Customers wait to see if RM can deliver on promise of better

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Customers wait to see if Royal Mail can deliver on promise of better Christmas service

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Royal Mail is to introduce greater resources over the festive period in a bid to avoid the kind of chaos that hit deliveries in Dundee East last winter.
Dundee East Royal Mail delivery office

The Dundee East office was at the centre of the worst problems last winter.

An additional 30 vans are to be deployed to serve the DD postcode area, along with a ''small increase'' in the number of seasonal staff taken on.

Royal Mail says it will spend an extra £15m on this year's Christmas operation throughout the UK, which will also see the service open a nationwide parcel network for the first time.

Snow last winter brought havoc to mail deliveries in the postcode area covering Dundee, Angus and parts of Fife.

Staff struggled to clear a massive backlog of mail that had built up at the Dundee East depot, prompting hundreds of complaints from angry customers — some of whom did not receive their Christmas post until March.

It was later revealed Dundee and Angus recorded the worst quality of service figures on the mainland, with the slump blamed on the severe winter weather.

A new working system had been introduced at Dundee East just before Christmas — something seen as an added factor in the poor service suffered by customers.

Royal Mail's latest move has been welcomed by Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce chief executive Alan Mitchell. He is also advising firms to do what they can to prepare for a hard winter.

He said: ''The severe weather had a major impact on businesses in the area and it is incumbent on them to ensure they have looked at their own business and worked out how to best serve their customers if we are again hit by a bad winter.

''Hopefully the extra Royal Mail vans will help with this. No one can expect 100% service when the weather is very bad but the message to local business is — have you looked at your own organisation and how will it cope in these conditions, and are you confident that you can get orders out?

''The Royal Mail has clearly undertaken that exercise and decided on this course of action.''

However Scotland's postal union leader has warned that the Royal Mail's pledge to increase vans and temporary staff may not give a true reflection.

John Brown, Scottish regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said organisation bosses already increase the number of vans in operation over the winter.

''Without having the figures in front of me it is difficult to say if this is the case but it could turn out that the Royal Mail is being disingenuous by saying they are bringing in 30 new vans,'' he said.

''Christmas is always a busy time of year with the number of mail being processed being doubled or even trebled. We would welcome any action that will save our staff of carrying the burden of the Christmas mail but it had already been decided that more vans would be brought in."

Mr Brown called on Royal Mail to look at staffing levels, identifying this as a key area in avoiding a repeat of last year's backlog.

He went on: ''There are some managers that are more concerned in making savings than making sure a proper service is provided to customers. I would hope that the managers in Dundee and Angus will have learnt the lesson of the last two winters and not go down this road.''

Around two billion items of mail are expected to be processed by Royal Mail staff over Christmas. Online shopping and subsequent increase in the number of parcels to be delivered is a major contributor to this figure.

[DirtyHarry]

Some?
All managers in Royal Mail are more concerned about saving pennies, than providing a good service.
Royal Mail has been riding the cost-cutting merry-go-around these last 9 years, or more. All people can do these days, is shut their eyes, cross their fingers, and hope for the best.
Modernisation in this day and age, is an absolute nonsense.

[clashcityrocker]

John Brown, Scottish regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said organisation bosses already increase the number of vans in operation over the winter.
''Without having the figures in front of me it is difficult to say if this is the case but it could turn out that the Royal Mail is being disingenuous by saying they are bringing in 30 new vans,'' he said.

How come he is so off message?
We can't accuse them of being disingenuous in the age of transforming relationships? Can we?

[steven100]

I believe i believe