Colchester: Late mail not our fault, says postman

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/loca ... ostman.php

A COLCHESTER postman has blamed a centralised Essex sorting office for late deliveries in the town.

The man, who has asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, told the Gazette that, while he takes pride in his work, outside influences often make it impossible for him to fulfil it properly.

He said that he and his colleagues begin work at 6.15am, but have to sort out some of the post before they can begin their rounds.

"All the mail that comes into Colchester comes from the mail centre at Springfield on the outskirts of Chelmsford," he explained.

"A fair amount of this mail is what is known as "walk-sorted", this means that it comes into Colchester already sorted (by machines) for a specific round or "walk".

"The remainder of the mail comes into the office for the Colchester area in general, and we have to sort this by hand to the specific walks or rural offices.

"While the system generally works well, when it goes wrong it can have a major impact on deliveries in and around Colchester.

"If the mail arrives late, as it does a lot, then our "schedule" is put back as we are required to sort this work," our postman explained.

"By the same token, if Chelmsford have not sorted the right amount of walk-sorted mail, we then have to "absorb" this work by sorting it by hand.

"It's as simple as this: the more time we spend inside sorting, the less time we have to deliver the mail."

[norbet colon]

a lot of intra manual was secondary sorted at MC's , then it went to the DO's , but there were orders from on high to take nights out . Also there's the cutting back of DO runs to take the intra from the LSM's & IMP's .