Delivery To Neighbour National Deployment– Nationally Agreed

[POSTMAN]

ACTION To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleagues,

Delivery To Neighbour National Deployment– Nationally Agreed Guidelines

Further to LTB 1015/11, and following a successful trial carried out in 6 DSM areas discussions with Royal Mail on National Guidelines for the deployment of Delivery To Neighbour across the UK were concluded on Monday 3rd September 2012 and were subsequently cleared with the Postal Executive at its statutory meeting on 4th September 2012. The National Guidelines are included in this LTB for your information and should be circulated to all delivery units as soon as possible.

In line with the trial the delivery of an item to a neighbour will only be undertaken following an unsuccessful delivery to the original address; a neighbour is considered to be a person who lives within close proximity to the original address, and they may be a next door neighbour or someone who lives sufficiently close by.

Delivery OPGs will have the flexibility to make a judgment whether it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour. If an appropriate neighbouring address is identified by a delivery OPG, they will ask the neighbour to take receipt of the item on behalf of the addressee. If the neighbour agrees 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. On this particular point we have agreed to carry out a joint review at national level to establish the time required to carry this out. Also it is the OPG’s sole decision whether to deliver to an alternative address or not. This 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.

Customers will still be able to opt out, and this will include people who are having items delivered to them and neighbours who do not want to take items in.
They will be able to do this by displaying a sticker in a prominent location at their address (e.g. on or near their letterbox). Royal Mail will send stickers, free of charge, to customers who provide their address details to Royal Mail either via the web-site http://www.royalmail.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or via telephone to Royal Mail Customer Services via a dedicated automated phone number. This is also covered off in the national D2D drop.
Customers will be able to opt-out now or in the future and similarly, they can also cancel their opt out at any time.


It is recognised that this new service may involve some extended delivery as a consequence of delivering to alternative addresses and this should be dealt with using normal local procedures, extended delivery time resulting from delivering to a neighbour should be recorded as such.

The new service will also be subject to quarterly review where we will be able to assess the operational impact the new service has had on delivery times, enquiry offices, redeliveries and complaints.

We believe that the introduction of this new service is timely and will help to nullify other initiatives being utilised by competitors and as a Union we support its national deployment.

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

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson
CWU Assistant Secretary

ROYAL MAIL & CWU NATIONALLY AGREED GUIDELINES

DELIVERY TO NEIGHBOUR

Introduction

The 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.
Following a successful trial in 6 locations around the UK we have agreed 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 and as a consequence Deliver to Neighbour is being deployed across the nation from the end of September 2012.
Royal Mail and CWU are fully supportive of the deployment of this initiative and believe it will have a positive impact on the service and our customers.

Service Outline and Operational Processes
.
• Delivery to Neighbour will enable delivery OPG’s to deliver items that cannot be successfully delivered first time, to a neighbour instead.
• 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.
• Delivery OPG’s 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 a delivery OPG, they will ask the neighbour to take receipt of the item on behalf of the addressee. If the neighbour agrees 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.
• Revised P739 cards will be introduced for the new service. Supported by training on the correct use of the card.

Opt-Out for Customers

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 or somewhere 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 being utilised 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 product Specification

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

The process

Delivery OPG’s will at their sole discretion determine when, and where, it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour and their decision will be final. 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. Any extended delivery as a consequence of this new service will be dealt with using normal local procedures. A joint review of the time necessary to carry out this service will be conducted at national level and the outcome and any consequential impact communicated and deployed in due course.

Service Review

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

All information/data will be shared with the CWU and jointly analysed on a quarterly basis.

Signed……………………………….. Signed………………………………………
Mark Follows Royal Mail Bob Gibson CWU

Date: 4th September 2012

[fishtank]

What a crock of s**t.

On this particular point we have agreed to carry out a joint review at national level to establish the time required to carry this out

Too f***ing late.

It is recognised that this new service may involve some extended delivery as a consequence of delivering to alternative addresses and this should be dealt with using normal local procedures, extended delivery time resulting from delivering to a neighbour should be recorded as such.

Recognised by who?
If it's recognised that it could result in extended delivery where does that leave members who don't want to do...extended delivery?
Can they cut off extra?
if so how much?

Delivery OPG’s will at their sole discretion determine when, and where, it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour and their decision will be final.

So it's final?

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.

Obviously not that final then.
This isn't nationally agreed anything it's just what Royal Mail want with the cwu logo at the top.

