Trial an April Fool?

[lillywhite]

Yesterday a man walking round the office was introduced to the staff as a ‘Royal Mail ideas man’ and was going to use our office for one of them. Today in WTL one of these ideas was run by us. Every elderly person on our rounds would be invited to be placed on a list for the postman who would then knock on their door and ask 5 questions that had been pre loaded onto the PDA and depending on their answers would result in what action/task the postman would take. This has been agreed with the government. Forgive me if any of this is not right but it is what we were told this morning.

[chickenwittle]

Yesterday a man walking round the office was introduced to the staff as a ‘Royal Mail ideas man’ and was going to use our office for one of them. Today in WTL one of these ideas was run by us. Every elderly person on our rounds would be invited to be placed on a list for the postman who would then knock on their door and ask 5 questions that had been pre loaded onto the PDA and depending on their answers would result in what action/task the postman would take. This has been agreed with the government. Forgive me if any of this is not right but it is what we were told this morning.

I would say to him I have an idea, get a proper job .

[Bernardson]

French Post have a scheme where a rural post person visits an elderly person for 30 minutes a day every week and has a cup of tea/coffee/wine and a chat!

[Lounge Lizard]

Yesterday a man walking round the office was introduced to the staff as a ‘Royal Mail ideas man’ and was going to use our office for one of them. Today in WTL one of these ideas was run by us. Every elderly person on our rounds would be invited to be placed on a list for the postman who would then knock on their door and ask 5 questions that had been pre loaded onto the PDA and depending on their answers would result in what action/task the postman would take. This has been agreed with the government. Forgive me if any of this is not right but it is what we were told this morning.

"and ask 5 questions"
(1) Why did you take so long to answer the door ?
(2) Why is your letter box near the bottom of your door ?
(3) Will you take this parcel in for Mrs Smith at number 20 ?
(3) When are you going to clear from your drive the weeds that are becoming a trip hazard ?
(5) Do you realise that it's only -- weeks until Christmas ?

[ArthurPewty]

Yesterday a man walking round the office was introduced to the staff as a ‘Royal Mail ideas man’ and was going to use our office for one of them. Today in WTL one of these ideas was run by us. Every elderly person on our rounds would be invited to be placed on a list for the postman who would then knock on their door and ask 5 questions that had been pre loaded onto the PDA and depending on their answers would result in what action/task the postman would take. This has been agreed with the government. Forgive me if any of this is not right but it is what we were told this morning.

Fantastic! That's a loop or two off everyone's round, lighter workload and creation of a load of new jobs/upgrades to F/T jobs.
Being paid to chat to the punters, what's not to like

Hang on.........he's saying something.............. "No extra time factored into the walk."
Think we'll give it a miss mate, but hey, come back & share some more of these anytmie

[pinstripe]

[quote="lillywhite"]

1. Yesterday a man walking round the office was introduced to the staff as a ‘Royal Mail ideas man’
Someone spouting complete nonsense? No wonder your DOM assumed he was a “higher up”

Every elderly person on our round
how would half of the posties know who was elderly when they keep having their duties changed?

This has been agreed with the government
what on earth would it have to do with the government? We’re a private business now

[Celgar]

I'm not at all surprised that RM would come up with something like this. The majority of the pages in The courier are full of this community type stories stuff. That alone should show RM that we do keep an eye out for anything untoward or odd. I'm always pointing out to customers that they have left their house/car keys in the lock outside their front doors!! So they don't need to enforce some kind of system like this on us when we don't have paid hours to complete the duty most days.
Wouldn't be surprised if this idea came from the government either. They have a habit of ordering organisations and private companies to things. Notably ordering housing associations to sell on some of their houses for example.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

French Post have a scheme where a rural post person visits an elderly person for 30 minutes a day every week and has a cup of tea/coffee/wine and a chat!

So do Jersey https://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communi ... lit=JERSEY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[noggin1969]

Sounds like the old days on a rural , cup of tea stop every village. Unfortunately most of the old dears have died off and their house bought by " professional types " who look at you as though you're something they've stepped in.

[Mobey]

But if you deliver to someone whose elderly and through the letterbox.

You see they're lying on the floor, freezing cold, hungry and dehydrated. They could have been on the floor for 5 minutes or even 72 hours, you could save their life!

We're all busy but it doesn't take long just check them!

[Lounge Lizard]

But if you deliver to someone whose elderly and through the letterbox.

You see they're lying on the floor, freezing cold, hungry and dehydrated. They could have been on the floor for 5 minutes or even 72 hours, you could save their life!

We're all busy but it doesn't take long just check them!

Yes, of course, but the plan is "Every elderly person on our rounds would be invited to be placed on a list for the postman who would then knock on their door and ask 5 questions that had been pre loaded onto the PDA and depending on their answers would result in what action/task the postman would take" so what happens if there's no answer when you knock on their door and you can't see through the letterbox ?
Do you assume that a neighbour might have taken them out for the day or do you assume that they're lying on the floor, freezing cold, hungry, dehydrated and phone the police and then wait ages for them to arrive by which time you've failed on a couple of 1pm Special Deliveries ?
And you think "it doesn't take long just check them".

[lillywhite]

3 things struck me straight away,
1.As soon as the government was mentioned I wondered if this was a money saving device,rather than pay for trained or qualified service providers to the elderly.
2. What were the 5 questions?
3. It was put to us as if we just walked around ignoring any elderly/vulnerable people on our rounds. I would imagine most of us aware of these kind of people and keep an eye out anyway.
As I say it is just going to be trialled at the moment.

[LouBarlow]

I have two OAP homes on my round. Do I have to chat to every person individually or load them all up into the hall?

[Mobey]

Sorry, to ask them 5 questions is stupid and time consuming.

I'm just saying if you post the letters or packets. Just a quick check to see they're not lying on the floor. If they're normally in at the time.

Why would you phone the police when you could phone the fire service and ambulance service?

[DB1100]

Why do they assume every old person is a bumbling idiot who is incapable of looking after themselves,most old folk I know would see this as an unwanted intrusion,a quick hello is enough.