Royal Mail change of policy?!

[tony123456]

I was informed this morning by the manager of my local delivery office that it is now Royal Mail policy to deliver signed for and over-sized items to the door in multiple occupancy properties even if there are mail boxes in the entrance area - has anyone else heard of this and if so when did the change happen? It's not before time (well after in my case but that's another post) and very welcome from a customers pov but not sure what staff will make of it - bearing in mind that the excuse always given for my having to go to them to sign for an item was that they didn't have time to bring items to the door will there now be more time/fewer deliveries per round?!

[TeeferTiger]

I always did anyway, you mean to tell me I wasting my little legs on something I didn't have to do?! lol

[tony123456]

Well i've had a few posties that will deliver to the door but more that refuse to and when i've questioned this with RM I've been told that if you're in a flat and there's a mail box on the ground floor they're right to do so! Apparently now that's changed though...

[DGP1]

I always go to the door to get things signed for, I thought we where always supposed too

Unless I couldn't get access and then they didn't.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Well i've had a few posties that will deliver to the door but more that refuse to and when i've questioned this with RM I've been told that if you're in a flat and there's a mail box on the ground floor they're right to do so! Apparently now that's changed though...

Technically yes. We are supposed to deliver to the delivery point. But, I and most of my colleagues in my office will deliver signed for items/packet etc. to the door of the recipient, if for no other reason, just in the hope that I don't have to take it back to the office.

I think it is likely that those that refuse to do this, aren't actually bringing the item with them, but leaving it at the office and putting a card through your letterbox. Through either laziness, or due to the last revision they went through, i.e. saves time not having to knock & wait, and writing out a card whilst there. Maybe on a managers instruction. It does happen.

[Post1977]

Would like to know if the delivery point is downstairs and you go upstairs to get signature and take a drop down the stairs. Are you covered.
Don't trust Royal fail could see them saying you shouldn't be there it's your own fault.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Would like to know if the delivery point is downstairs and you go upstairs to get signature and take a drop down the stairs. Are you covered.
Don't trust Royal fail could see them saying you shouldn't be there it's your own fault.

If it means they can conduct you, probably not. Ask your manager, with witness, for clarification. In writing preferably. They will say one thing, then screw you over to protect themselves.

[tony123456]

Well i've had a few posties that will deliver to the door but more that refuse to and when i've questioned this with RM I've been told that if you're in a flat and there's a mail box on the ground floor they're right to do so! Apparently now that's changed though...

Technically yes. We are supposed to deliver to the delivery point. But, I and most of my colleagues in my office will deliver signed for items/packet etc. to the door of the recipient, if for no other reason, just in the hope that I don't have to take it back to the office.

I think it is likely that those that refuse to do this, aren't actually bringing the item with them, but leaving it at the office and putting a card through your letterbox. Through either laziness, or due to the last revision they went through, i.e. saves time not having to knock & wait, and writing out a card whilst there. Maybe on a managers instruction. It does happen.

The point is though that when I complained about this 'delivery point' policy (ie getting a signature on the ground floor where the mail box is and having the customer/recipient come down to you as opposed to making the effort to go to their door even though you know they are at home and they have asked you to bring the item up to them) I was told this was RM policy. Now my local DO manager has made a special visit, completely out of the blue, to inform me that this has changed, at a nationwide level! So it seems really strange that no-one on here seems to know about this! Almost tempted to send myself a SD just to see what happens

[wallop]

Did he also inform you that packets officially no longer exist as the public apparently don't know what they are?

[clashcityrocker]

I was informed this morning by the manager of my local delivery office that it is now Royal Mail policy to deliver signed for and over-sized items to the door in multiple occupancy properties even if there are mail boxes in the entrance area - has anyone else heard of this and if so when did the change happen?

Not heard of any change in policy and as a postie who delivers to a lot of converted Victorian houses any change would be nonsense.
A block of flats might be simple enough but wondering around an old house with no idea where studio 13 might be, isn't going to happen.
All delivery points are suposed to be risk assessed. If the delivery point is downstairs that is where you have to come to sign for it because if I fall down a narrow winding staircase up to the attic, I know they will blame me.
Plus where do I put my lightweight trolley when I am inside the house?
The manager of your local delivery office is making things up as he goes along I think. (No surprise there then)

[TeeferTiger]

A lino I know (the one that got sacked for fraud and is now apparently reemployed by RM!!!! ), when I asked about what I should do with the trolley while I went inside and upstairs to the businesses on one road of my round, told me to take the bags off the trolley and take them in with me. I asked what the point of using the trolley was then if I was meant to be carrying 2 bags of mail inside every other doorway. I was then accused of being sarcastic... The point of my using the trolley was because I'd had an AOD (not my fault) and my hip was still painful so it was agreed I would use a trolley and not carry a bag.