Delivering to schools during school holidays

olilew · Post by **olilew** » 23 Jul 2019, 16:35

antcpfc wrote:
olilew wrote:Been standing practice in our office for years. If a school hasn't put a keepsafe in, our manager tells us to try and deliver each day and if you can't deliver kill off that days mail.
Ridiculous. Takes more time than keeping it and sending it in one lump,who would know?

I think Revenue Protection may disagree with you on that one and I for one am not getting fired for keeping mail in without an official Keepsafe.

Chupacabra74 · Post by **Chupacabra74** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:09

olilew wrote:Been standing practice in our office for years. If a school hasn't put a keepsafe in, our manager tells us to try and deliver each day and if you can't deliver kill off that days mail.

I think you are supposed to try 3 times then kill it off

Post by **97gaz** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:13

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:29

thedonkey wrote:We have been told to let the school know that any mail that can't be delivered will be written off and returned to sender. Message given to receptionist but i have no way of knowing if the message has been passed onto the headteacher or business manager.

then not your problem is it ?

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:31

TrueBlueTerrier wrote:Daft thing is for a relatively low-cost rate, someone in marketing could send letters to all schools and businesses advising them of Keep Safe.

As of 2013, there were 24,372 schools in the UK. Sending them a letter in late June (for argument's sake lets say it costs 30p per letter) would cost circa £7300.

At £49.50 for each school (66 days option) it would mean to break even they would only need roughly 150 schools taking it up.

Anything more would be profit

We have written to schools in our area before and we posties have even spoken to the school secretaries to try and encourage them to take out keepsafes but to no avail.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:35

97gaz wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:
clashcityrocker wrote:Many businesses request that their mail is retained over the weekend if they are shut on Saturday.
There is even a facility on the PDA to scan their barcoded items as "retention".
AFAIK they have to pay for that, no mention on the RM business price list of a Saturday Retention service, only Keepsafe
Saturday (or any other weekday) retention is free.

My gut feeling is that it's actually keepsafe that isn't being paid for

Post by **CPTNemoUK** » 23 Jul 2019, 20:28

On Saturday the whole office takes tracked Saturday retentions to the cage so they can be scanned. So must be free because its every business that is shut in the office.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 23 Jul 2019, 21:28

CPTNemoUK wrote:On Saturday the whole office takes tracked Saturday retentions to the cage so they can be scanned. So must be free because its every business that is shut in the office.

I would have thought that Saturday retentions would be listed on the RM website if they existed as a service

Seymour Buts · Post by **Seymour Buts** » 23 Jul 2019, 23:02

Our office writes every year, to no avail. Most never bother. We've now been told we have to take it out everyday, for six weeks, literally. I have three schools on my partner walk! We've not gonna have any room for oversized after a few weeks!

Post by **97gaz** » 23 Jul 2019, 23:15

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 24 Jul 2019, 12:15

SpacePhoenix wrote:
97gaz wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:
clashcityrocker wrote:Many businesses request that their mail is retained over the weekend if they are shut on Saturday.
There is even a facility on the PDA to scan their barcoded items as "retention".
AFAIK they have to pay for that, no mention on the RM business price list of a Saturday Retention service, only Keepsafe
Saturday (or any other weekday) retention is free.
My gut feeling is that it's actually keepsafe that isn't being paid for

No its a service Royal Mail offer and send letters confirming it regularly. usually organised by the local DOM.

It is free, but not centrally recorded.

Alexei · Post by **Alexei** » 25 Jul 2019, 09:10

I usually attempt for the three days upon receiving the items, marking the date and if no access, then I return it. It's really something I hate when floating duties and there is a few heavy trays worth of mail from the start of the holidays, often not even attempted and assumed to be closed when there's actually a caretaker present. Many in my office take for granted that schools are closed on Saturdays also, when more often than not, a caretaker is present.

Captrooper · Post by **Captrooper** » 27 Jul 2019, 18:13

we write to every school 2 weeks before every school holiday in our office via recorded delivery and if they do not take the keep safe out their mail is returned. we have had an increase of uptake leading up to this summer holiday.
the one day a week retention is standard operating procedure but like said before must be back up by the official letter, not my favourite time of year as part of my A+ as it means writing to 300+ firms

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 27 Jul 2019, 21:50

You can try to deliver it for 3 days or between Christmas and New year you can leave it in if they do not require delivery after that kill off is the rule now.

sirchewey · Post by **sirchewey** » 28 Jul 2019, 10:22

I thought writing on live mail was now frowned upon and we were to utilise the small grey inaccessible stickers, which give 6 working days and advise of reasons as to why we couldn't deliver. Each item of mail should have these on so when we kill the mail off at the end of the cycle we would not be batch killing mail which has only just come into the system. I might be wrong but thought this was now standard practice.