Royal Mail delays: We posted Christmas cards from across Oxford to see how long they took to arrive

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.oxfordshirelive.co.uk/news/ ... as-6308168

People in Oxford have complained about severe postal delays, so we decided to put Royal Mail to the test by posting Christmas cards from the affected areas

People across Oxford have been complaining about their letters and packages being delayed.

One woman from Wheatley was even advised to send her Christmas cards a whole six weeks early in order to ensure they arrived on time.

At OxfordshireLive, we decided to put Royal Mail to the test by sending Christmas cards from some of the supposedly worst-hit areas of Oxford to a variety of locations around the county, and measuring the time it took for them to arrive.

So how long would the festive cards take to arrive when sent via Royal Mail second class?

Card number 1: Summertown to the Slade

Summertown residents have complained about slow post (Image: OxfordshireLive)
First up on my posting experiment I journeyed to Summertown, in north Oxford, to send a card to the Slade area of Oxford, which is right at the opposite end of town.

After a while of cycling in the dark, I spotted a post box on the side of the road which would do nicely. I slapped on my stamp and popped the card in the postbox on Friday night - it would be collected at 11am on Saturday.

The card arrived at its destination the following Monday, so took only two days - which I thought was pretty good considering the post doesn’t run on a Sunday.

Final result: Two days (including Sunday)


Card numbers 2 and 3: Blackbird Leys to Witney and Henley

Cards two and three were going to opposite ends of the county (Image: OxfordshireLive)
This time, my experiment took me to the south of Oxford and a bit outside of the city. Blackbird Leys was one of the areas that was reportedly the worst hit by the postal issues, with reports of the sorting office in the area having piles of mail not being delivered.

I chose to send two cards from this location to see if there would be any difference in their arrival time if the destination of the cards differed since Witney and Henley-on-Thames are on opposite sides of Oxfordshire.

The post was getting collected from the postbox at 9am on Tuesday and the Witney card arrived the next day, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Henley card arrived a day later, on Thursday.

So one or two days with a second class stamp, which isn’t bad.

Final result: One and two days

Card number 4: Headington to Banbury

The OX3 postcode, which is the Headington area of Oxford, has also reported many issues regarding their post. So it seemed fitting to post my final card from there.

This time the card was travelling to Banbury, and it arrived the following day through second class mail, which is the turnaround time you would usually expect if you forked out for a first class stamp.

The post was collected at 4:45pm on Monday and it arrived in Banbury on Tuesday - so an even quicker turnaround than the next day delivery to Witney.

Final result: One day


Final thoughts
For our experiment, we seemed to have found the service working well, in fact, for second class postage I was quite surprised by the speed at which some of the cards arrived.

[deltaforce]

Should have sent cards to the affected areas, not from….

[scoobydo79]

[TopperGas]

Should have sent cards to the affected areas, not from….

Perhaps the experiment was sponsored by the Royal Mail!!!

[fojacko]

Should have sent cards to the affected areas, not from….

Perhaps the experiment was sponsored by the Royal Mail!!!

Sounds like it. I'm in shrewsbury, I recieved a bill from O2 today that was dated 30th November and a letter from the doctors that was dated the 6th December. Both "1st class", I appreciate that the posties are being overworked so I don't blame them, but the royal mail head office really need to get the head from between their legs. Have a coworker who had to use her parent's card for purchases because her replacement card took 2 and a half weeks to get to her. It's embarrasing really.