ST Post Code - postal service is worst in mainland Britain

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/bu ... ticle.html

CUSTOMERS in the ST postcode area are suffering from the worst postal service in mainland Britain.

Latest Royal Mail figures show just 89.5 per cent of first-class letters were delivered on time in the ST postcode area between March and September.

That contrasts with the national average of 92.8 per cent and 93 per cent in South Cheshire between those dates.

But Royal Mail can no longer link the poor service to a series of strikes, which meant postal workers in Burslem spent last Christmas on picket lines.

Instead, union leaders are blaming Royal Mail for transferring 80 overnight sorting office staff from Stoke's Leek Road depot to Wolverhampton this summer.

More than 100 more Stoke positions are also expected to go to Wolverhampton early next year.

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.

"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-Trent. Instead, if someone has sent a letter from Hanley to Biddulph, it is getting sent to Wolverhampton, which is ridiculous.

"Royal Mail needs to get back to the principles of public service."

A breakdown of the ST performance shows 90.1 per cent of first-class mail was delivered on time between July and September, compared with 88.7 per cent in the previous three months.

That is an improvement on last year, when just 79.4 per cent of first-class mail was delivered on time to the strike-hit ST postcode area between April 2007 and the end of March.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "The quality of service level for first-class mail in the ST postcode area is below the standard we expect and our customers deserve.

"All our efforts are focused on improving the service we deliver to our customers."

Government watchdog Consumer Focus has pledged to monitor postal performance in the ST area.

A spokesman said: "While targets for mail delivery in Stoke-on-Trent were not quite met, the figures are showing reasonable improvement and are generally heading in the right direction."

[Tman]

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.
"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-

So when the Midlands Regional secretary of the CWU spouts this crap (supposing actually he believes it) what hope do we have left?

[brothermagrew]

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.
"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-

So when the Midlands Regional secretary of the CWU spouts this crap (supposing actually he believes it) what hope do we have left?

See your anti-union stance is alive and kicking Tman

[BELIAL]

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.
"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-

So when the Midlands Regional secretary of the CWU spouts this crap (supposing actually he believes it) what hope do we have left?

See your anti-union stance is alive and kicking Tman

Yeah so did everyone else and they blanked it

[Tman]

See your anti-union stance is alive and kicking Tman

Then your sight is as defective as this idiot's.

This is the sort of ill-informed crap Colonel Blimps write to their local paper, but as they have no connection with the Post Office at least they can be excused.
Presumably this rep is an RM employee, and so should know that mail has often gone "elsewhere" to be sorted since the start of the Post Office.

If he's trying to save ST MC, he's hardly made a great start in his campaign..

[andy2007]

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.
"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-

So when the Midlands Regional secretary of the CWU spouts this crap (supposing actually he believes it) what hope do we have left?

What exactly has he said, which leads you to believe that it's crap?
He seems to be making perfect sense to me. Why send mail 40 miles away to be sorted, when it used to be sorted locally?
This is going to be the problem, if RM successfully merge Crewe and Coppras Hill. The mail will have to travel 35 miles from Crewe, to be sorted (70 mile round trip). The Environmental impact alone, is big enough (and this, when they keep claiming that they are cutting their "carbon footprint"!). Then there's the Diesel costs, the T&S money for the Staff (for 3 years after the move), etc..

Obviously, I'm not arrogant enough to assume that I'm right, and you're wrong. But please explain where Mr. Barron, Myself, and the majority of people who just Balloted for IA regarding the MC closure program in the NW area. Because I just don't see it.

[Tman]

It's not about the rights or wrongs of the closure of ST or anywhere else; it's about the strange assertion made by the union rep that ST mail should be sorted in ST, when for decades (if not centuries) we've transported mail to be sorted centrally. He should know that.

Many places in the UK have a 40+ mile round trip for "local" mail to be sorted and then returned to the area it started from, and that situation has increased since the introduction of MLOs/APCs/MCs.

The Isle of Wight is another area (among many) where mail is transported to Portsmouth by hovercraft, sorted, and then returned. So what, every town and village doesn't warrant it's own MC, regardless of carbon footprints and other issues.

There's nothing new or revolutionary about that..

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said today: "The quality of service seems to come second for Royal Mail because they are basing their performance on a downsizing programme which means Stoke-on-Trent's mail is going 40 miles down the road to be sorted. That is one of the reasons why the quality of service has suffered. Deliveries are getting later and later.
"Royal Mail should have come up with an option where Stoke-on-Trent's mail is sorted in Stoke-on-

So when the Midlands Regional secretary of the CWU spouts this crap (supposing actually he believes it) what hope do we have left?

