Paths are too icy for postmen
Wednesday 22nd December 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Homes in the West Midlands are going without letters and parcels just days before Christmas – because postmen are not being allowed out in the snow.
Posties today complained that “health and safety” rules have prevented them from going out.
The Royal Mail has taken on 100 extra staff on top of its 400 casual Christmas workers at its main office in Sun Street, Wolverhampton, to deal with the backlog.
But piles of post are piling up because managers deem conditions on pavements too dangerous. Thousands in the region have received no post since Friday.
Posties have contacted the Express & Star to say they want to do their rounds but are being frustrated by safety rules. One postman, who did not want to be named, said: “A lot of offices in the Midlands have not been delivering any mail. Some offices such as Dudley have not delivered any mail since Friday.”
The Sun Street depot handles all post for Wolverhampton, Walsall, Wednesbury, Dudley and much of Staffordshire. Royal Mail also has district delivery offices, including in Dudley, Stafford, Cannock and Darlaston.
It is up to individual office managers to decide if pavements are safe enough for their staff to work.
People waiting for deliveries today spoke of their frustration. Businesswoman Kate Copestake, of Wergs Road, Tettenhall, added: “I know there are severe disruptions to all kinds of services, but it’s not that bad around here.”
Royal Mail spokeswoman Jaquie Stenson said: “We are delivering wherever possible in extremely difficult conditions. Health and safety rules are applied at each office. If the area is too dangerous they are told at each office but it is an agreed process between Royal Mail managers and the union.”
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Surely the managers cannot generalise about conditions from the warm seclusion of their offices etc?
The postmen are the best judges of whether they can deliver post, parcels or whatever as they know their rounds better than any manager!
Depriving people of their cards, letters or even Christmas presents because of the inclimate weather is a pretty poor excuse.
IF postmen’s rounds are believed to be too bad for deliveries then make arrangements for a shop, supermarket or wherever to accept deliveries and then the public can go and collect their mail etc, after all we all have to do our shopping, so a collection from here or there will be of little inconvenience.
Use a little initiative Royal Mail and don’t be so heavy-handed with the Health & Safety rules!
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pathetic
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Just a silly thought….cant the postmen wear snow shoes? they seem to work in the artic!!
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as an ex postman we had to deliver in all weathers in the snow we were given snow chains for our shoes so everyone got their post health and safety gone mad again!!
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The sooner they are privatized the better.
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The world has gone mad with H&S, they will want us to collect our mail from the Post Office ourselves soon.
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This is a disgrace
Its a bit of snow its not a new Ice age
Merry Christmas Health and Safety Grinches
Bill Etheridge
Campaign Against Political Correctness
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Should postmen risk broken limbs to deliver your post?
Personally I can wait until the New Year it’s a shame but it’s not the end of the world.
I’d hate for a post man to break a leg etc. so close to Christmas and ruin their holidays!!
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Jimbo – so what about all the other people who go to work? Like the people who keep your electricity on like me whos an engineer?
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I walked to work this day like I do every day and so far I havent been injured !
Its a bit of snow its not an ice rink !!!
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On our estate in Tipton not only have we not had a delivery of mail since Friday but the post box on the main road through the estate doesn’t appear to have been emptied either.
Thank you Health & Safety scroohes for a miserable Christmas.
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Erm…. my dad’s a postie and he’s out delivering – a whiff of media hype perhaps?
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YOU COULD NOT MAKE IT UP.WHAT PLANET ARE THE POST OFFICE MANAGEMENT ON.
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If the paths are too dangerous for postmen then why is it that other people are walking perfectly well on the same paths? Do we detect a union negotiating position here- leave it till the last minute and then decide it’s safe to deliver provided that massive overtime and bonuses are paid? Also please advise Bill ( 7 ) that there is no link between political correctness and Health & Safety. There is, however, sometimes a link between “Health & Safety” and devious opportunism.
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There is a massive link between Political Correctness and Health and Safety
Political Correctness controls how we think and what we say and H & S controls what we do
We campaign against both but the organisation name may get a bit long if we keep adding to it !
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Spoke to our postie this morning. The Post Office management would not let them go out on rounds for two days as it was deemed unsafe and now the weather has worsened, they have been sent out! Barking!
