shopping centre HCT security issue

[TheJoshen]

Hi,

I deliver to a shopping centre and, in certain places, I have to leave my trolley at the front of a store while I go to the customer service desk towards the rear (where they want to receive their mail) meaning I am away from the trolley for maybe 1 or 2 mins. The shopping centre security guards sometimes moan that I cannot leave the trolley unattended because of security bomb threat etc.

In one area I have to deliver the mail to the shopping centre's management office which is up 2 floors. I normally leave the trolley by the lift, go up 2 floors, deliver the mail, run back down. Again, takes me 2 minutes. However, they also complain about me leaving the trolley unattended there and say I have to take it up in the lift. The trolley will fit in the lift but often it is in high demand from wheelchair users or mums with buggies and the whole process then takes a lot longer than 2 mins which seems unreasonable just to deliver (sometimes) a single letter.

Are they in their rights to demand I take the trolley up in the lift? Somebody said we are not obliged to take the trolley into lifts for health & safety reasons but didn't explain why.

[Mobey]

Is there nowhere secure you can lock it too? Benches etc?

[Danelectro]

Lock the HCT up at suitable agreed point- if nothing to lock it to secure lock through wheel and on to frame so wheel can't move.Allowed to leave trolley out of sight for 10 mins in high risk area.All this should be agreed/ planned with rep etc

[Creditshampoo]

Should have all been planned and agreed when the duty was planned. It’s royal mails problem to sort out not yours, tell management you’ve had enough getting moaned and it’s up to them to plan where you park etc and talk to the shopping centre

[yellowbelly]

Is there nowhere secure you can lock it too? Benches etc?

Lock the HCT up at suitable agreed point- if nothing to lock it to secure lock through wheel and on to frame so wheel can't move.Allowed to leave trolley out of sight for 10 mins in high risk area.All this should be agreed/ planned with rep etc

Is it maybe the fact that it's an unattended big red box that could contain a suspect device rather than the fact that it's not locked up to anything?

[Danelectro]

Is it maybe the fact that it's an unattended big red box that could contain a suspect device rather than the fact that it's not locked up to anything?

Well if they think a daily Royal Mail delivery using a HCT presents a security risk they can always collect their mail or have an agreed sign in process or other security check but if it's a potential suspect device why insist he takes it up in a lift to the first and second floors.Putting out the fire with gasoline springs to mind.

[yellowbelly]

Is it maybe the fact that it's an unattended big red box that could contain a suspect device rather than the fact that it's not locked up to anything?

Well if they think a daily Royal Mail delivery using a HCT presents a security risk they can always collect their mail or have an agreed sign in process or other security check

Agree totally

but if it's a potential suspect device why insist he takes it up in a lift to the first and second floors.Putting out the fire with gasoline springs to mind.

Because generally it only becomes a security risk if it's left unattended with no apparent owner in sight as legitimacy of trolley and contents can't be easily/quickly ascertained. Perhaps security staff are quite rightly hyper sensitive at the moment as OP states trolley is only left for 1 or 2 mins,
but if it's taken up in the lift with the postie he/she can vouch for him/herself and trolley with RM ID if challenged by security staff.

Hence airport/train station announcements not to leave baggage unattended - if owner can't be found, the item then becomes suspect.
All sadly negated of course in the methods by which recent atrocities have been committed.

No doubt this could be said about leaving a trolley locked up anywhere on a street but staff at such locations such as shopping
centres are naturally sensitive about such things at the moment and quite rightly so.

[robbertwhitton]

I dare say your boss is on this problem as we speak,and will endeavour to come out with you to see for himself the issue in question,and take an interest in it and resolve it and feel rightly proud that they’ve done there bit????mmmmmm oh well.

[NewPostieUK]

I would have thought a shopping centre was a prime example of a place totally unsuited to a HCT.

Our revision was a cockup but at least the planner agreed that the town centres were unsuitable for a trolley, and that's a LWT not a HCT.

I wouldn't like to walk through a shopping centre with a BAG never mind a trolley.

[Sir Henry]

Dump this rank steaming turd of a mall cop power trip in the lap of the screws and watch their tiny minds implode.