 300,000 at least Customers will start telling us to put the crimbo cards straight in blue waste paper bins no doubt Progress though say RM

[maisymoo04]

no what else makes me fume even more,this new delivery methods making things more harder etc.but royal f@@@ fail have got out of it at saying due to the bad weather,when they no quit right it is this stupid revision brought in.

[steven100]

Nah its got nothing to do with the revision or weather, its because all DUNDEE POSTIES ARE LAZY. END OFF

[Jimmcguinn]

What a f**kin' shambles.
How long are the RM top brass going to keep this farce going before admitting defeat?
This is people's lives they are f**king about with,but they don't seem to give a toss.

[maisymoo04]

Nah its got nothing to do with the revision or weather, its because all DUNDEE POSTIES ARE LAZY. END OFF

haha nice one stevo lad

[fishtank]

What a f**kin' shambles.
How long are the RM top brass going to keep this farce going before admitting defeat?
This is people's lives they are f**king about with,but they don't seem to give a toss.

They will never admit defeat...they can't afford to.
They will tweak the duties a bit...fiddle with the IWT some more and bully the staff a lot but admit it doesn't work....never.

What i would like to know is what the area and divisional reps have to say for themselves.....these are the guys who are supposed to have all the training in geo-route and the Indoor Work Tool.
We have heard since April that these revisions would have the full involvement of the CWU at every stage and support all the way up and down the command chain.
Didn't they spot that the revision was a bag of shite?

[POSTMAN]

Didn't they spot that the revision was a bag of shite?

I now refer you and others to one of my previous posts...
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 42&t=31243" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;