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Our postman at work has been stopped from delivering, however they have to come out and deliver the Guaranteed next day special deliveries, so he came today. The managers are quoting health and safety and not letting them out but he was asked if he would like to work all through the night tonight and work all day tomorrow out on the van – he could nod off where is the health and safety rule for that – a load of bull or what.
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My postie’s delivering here in Brierley Hill, in fact he was here just a couple of minutes ago.
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Thanks to all the managers sitting in warm offices making the decision to spoil our xmas..we have to go out to work in all weathers if we adopted the same attitude the country would come to a standstill…the quicker we go privatized the better.
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Post Office management, cut the silly red tape of H&S and look at alternatives instead of excuses. Snow boots, snow chains, extra vans and common sense should do!
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Spare a thought for these postmen,my son is a postman and is really frustrated that he can,t deliver the mail to customers. In fact, the longer the delay for him and other postmen, the harder his job will be, because he will have so much mail it will make his job harder.
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Its the post managers who are being criticised not the post men
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This is a two way street, while initially this does seem ridiculous-and certainly in some areas isn’t required-imagine if posties do go out and there are a couple of accidents.
Imagine the union getting a hold of that? they’d have them striking again!
I’d say in snowy areas there’s no problem, i find it much easier and safer to walk in snow rather than on ice, but on my daily journey using public transport from Tettenhall to the end of the Stafford road, it’s all crunchy snow underfoot!
I picked up a parcel yesterday from Sun Street and couldn’t beieve the amount of parcels being brought in just visible from the collection window! Shame none of them will be delivered just yet.
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we were not allowed out to deliver on saturday and monday even though most of us wanted too. today which was probably the worst morning for snowfall nothing was said and we went out as normal!i am one bemused postie.
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Postman was at my door 7.10 am this morning with a parcel posted by Amazon yesterday. WELL DONE to both.
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With reference to 13, surely if they can make the special delivery in safety they can make the routine ones equally safely? Is H&S flexible so it only applies to standard mail with the more expensive guaranteed service not being subject to H&S? Differing risks depending on cost? Sorry, this is no more than frightened, slipshod management. Of course the weather has had an effect on everything ( pathetic responses from most local authorities, airports, railways etc )but it is not that bad. I was against privatisation of mail delivery but having watched several courier company drivers battle their way round Wolverhampton yesterday and today in order to deliver I am beginning to change my mind. Sadly most of the good companies are under foreign ownership, which tells a story maybe?
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I have been waiting for a package to be delivered by Royal Mail which is now almost 10 days late.
Why is it UPS can deliver a replacement product overnight? I can now understand the comments made last week by a TNT spokesperson talking about some companies using the weather as an excuse.
The person I really feel sorry for is my Postie. He is a nice guy and will ultimaetly be the one to suffer as everyone moves away from using the Royal Mail.
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Ive been waiting for a delivery since the 6/12/10. Its trackable but checking on their site it says its been delivered. Ive rang them and they say its a computer error..but they cant tell me where my parcel is…everytime I ring up to enquire i get the run around…not a very good advertisement for royal mail…
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Well i suggest that sun street office set up something that allows people to be able to go and fetch their own post and parcels if they are not letting post workers out to deliver the mail, that we may be able to receive parcels and letters that we may be waiting for.They could also deliver to the sun office making it easier for people to go and collect their own mail, that way the post workers would not need to walk along DANGEROUS path as they say!
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Lol you have to smile…I have been waiting for a parcel that was posted last thursday evening still no parcel,yet I had a bill arrive that was posted on Saturday…. sounds about right he he
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Why don’t all of those posties who want to deliver sign a waiver to say they take full responsibility for any accidents that involve them due to health and safety?
Increase the price of postage over the months of December to February.
Then pay any postie that goes out an increased wage.
Any postie that doesn’t go out gets a flat wage.
Problem solved by market forces and incentivisation schemes.
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The difference between delivering special or recorded post is that its not carrying16kg of mail on your back on icy streeets. Try it yourself you wont
Like it.UPS etc use van deliveries not foot deliveries
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so those who oppose this i would assume would be happy to deliver the post themselves.
The posties do a good job- they deliver in all weathers- this country should get a grip and support those who deliver to those who contribute nothing
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