A Sunday Times investigation has found that postal workers are being forced to deliver parcels ahead of letters — leaving first-class letters, bills, government correspondence, fines and hospital appointments abandoned in the depot. Royal Mail has a legal obligation to offer to deliver letters every day — Monday to Saturday — to every street.
Journalists working as postal workers in sorting offices in London and Southampton were told by managers and postal workers that parcels were routinely being prioritised over less profitable letters. Senior bosses at Royal Mail have been insisting there is no central policy of prioritising parcels over letters.
Last year’s financial results for Royal Mail show that it delivers 1.4 billion parcels in the UK and almost eight billion letters, but it received £4.8 billion in revenue from the parcels and £3.7 billion from letters. Losses are growing — to £319 million in the six months to September, after a dispute with staff over pay and working conditions.
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It is time the senior management were fired and (if possible) charged with a crime.
If you work for the Royal Mail, you just do what you're told. Nobody is "forced"
It’s sickening what’s privatisation has done to one of our biggest employers. Standards, service and dignity out the window for shareholder dividends
disbanding duties and adding them to walks that are unacheivable beforehand and not replacing leavers causes the problems, they want a skeleton crew to do more work for as cheap as possible, when they should be putting duties back in…not out.
Shareholders are prioritized over customers!! thanks to the Tories
Lol recruited 16k staff and literally just sacked them all on 13th 😆 don't believe them. They dont want letters and they couldnt care less if you buy 1st or 2nd class its all the same to them.
Yet another big privatisation success. What a pile of lies all that was.
Another service that should never have been privatised 3rd world service at a disgusting price another Tory money fleecing episode.
A lot of this is down to what happened over lockdown. Offices were staffed by half the number of people due to shielding etc. Royal Mail saw that they could get away with not delivering mail every day with half the workforce and deliver parcels as priority. As a consequence it makes £750 million in profit for that of which £500 million or so was given out in dividends to shareholders. The biggest of whom is a Czech billionaire. They used the COVID excuse for a while to continue with that business model and now OFCOM are getting on their backs. The last CEO Simon Thompson even said himself that Royal Mail is a parcels company that delivers letters.
This is just the start of it unfortunately, OfCom fined the company £5.6m for failing to hit targets, this is so much cheaper for the senior management to pay than to hire the correct amount of staff to hit targets. OfCom are also complicit in this as they claim to have found NO evidence of parcel prioritisation despite every postie up and down the country saying they've been told to do just this.
I wouldn’t trust the royal fail to deliver letter let alone a parcel.. they’re useless.. they’ve lost more post and parcels than any other courier combined. I’ll never use them again..
Tory privatisation. Whether it’s the trains, water companies or Royal Mail. Tory greed has ruined this country’s services.
Surprised you managed to get recruited by Royal Mail – that is a shambles too.
Naming parcels a priority near Christmas, terrible
Unfortunately this is a true representation of a typical delivery office in the UK. I would often find letters being left for 7 days and sometimes longer. No staff were recruited to replace the staff that left due to the poor conditions. Also the remaining staff would often go sick due to the extra pressure put on them. It was all about profit rather than quality of service.
In Poringland, Norfolk we’ve been lucky if we get letters every 10 days since the summer. Postman only deliver parcels and tracked mail. Royal Mail deny it of course but we experience it. Well done Vince Cable for privatising Royal Mail.
Managers are taking bonuses too purposely fail the letters.
Public now aware need too complain daily too the regulator so it's got that much evidence jail should be the punishment as they have effectively scammed the public out of millions of pounds and not delivered what they have paid for.
Been waiting for a sim card since last week
Should nationalise it again without paying them if they can't meet their obligations
This is what happens when you "privatize" anything and everything.
Core services like post, rail, banking, infrastructure should have government control and not expected to make a profit
😱😵💫😱😵💫😱😵💫😱😱😱😵💫😱😵💫😱😵💫🤣😜🤪😝😝😂🤣😜🤪😝😂🤣😜🤪🤪😂🦨🦨🦨🦨🦨🦨🦨🚽🚽🚽🚽🚽 0:37
A HUGE YES YES YES .To help make the DO Managers brownie points bigger .
Wish we had undercover detectives I'm my DO for the last 5 years believe you me it would make the best Soap Opera of the 21st Century .
As an ex postman I was told this many times back towards the end of my career in 2022. It made me angry and frustrated birthday cards, bank statements, hospital letters stuffed in frames! When I joined the company in 2011 the lads told me I was 20 years to late😂 go get a real job! When they took the bicycles Away we had staff moaning about sharing a van with people and extra walking. 5 hours walking was mentioned. I was bullied and harassed all the time. Royalfail.😮 The golden days are gone…..
People stealing my post letters nn3
4:28 Unfortunately covid gave royal mail a real taste of what could be earned from parcels. Crippling and unachievable revisions have led to massive amounts of sick and staff vacancies. Offering worse quality of service and worse working conditions for those left. All the while blaming industrial action for the issues.
Simon Thompson is a bare faced liar 😢
its been going on since 2019, christmas and health and safty is only an excuse
Haven't used RM in years, even if I'm shopping online.
Old news. Royal Mail has been doing that for years.
Not it my day, gone to the dogs. Sack the bosses.
I worked for Royal Mail for 6 years between 1989-1995 and personally witnessed how rubbish the service was. But if you spoke up you would lose your job. We don't need Royal Mail. Or their ridiculous prices for stamps and substandard service any more.
I'm a postman and this has been true for years now, ofcom have clearly had a backhander if they claim they didn't find any evidence of this , 90k posties can't be lying
I worked in delivery office last year definately not an easy job i enjoyed delivering parcels but dreaded letters
Mmm! I see the change for myself, I noticed that, but wasn't sure, it is 2.99£ for small parcel against 1.55£ letter. It is so parcel oriented now. They even made it hard to untick online option for drop off at depot, it wants you to book free lable with parcel collection from your house. My housemate in brum left working there altogether with 3 other members same time abd they cut depot slot window to 2h (8-10am) sat (8-12am). Who on earth can do this hours during week??? I asked the guy at the window for honest answer and they admitted to staff issues and company cuts. I get it its not their fault but government that such traditions like post bring delivered to your door for paying taxes make it so disappointing to this poor workers! I hot letter from bank on 24th November that was written on 17th, I was late with payment! Man, I didn't even know and was charged 12£. Whaaat isss going onn onnn
The managers' KPIs are based on tracked parcels. It's all a nubera game. It's a big mess.
If someone dies as a result of not receiving a doctors letter, could the company be charged with corporate manslaughter?
I've recently left Royal Mail and this is happening across my local area of offices, even prior to the Xmas period. Management, upper management and Simon Thompson couldn't give a toss, I didn't wanna be a part of it any longer. It's disgusting.
So the CEO and managers are a bunch of LIARS
My family sent 20 card to other family members 10 days ago first class @£1.25 each non have been delivered yet Xmas will be gone a big disgrace .
I'm a small business and I have thought the same thing for well over a year now .all my parcels get through and only large letters are delayed or lost. 48 hour tracked sevices takes upto 3 weeks on some large letters or go missing without a trace.
I send mainly large letters,approx 700 a month and about 5 percent delayed/lost