Delivery to neighbour nationally agreed guidelines - Reissue

[Geezer]

Dear Colleagues,

Please find attached LTB 682a/12. This LTB was originally issued on 6th September as LTB 682/12 but had the wrong attachment.
It is therefore now reissued with the correct attachment.
The previous LTB 682/12 and it’s attachment should be discarded/destroyed.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Hayley Nutley
Bob Gibson’s Office
CWU HQ
150 The Broadway
Wimbledon
London
SW19 1RX

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Letter to Branches





No. 682a/12 Ref: 530 Date: 17th September 12


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

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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 have the sole responsibility to decide if, when, and where, it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour. 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

[gazzariah]

WHAT IS MEANT BY EXTENDED DELIVERY. AND IMPACTING ON YOUR RIGHTS TO WORK YOUR CONTRACTED HOURS. YOU LOT THE (CWU) HAVE TO BE REALLY MEMBERSHIP AWARE. WE ARE ALLREADY BEING PUT UNDER UNHEALTHY STRESS BY RECENT REVISIONS .BUT YOU DONT COMUNICATE WITH YOUR MEMBERS YOU JUST SIGN OUR LIVES AWAY WHAT KIND OF UNION IS THAT. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE A MEMBERS THING WE PAY YOU TALK TO US FIRST.

[noggin1969]

Delivery OPG’s have the sole responsibility to decide if, when, and where, it is appropriate to deliver to a neighbour. 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.

[DirtyHarry]

'Customers will still be able to opt out.'

Errrmmm, 'Customers' didn't 'opt in' to this nonsense in the first place. Why should they be put to the unnecessary bother of 'opting out' of something, they didn't 'opt' into?
I wouldn't have the people that make these awful decisions, anywhere near a whelk stall, let alone a nation's postal service.

[dvbuk55]

So has the regulator agreed this yet? We haven't yet been given a definitive date - though the new cards have arrived, the pamphlets went out without a date and people keep asking when it's going to start and we can't tell them.