LTB Delivery To Neighbour Trial–Nationally Agreed Guidelines

[Geezer]

Letter to Branches


No. 1015/11 Ref: 530 Date: 28th November 2011


To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleagues,

Delivery To Neighbour Trial – Nationally Agreed Guidelines

Further to LTB 922/11 we have this morning concluded our discussions with Royal Mail regarding agreed guidelines for the trial which were subsequently cleared with the Postal Executive at a Special PEC earlier today, and which are attached for your information.

It will be noted that all information/data generated by the trial will be shared with the CWU and jointly analysed. Furthermore Royal Mail has fully accepted that the judgement of the delivery OPG in determining an alternative delivery address or not will be final and at their sole discretion. This is has been included to avoid any challenge to our members in relation to their choice of alternative addresses.

If however there are any customer complaints arising as a consequence of the delivery OPG’s decision this will be brought to the attention of the individual and CWU rep to find a mutually acceptable solution for any further instances requiring a delivery to an alternative to the original address.

It is recognised that this trial will involve some extended delivery as a consequence of delivering to alternative addresses and this should be dealt with using normal local procedures.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 530.
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson
CWU Assistant Secretary

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ROYAL MAIL & CWU NATIONALLY AGREED TRIAL GUIDELINES

DELIVERY TO NEIGHBOUR TRIAL

Introduction

This trial is being conducted in line with the introduction and key objectives of the Delivery Section of BT 2010 and beyond. Both parties recognise that continued growth in the UK home-shopping market and customers’ expectations for greater delivery convenience means we want to improve customer experience by improving our first time delivery success.
Royal Mail is the only carrier in the UK that does not formally allow items to be left with neighbours if the receiving customer is not available.
Research indicates that 90% of customers would be happy to have their items delivered to a neighbour if they were not at home. This means that Customers should be able to receive goods quicker; collect them at a more convenient time with minimal effort; not have to travel to collect items and incur any costs in doing so.
We would like to understand the operational impact this change would have on delivery times, callers offices, redeliveries and complaints. This trial will enable us to gather evidence to see if this is something that is viable and we might wish to deploy further. Royal Mail has gained approval from the regulator, to run this Delivery to Neighbour Trial

Trial Outline and Operational Processes
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• The Delivery to Neighbour trial will enable delivery OPG’s to deliver items that cannot be successfully delivered first time, to a neighbour instead.
• For the purposes of the trial a neighbour will be considered to be a person who lives within close proximity to the original address. They may be a next door neighbour or someone who lives sufficiently close by.
• The delivery OPG will be free to use their initiative to decide which neighbour an item shall be left with, based on their local knowledge and experience.
• If an appropriate neighbouring address is identified by the delivery OPG, they will ask the neighbour to take receipt of the item on behalf of the addressee. If they agree to do so, the Delivery OPG will record the neighbouring address onto the P739 delivery card, and will then post this at the original address. Some P739’s will require a signature.
• If the delivery OPG believes there is no appropriate alternative address where an item can be left, then items should be returned to the Delivery Office in the normal way.
• Trial P739 cards will be used for the duration of the trial. There are two types of P739 ‘Something for you’ cards. The difference relates to the amount of information required about the neighbour.
• Half of the trial units will use a P739 card which requires only the address of the neighbour to be completed. The other half will use a P739 card that requires the address and name of the neighbour to be completed. The customer must be asked to write their name onto this type of card.

Opt-Out for Customers

For the duration of the trial customers will be able to opt out, this will include those who are having items delivered to them and neighbours who do not want to take things in. These customers will be responsible for displaying an Opt-Out sticker on their letterbox or window that is clearly visible to delivery staff
To do this the customer must contact Royal Mail Customer Services by telephone or by using the dedicated website that has been set up. A range of communications are planned to inform customers of the Opt-Out process.

Customers opting out will retain the option of collecting their items from their local delivery office. In addition the Opt Out customer must not be asked to accept an item for their neighbour. Delivery staff must therefore return the item to the delivery office using normal Undeliverable processes.

Trial Duration

The trial will run for three months in the six delivery sector areas listed below starting on 28 November 2011
• Edinburgh Central
• Wigan/Bolton
• Swansea East
• Norwich
• Gatwick North
• Hull

Trial product Specification

Packets, Tracked, and Recorded Signed for products are all included in the trial.
Special Delivery and International items requiring a signature are not part of the trial and normal operational processes will continue to apply to these items.

Personnel Issues

Royal Mail fully accepts that the judgement of the delivery OPG in determining an alternative delivery address or not will be final and at their sole discretion. Any complaints arising as a consequence of the delivery OPG’s decision will be brought to the attention of the individual and CWU rep to find a mutually acceptable solution. Furthermore any extended delivery as a consequence of this trial will be dealt with using normal local procedures.

Trial Review

A range of measures have been identified and will be used to determine how successful the trial has been. Currently trial sites are reporting P739 volumes on a daily/ weekly basis. This will continue throughout the trial.

Additionally, delivery units will capture information relating to the amount of items successfully delivered (either to the addressee or their neighbour). Delivery units in the same delivery sector will perform the same data capture – so we can measure the impact Delivery to Neighbour has had on Undeliverable volumes using trial and non trial site information.

Information will also be gathered to enable an assessment of the operational impact this trial has had on delivery times, Enquiry offices, redeliveries and complaints.

All information/data will be shared with the CWU and jointly analysed.




Signed……………………………….. Signed………………………………………
Royal Mail CWU



Date……………………………………

[Cut Off King]

Furthermore any extended delivery as a consequence of this trial will be dealt with using normal local procedures.

What if OPG's don't want to extend past their contracted hours ?
Its all very well running from house to house with packets but that could add 20-40min to a delivery.

Most of us do have a life outside RM.