Returning Packets when office is closed.

[Lee Best]

Hi im very new to the Royal mail
Because of this i am quite slow at the moment while im getting to grips with it.

Just a question regarding Saturdays.

Ive heard they close the office quite early on Saturdays. Quite early in afternoon.
Just wondering what would you do with any Packets that you have got to go back? If the office is closed?

Cant take em back cos its closed up but i suppose you cant keep them with you either or take them home.

Hopefully id be speeding up soon when i have a few weeks experience.

[crazyshrew]

that's a question you need to ask your manager.

In theory there should be someone there until all the posties are back (duty of care and all that) in reality that doesn't always happen.

we have a code lock so if necessary we can let ourselves back in, throw the packets in the direction of the callers office and bugger off, but then there usually is still someone there unless we've gone out on OT

[Pat Ostman]

This is a common problem within Royal Mail for new starters and it can occasionally catch out people who have worked for Royal Mail for sometime.

Royal Mail managers MUST wait for the last person to return before they can close the doors. If they do not they have abandoned their own duty. As mentioned that does not always happen although it should. Have a little chat with the manager about it as you should be able to get so far into the office with a regular ID card.

[spen]

take them to a post office

[UnhappyGremlin]

take them to a post office

But most PO's close at lunchtime. Only a small portion are open after 13.00pm. What do you do if you can't?
Someone should wait in the office until you're done and have returned.

[Stormproof]

take them to a post office

Post Offices close earlier than a DO on a Saturday.

[spen]

take them to a post office

Post Offices close earlier than a DO on a Saturday.

my mistake,were still out on the streets at 7am of a saturday and dont get this problem

[DGP1]

Don't take them home, under no circumstances do that (that way the sack lies).

As said before, ask the manager what to do and insist on an answer, involve the union rep in this if necessary but get the answer, it could be putting them in a postbox (one of the large meter boxes is great if you have access to one) or maybe putting them in the back of a van left at the office, plenty of things you can do but it's really up to the manager to sort out.

[north london driver]

so once again the new regine has struck under our new revision due to later starts and longer saturday workings most offices are shut for staff to return to with there 739,s.as for managers working these times staff need to wake up managers never work there times on a saturday.if royal mail and the cwu keep putting our duty times starting later
our service will decline even more.its a bit of a worry that the same mangement and union leaders meet every week about our wage deal cannot wait for the famous line well its the best deal you will get.
just hope when our pretend ballot papers come out that the members of our union remember the last deal.

[fishtank]

There should be some contingency plan in place.

One saturday years ago I got a knock at my door on a Saturday afternoon from a relatively new start,I look out to see a Royal Mail van parked outside my house.

The poor guy was bricking it.He had turned up at the office to find it closed,had no idea what to do with the van or what was in it or more importantly how to get his car and house keys back out of the office.
I knew where our (proper old school)PHG lived and I knew he had a set of keys so we drove round to his house only to find he had gone to his caravan for the weekend.

The last resort was the manager's house which was a big posh thing out in the country so we rolled up his very long drive only to find he was entertaining his even posher in-laws for the day.
They were not impressed when the old LDV Pilot pulled up alongside their Mercedes and a couple of posties rolled out.
He threw the keys at us,didn't even offer us a drink

[pokos27]

usually you would take them to a post office

[north london driver]

usually you would take them to a post office

what time your post-office shut at on a saturday then?

[Lounge Lizard]

usually you would take them to a post office

what time your post-office shut at on a saturday then?

12.30pm usually, but probably later some of those in Co-ops and WHSmiths ( although no collections until Monday )

[zooom]

How does a situation like this even arise? It is staggering how unprofessional Royal Mail really is.

[Speedmeister]

I too have had this problem not long after I started at RM. I was on an HCT round & not knowing the place was locked up earlier on a Saturday arrived back at the gate at just after 4 pm. Luckily the HCT was empty so I rang my lino up to see what I should do with it & i was told to try & hide the HCT somewhere - luckily a neighbour came out & let me leave it behind his car in his garage.