Deliveries are later whats crap about that.

QofS is being blamed on the fact that they sort out of area - whats crap about that.

Your later posts about sorting centrally for centuries has 1 flaw. In some, (not sure if all), local mail was sorted locally, in fact this only ended in my DO about 6 years ago. This meant when we had collections around 10 o'clock it was possible that a local letter was delivered the same day as it was posted.

[Tman]

So you're saying then the principle is OK, just that RM's usual inept handling and reorganisation of delivery issues is crap?

You've touched on your DO having outward frames before; sounds more like an old-style OVO containing a DO than the usual "ten blokes and a tea pot" DO, if you were sorting out the local stuff then despatching the rest.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

So you're saying then the principle is OK, just that RM's usual inept handling and reorganisation of delivery issues is crap?

You've touched on your DO having outward frames before; sounds more like an old-style OVO containing a DO than the usual "ten blokes and a tea pot" DO, if you were sorting out the local stuff then despatching the rest.

Which principle - sorting locally - if possible yes but I do recognise that costs have to play a major part, but why can't we do local sorting at the DO. In fact RM may be forced to do it again some time this century. You may or may not be aware that Peak Oil production was reached about 5 years ago, however peak demand has not yet been reached and its still climbing. This means at some point (some say around 2050 at the latest) demand will outstrip production and when that happens lets hope they have plans in place to cope. BTW oil is just not used for fuel but loads of everyday products such as the computer you are using to post on this forum.

Never heard of an OVO but then never worked in my DO when it was classed as a SO. We are a very large DO in excess of 300 at 1 central site and 4 other intra sites with 100 odd staff shared by those. We are I believe one of the largest non city DOs in the country.

[Lounge Lizard]

Not so many years ago there was a postbox next to the town's delivery office with a 5am collection, it being known locally that first class letters posted there could efficiently achieve same day delivery without spending the best part of a day going to and from the Mail Centre twenty miles away.

[Tman]

Which principle - sorting locally - if possible yes but I do recognise that costs have to play a major part, but why can't we do local sorting at the DO. In fact RM may be forced to do it again some time this century.

Unlikely, given the huge investment in automation. Collections go to the designated MC, so why add another unnecessary step by going to the local DO first (even IF there were the required knowlegeable staff and facitlities/space there to pre-sort it?)

You may or may not be aware that Peak Oil production was reached about 5 years ago, however peak demand has not yet been reached and its still climbing. This means at some point (some say around 2050 at the latest) demand will outstrip production and when that happens lets hope they have plans in place to cope. BTW oil is just not used for fuel but loads of everyday products such as the computer you are using to post on this

Thanks for the insight, but RM don't plan for two years time never mind forty two. Oil production stats vary with who's telling them....

Never heard of an OVO but then never worked in my DO when it was classed as a SO.

OVO= Outward Vouching Office.

[DGP1]

Not so many years ago there was a postbox next to the town's delivery office with a 5am collection, it being known locally that first class letters posted there could efficiently achieve same day delivery without spending the best part of a day going to and from the Mail Centre twenty miles away.

We used to have Local franked mail bags which the businesses used to use because they could get a 1st class service for 2nd class price and even then it was cheaper than sending it to the mail centre-sorting between 1st and 2nd class-putting into the mail into the system-walk sorting the mail-loading the mail into the lorry-driving back to the delivery office-prep and delivery

[dvbuk55]

Some years ago an American bloke had been staying with friends in the town where I live and was leaving for home later in the day. He had written a thank you letter to his friends which, because of local collection, sorting and two deliveries, arrived back at the house he was staying at before he did. That was service. I can't imagine it was more expensive to do that than the system we operate now.

[brothermagrew]

See your anti-union stance is alive and kicking Tman

Then your sight is as defective as this idiot's.

This is the sort of ill-informed crap Colonel Blimps write to their local paper, but as they have no connection with the Post Office at least they can be excused.
Presumably this rep is an RM employee, and so should know that mail has often gone "elsewhere" to be sorted since the start of the Post Office.

If he's trying to save ST MC, he's hardly made a great start in his campaign..

Thanks you most sincerely for your endorsement of my visual capabilities but as you to the best of my knowledge are not medically qualified to say otherwise last doctors check up that I had my sight vision was still 20/20. No defects at this end, perhaps you should try looking more to home before you make such crass comments.