Christmas & Covid

[Cedar_Room]

Won't they (RM) just hire loads of temporary agency drivers to clear any backlog?

The powers that be will no doubt -as usual- prioritise expenditure in the form of processing at mail centres whilst delivery offices are left to struggle with unrealistic budgetary overtime constraints. The mantra of 'concentrate on tracked, specials and recordeds' will be interesting in light of the fact that we're barely clearing those items now and some duties are seeing 3-4 days of letter backlog remaining in the frames largely due to the usual docket kings being frozen out of overtime. As other posters have rightly pointed out that once you throw increased parcel and D2D traffic into the mix then it's a recipe for absolute meltdown. RM top brass never seem to grasp the reality that you can't accommodate the contents of a quart into a pint pot...

Plus you have to add the lapsing as well

You only lapse if you have time! Our office hasn’t done it since April,dare say it won’t be returning any time soon

[Grumpyoldmailman]

You only lapse if you have time! Our office hasn’t done it since April,dare say it won’t be returning any time soon

It will be waiting for you in the morning now you have spoken out loud

[elteleltel]

Been told not to expect your Mail to be delivered on your day off ,just Tracked .
Failures everyday , Christmas will be alot busier than now ,chaos ahead

[Munchboii]

I think there will be a big covid spike coming. Lockdown by November which will lead to more People sending Christmas cards. Will be slaughter

[twoloops]

Work your hours, take your breaks, don't work your day off, not your problem

[geordieboy123]

What about offices like mine with staggered starts, this is going to mean an expectation of us working in the dark and our ladies are already anxious about it, I’ve already made it clear I ain’t working in the dark. Speaking to other couriers on my round ie Hermes, UPS, DPD, FedEx etc they all tell me that they have been told to expect at least double the usual Xmas amount of parcels and they are all making plans to cope with it but we’re not, great.

[nightcrawler]

All the ingredients are there for it to be one of the worst xmas’s ever (in terms one workload) - online shopping through the roof, a second wave of COVID-19, increased D2Ds, no van shares, and soon we’ll be collecting returns from people on our loops!! Not to mention having to do collections now on Saturdays. It’s gonna be an absolute nightmare, but as others have said - don’t start early, take your breaks, and just work till your time.