Offices 'officially' in trouble?

[Cucumber]

What I can't understand is that there are clearly walks going out every single day, yet the uncovered ones are going out once a week if lucky.

In our DO you have OPGs who have managed to keep their duties up to date...whether it be by skipping breaks, working their days off, coming in early, having a decent duty or just being efficient posties, doesn't really matter.

Fact is, their duties are going out every day and not failing. If a manager was to start taking them off their duties to cover others that aren't going out then I should imagine all hell would break loose and the last remnants of morale would sever and snap. The OPG would think 'what's the point?' and the duties that weren't failing would start failing and it'd all be an even bigger mess than it is now.

And Simon's list of failing DOs would become of truly biblical proportions....

You’ve hit the mail on the head though. It doesn’t really matter how these people are completing their duties, it states on the RM site that offices in trouble will have mail deliveries rotated. This is clearly not the case and it’s a sad indictment of management that they are happy to fail walks for a week and others get mail every day.

[eastie]

The street I live on hasn't had a delivery for a week now ( apart from tracked ) , about 2/3rds of the rounds had full or partial failures yesterday and the office is not " on the list "

Goodness only knows what state some of these offices must be in

Only a week!!!!!! you are lucky, some areas haven't had any mail since Christmas

[Kenfandango]

We were told ours is now on the list, though it doesn't seem to have shown up yet.
We have maybe 5/6 people that bounce about the place doing every route that's failing, but often they're chucked on something they did once 3 years ago and it has 4 days of mail piled up around it. It's like managers are only plugging the holes when it's too late.
One of the longest serving guys there asked a manager
"When someone's off sick, why not just ask everyone who's on a nearby route to take half a loop and leave the lightest loop of their own one? If you did that every 2 days everything would get done"
The manager blinked a few times and walked away

[Cucumber]

We were told ours is now on the list, though it doesn't seem to have shown up yet.
We have maybe 5/6 people that bounce about the place doing every route that's failing, but often they're chucked on something they did once 3 years ago and it has 4 days of mail piled up around it. It's like managers are only plugging the holes when it's too late.
One of the longest serving guys there asked a manager
"When someone's off sick, why not just ask everyone who's on a nearby route to take half a loop and leave the lightest loop of their own one? If you did that every 2 days everything would get done"
The manager blinked a few times and walked away

I got bounced, at short notice onto a run with mail still from pre Christmas on it, and not surprisingly into double digit number of letters for many houses. I posted a large number through the letterbox and a few minutes later the homeowner came running after me saying thanks for the mail, but where is the rest of it. They are waiting on important documents sent locally and theres an excellent chance that it's still sitting stacked up beside the duty. Just 2 streets away are duties that are fully staffed and are getting mail and parcels every single day.

[yellowbelly]

It really is a shocking state of affairs. How is the Regulator not crawling up RM's ass right now?

The irony is that if you go to OFCOM website 'to complain about postal services' it tells you to complain to......

Royal Mail Customer Services!!!

[Mr Rush]

it states on the RM site that offices in trouble will have mail deliveries rotated.

Is the reverse true: if deliveries are being rotated then it is ipso facto an 'office in trouble'? Then it's just a matter of whether it's been declared or not, and at this point the list is clearly only the tip of the iceberg. Some of my colleagues are only managing to clear one loop daily and day off cover is non-existent, but our office isn't on the list.

[twoloops]

One of the longest serving guys there asked a manager

Every delivery office got one, someone who thinks they can run it better let’s them fall on their face, it’s not your problem

[deltaforce]

One of the longest serving guys there asked a manager

Every delivery office got one, someone who thinks they can run it better let’s them fall on their face, it’s not your problem

Directly no,but indirectly possibly. If the unreliability continues mailing users/companies will go elsewhere and lost of traffic will lead to office hours being cut.

[POSTMAN]

OPG

We've got more than a quarter of our staff off but we've just been told we have to send bodies to Eccles DO everyday day because they've been on the news and we haven't! ha ha

Head of Delivery Performance at Royal Mail Group

I have been in Eccles today working with the team there and ######### the CWU rep to provide good service to the customers. We have had to move a small amount of people in there for a couple of days not because we may [be] on the news but because we must maintain customer service. The Eccles team just need some help to get straight and then we can fix the route cause. Apologies again please bear with us this is the right decision as they 30% short on the resources they need. Our goal as Simon says is to provide great customer service for all offices. Apologies again and thank you for helping out it is really appreciated - thank you

[DGH]

Head of Delivery Performance at Royal Mail Group

then we can fix the route cause.

Freudian slip?

[Route1]

We were told ours is now on the list, though it doesn't seem to have shown up yet.
We have maybe 5/6 people that bounce about the place doing every route that's failing, but often they're chucked on something they did once 3 years ago and it has 4 days of mail piled up around it. It's like managers are only plugging the holes when it's too late.
One of the longest serving guys there asked a manager
"When someone's off sick, why not just ask everyone who's on a nearby route to take half a loop and leave the lightest loop of their own one? If you did that every 2 days everything would get done"
The manager blinked a few times and walked away

Its a good point and I agree it should be done this way. I would go further and say drop two loops for one loop of the uncovered duty. The reality is I'd be annoyed if I was asked to drop one of my duty loops to do half a loop of someone else's duty.

[DDDJAM36]

The never ending story of Royal Mail going under , sinking further into a quagmire of its own making

[yellowbelly]

Its a good point and I agree it should be done this way. I would go further and say drop two loops for one loop of the uncovered duty. The reality is I'd be annoyed if I was asked to drop one of my duty loops to do half a loop of someone else's duty.

Not excusing RM's mismanagement and incapcity to organise a party in a back garden, but why would you be annoyed
to drop a loop to do a loop on another of 'someone else's duty' - it's work, whether it's 'your' round or 'someone else's' round,
as long as you've got time within your contracted hours to do it.

[POSTMAN]

The problem is Bob or Sue only wants to do their own duty and they know that if they shout and stamp their feet loud enough, the manager will give up asking for duties to be done on a rota basis so that the work does not build up on some.
Royal Mail management at its best.

Sometimes I do genuinely want to be on the dark side.

[Dorset Plodder]

The problem is Bob or Sue only wants to do their own duty and they know that if they shout and stamp their feet loud enough, the manager will give up asking for duties to be done on a rota basis so that the work does not build up on some.
Royal Mail management at its best.

Sometimes I do genuinely want to be on the dark side.

I agree. Always the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. What tends to happen in my DO is "The Grizzlers" (you know the ones with the biggest/hardest duties in the office ... that always manage to finish early... probably because they're just Superhuman Posties, and we're all Lazy Bastards) They basically please themselves and only do their own duties (often using the excuse that they don't know any other duties... because they've been on the same cushy duty for the last decade).

Meanwhile the DOM will fail several duties because he can't cover them. Next day the PTers will be moved onto a Failed duty with two days mail. The following day they'll be moved onto another duty, that Failed the day before, and they'll have two days mail to deliver on that one.

Unfortunately the PTers are normally New Starters, who don't know any better.