We used to delivery in the dark when I started even on scary council estates.
Yes we did.
In the morning.
No comparison.
Lets face it it's not like there aren't any street lights these days in a vast majority of areas that get delivered to and other courier can be out till 10pm
You pull up outside an address in a van, go up the path and deliver the parcel.
Again.
No comparison.
Walking the streets after dark at night is far more dangerous than in the morning, factor in fatigue, pubs being open, kids being around, junkies and predators of all kind and you have a nasty environment for anyone to work in.
I'm a guy and it worries me, if I was female and the business genuinely goes down this route I would probably jack it in rather than put myself at such a high level of risk.
It's not the same as working in the morning and it's not the same as multi-drop courier work. It's walking in and out of dark alleyways, blocks of flats, poorly lit lanes and remote areas at exactly the time most assaults happen.
Trivialising that risk is the kind of thing Simon who knows f**k all about the job likes to do.
We shouldn't.
I see your points and agree with them but let's face it OPG's have been working in the dark, to some degree or other, for a very long time. Look at how many have done O/T during the winter months on delivery and no manager has every stopped them or OPG say their not going out with a bag on their backs because it's dark and something could happen. Or what about those in Scotland who work in lower light levels due to less daylight in the winter months.
It's not trivialising the situation it's showing it's already happening or happened and the company are going to exploit that and what the union and members should be doing is getting concrete information on how the company plan to implement all these new working practises so that it can be pulled apart before it's even agreed to and implemented.
Every pay rise has gone the same way, the company say what they want but never really say how it's all going to work. The pay rise gets voted in and OPG's walk into the D.O. to be confronted with the unworkable only to be told by management " you voted for it".
I've overran at Christmas a few times over the years and ended up delivering in darkness. You don't believe it would have any effect until you're clutching a railing like a 90 year old going up or down stairs you've traversed a hundred times. A torch does not hold a candle to the Sun.
Solution: push the start times so far back it's the next day. I await my 100k bonus.
I've ended up delivering as late as 6pm on heavier volume winter days. Between lack of visibility and frozen hands, my delivery rate dropped off a cliff.
One thing that needs to be done in any case, something that can only be done by the government is to make it a requirement in law that every last property in the UK has the number or name clearly displayed at the entrance to the property
One thing that needs to be done in any case, something that can only be done by the government is to make it a requirement in law that every last property in the UK has the number or name clearly displayed at the entrance to the property
Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847 as revised in 2016
Numbers of houses to be renewed by occupiers.
The occupiers of houses and other buildings in the streets shall mark their houses with such numbers as the commissioners approve of, and shall renew such numbers as often as they become obliterated or defaced; and every such occupier who fails, within one week after notice for that purpose from the commissioners, to mark his house with a number approved of by the commissioners, or to renew such number when obliterated, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £20], and the commissioners shall cause such numbers to be marked or to be renewed, as the case may require, and the expense thereof shall be repaid to them by such occupier and shall be recoverable as damages.
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I Wrote-During Covid-Which is still relevant now
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been. My BFF Clash The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
He used to be a milkman-so there-he knows you know
#We have enough bottles-just not enough s**t to fill them up with
I Wrote-During Covid-Which is still relevant now
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been. My BFF Clash The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
My Memory is hazy but I'm sure when I started 37+ years ago you were never supposed to start delivering till after 7am, we used to start work at 5am but in them days it was all hands to the sorting (IPS) so even on light days (which were almost always in the summer, so obviously lighter mornings) we didn't get out till gone 6:30am but more like after 7:00am and even in winter when still dark it was always getting lighter as you started your delivery
Surely health and safety is our responsibility as well as our employers so if we go out on delivery and don't feel safe in the dark, can't see properly, etc. Then we should be able to come back, if that was replicated across the country with thousands of walks coming back it might concentrate senior managers minds.
"Never have I known an employee so keen to employ you, then so eager to get rid of you!"
My Memory is hazy but I'm sure when I started 37+ years ago you were never supposed to start delivering till after 7am, we used to start work at 5am but in them days it was all hands to the sorting (IPS) so even on light days (which were almost always in the summer, so obviously lighter mornings) we didn't get out till gone 6:30am but more like after 7:00am and even in winter when still dark it was always getting lighter as you started your delivery
Surely health and safety is our responsibility as well as our employers so if we go out on delivery and don't feel safe in the dark, can't see properly, etc. Then we should be able to come back, if that was replicated across the country with thousands of walks coming back it might concentrate senior managers minds.
Or they conduct you for wilful delay? I'm starting to think mail will still all be delivered in day light hours and it'll just be the parcel routes delivered by the parcel hubs going out in the dark.