[heathrow86]

I assume then that there will be some form of advertising campaign, explaining to joe public what Delivery to neighbour is about.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I assume then that there will be some form of advertising campaign, explaining to joe public what Delivery to neighbour is about.

D2Ds over the last 2 weeks - Did you throw yours away

[fishtank]

What Royal Mail have done with the CWU's endorsement is kill this initiative right from the start.
It may have been a good thing,they may have been able to build on it,customers and members may have come to accept and even welcome it...who knows but the opportunity has been lost because no member in their right mind is going get involved in something that will undoubtedly take longer without first being absolutely sure that extra time will be recognised and they won't face yet another fight with management over proper resourcing for their delivery.

The flyers aren't likely to do it if it means returning to the original address with a card,that's wasted time.
Those that cut off aren't likely to do it as it's hard enough to get managers to accept the amount your cutting off without adding a "delivery to neighbour" premium.
Those that work over but don't claim will hardly want to do more free work.
Those that work over but do claim will soon get bored of trying to explain to a manager why 2hrs work on paper took 2 and a half hours because of delivery to neighbour.
Who does that leave?

[Stormproof]

Being a rep/member I'm becoming very disillusioned with HQ, they seem to agree with and sign everything RM put in front of them. I've noticed a lot of National Officers seem to be on every bandwagon going instead of supporting the people that pay their wages. It is fine to battle the Coalition, Poverty etc but please remember you are meant to be looking after us aswell.

[gazzariah]

I assume then that there will be some form of advertising campaign, explaining to joe public what Delivery to neighbour is about.

Are you prepared to be a home delivery agent doing a 14 hour day franchise..... and also your leaders
Hayes and Ward are not leaders but cosy in bed WITH YOUR 3 QUID A WEEK

ARISE SIR BILLY AND DAVE YOU DESERVE A VERY LONG HOLIDAY MONGOLIA PERHAPS

[gazzariah]

Being a rep/member I'm becoming very disillusioned with HQ, they seem to agree with and sign everything RM put in front of them. I've noticed a lot of National Officers seem to be on every bandwagon going instead of supporting the people that pay their wages. It is fine to battle the Coalition, Poverty etc but please remember you are meant to be looking after us aswell.

W
WELL DONE YOU ..I RESPECT A MAN WITH BALLS

[clashcityrocker]

WELL DONE YOU ..I RESPECT A MAN WITH BALLS

AND I RESPECT A WOMAN WITH THEM EVEN MORE!

[DGP1]

WELL DONE YOU ..I RESPECT A MAN WITH BALLS

AND I RESPECT A WOMAN WITH THEM EVEN MORE!

I more fear them

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Another ill thought through change...

Why would RM spend millions(?) on revising walks for P&L delivery methods (albeit badly), knowing full well that ~50% of attendence call items fail everyday costing (78?) seconds per call before the "leaving with a neighbour kicks" in, so walks will need to be downsized further to allow for this pretty major change in deliver service?

Lets say a 650 walk gets 60 attendence call items, ~30 in theory will need an extra minute to try a neighbour and then need further time to go back to the orignial address to say where parcel has been left (so lets say 2mins30secs once P739 has been written and posted through). So there is ~75 minutes extra delivery time straight off, the best part of 225 delivery points that will need to be cut-off just to finish at a similar time to when leaving parcels with neighbours was not in place!

But it gets worse when the original 650 delievery points walk was already going over by about an hour and the duty holder was already easily leaving a row behind to finish on time, imagine the stress of arguing with a lino that you need to leave the best part of another row behind because of leaving packets with neighbours. And what if your lino lets you take just over half the round out, but then every single attendence call packet gets delivered to the intended address and you end up finishing >30 minutes early beacuse the law of averages failed you?

Absolute minefield.

[westlondonpostie]

Why wasn't this an opt in scheme rather than an opt out one?
How many customers are going to bother sending off for this sticker to stick on the letterbox.

[dvbuk55]

Does anyone know exactly what date it starts - it just says "at the end of September" so that's another well communicated piece of data - or maybe RM haven't told the men in suits when to say it's starting. Can't wait for the next "Joint statement", I think it's time the pretence was dropped.

[Stormproof]

I thought it said the 1st Sept on the d2ds

[dvbuk55]

I thought it said the 1st Sept on the d2ds

"as a consequence Deliver to Neighbour is being deployed across the nation from the end of September 2012."

??????????? We haven't started yet