Royal Mail bosses fighting to prevent nightmare before Christmas after admitting that large swathes of country are not receiving a normal service

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mar ... rkers.html

Royal Mail bosses are fighting to prevent a nightmare before Christmas after admitting that large swathes of the country are not receiving a normal service.

The postal operator apologised to customers and blamed disruption to services on 'Covid-related self-isolation, high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors'.

Analysis reveals the number of delivery offices impacted by the problems more than doubled in a week, hitting a year-high of 32 offices last Wednesday.

Last night, some 21 offices were still experiencing difficulties, including Bristol South, Farnborough in Hampshire and Warrington. Customers have complained of going weeks without receiving a delivery.

The company is grappling with huge volumes of parcels passing through its 1,200 delivery offices, triggered by the move towards online Christmas shopping, accelerated by the pandemic.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that chief executive Simon Thompson had issued an urgent call to managers to hire hundreds of extra vans to deliver the parcels.

In a desperate late-night video message posted on an internal channel for its 137,000 employees, Thompson said: 'I wanted to share something with you about delivery vans. I don't think we've got this right. I think you're short.

'And I've been hearing the feedback now for too long and it's now time to act.' He asked employees to go to local van hire companies to source vehicles for three weeks until Christmas Eve.

Royal Mail already has the largest fleet of vans in the country, including 40,000 of its distinctive red vehicles.

Footage of one delivery office in the North, seen by the MoS, shows bulging grey sacks of mail messily piled high on top of each other in the afternoon when sorting offices should be almost clear.

Royal Mail aims to clear each office of mail every day. Several employees have blamed revisions to routes for the delays.

The company is attempting to revise hundreds of routes to make its operations more efficient and workloads fairer.

However, one source said: 'The revisions are delaying the post. It's a 'computer says no' scenario.

'The technology says the routes can be done but it doesn't take into account roadworks, traffic jams and blocks of flats with 30 addresses the posties have to get to.'

Senior sources denied the revisions are the cause of the delays.

Replying to an online employee post, Thompson said, 'I am not disputing the delays', but insisted revisions were not the main issue.

He added: 'Absence [and] recruitment and at times revisions are the issue – and our number 1 problem to solve – absence – almost double 2018 at this time – and much higher then [sic] this time last year during the pandemic.'

Royal Mail and sister firm Parcelforce Worldwide began a drive to hire 20,000 seasonal staff to handle Christmas cards, parcels and letters in October.

Thompson hopes to modernise the 500-year-old operator and stamp out longstanding issues over bullying within the organisation.

The company is also still investigating claims unearthed by the MoS that fake hours are being logged by Royal Mail employees at a string of sites around the country.

Royal Mail is already battling fierce competition from the likes of FedEx and DPD to deliver parcels for online retailers.

The trend away from high street shopping towards ecommerce has accelerated during the pandemic, boosting Royal Mail's profits and share price.

The stock suffered a sell-off in autumn but has risen 12 per cent to £4.84 over the last month, since the company announced plans to hand shareholders a £400million reward through a £200million special dividend and a £200million share buyback.

[teesdale]

Customers going for weeks without deliveries. Not very good is it. Bristol Mail Centre has one manager, one acting manager, one team leader and one favourite who are not needed. They could do deliveries. There would be two more managers who could help, but they are out sick. They could ask if anyone wanted overtime in the morning like in past years at the mail centre. Off topic but how about fixing the toilets at the mail centre so we can wash our hands at least. The rest can be done in the car park like in past years at Christmas.

[tschenstochauer]

Toilets NOT fixed yet at Bristol MC?!

YUK

Over a year or so of eXcremental floods and stink that comes with it...

How can Ü work like that?

[Chelseablue]

Simon huge mistakes ( or are they mistakes) with revisions , but you know that , and the public should know about it too . Adding huge amounts to the largest jobs already in the office is very very strange. Its a complete disaster that wouldve been averted if you did the right thing and listened to the postys whove did the jobs for years . Lets rush it in , computer says yes , bonuses all round . The obvious way out of this mess is to go back to the way certain dutys were before the mess was created , and they worked . Us postys have the experience and knowledge but once again we are silenced . Thanks.

[Hyrrokkin]

RM have been lying all over the place regarding the reasons for all the delays...now starting to hit them in the face

[1560loopsayear]

Worst possible time to implement the much hated revisions...should have done it in spring when it was quieter if they had to do them at all. P.S. has any office had a full repick following revisions?

[fb1969]

Not to mention proudly taking on double the number of Covid tests without a single word on how this will be fitted into deliveries. I am not criticizing the need for the tests to be delivered, but to just say "we can do it" at the busiest time of the year (regardless of revisions) and with high sickness levels that the company is blaming posties for, is ridiculous. Over reliance on the goodwill of posties to work endless overtime while being slagged off by the company at every opportunity.

[Chelseablue]

Pandemic , revisions ,christmas pressure ,rinse repeat could go on for a few years . No let up , been full on . Thank god off tomoz looks a bad one.

[Wolf91]

“In a desperate late-night video message posted on an internal channel for its 137,000 employees, Thompson said: 'I wanted to share something with you about delivery vans. I don't think we've got this right. I think you're short”.


The incompetence...We’ve actually had vans taken off us for Christmas, can you believe it. No oversized drivers.
What next? Overtime ban because of “resourcing” issues, when the company announces record profits?
Already short staffed too, and not a single vacancy advertised in years.

[Sir Henry]

Royal Mail fighting to prevent nightmare before Christmas being (rightly) blamed on them.

Right wing rags latch onto subtle oven ready anti workforce sickness absence headlines.

Absences double 2018 level?
Why 2018?
Why not Xmas 2020? Y'know like the same time of the year just prior to the pandemic?
Wouldn't that seem obvious, comparing like with like?
Would it be because 2018 was a recent year with a LOW absence rate? That would make the rise in sickness absence seem much worse than if they used 2017 and it was (for arguments sake) a high rate of absence.