Following a number of complaints about the Royal Mail service it the Constituency John has met with senior staff to get an understanding of the problems and commitment to improvement.

Over several months John has written to Royal Mail on a number of occasions raising concerns about postal delivery services in specific postcode areas. However he has become increasingly frustrated as the reply always cited the same issues – higher than average staff sickness absence and difficulty in recruiting. John therefore requested a meeting with senior staff at Royal Mail to discuss the problems and get an understanding of what measures they have put in place to improve the service.

The Regional Manager for the South East acknowledged the problems and that the level of service is not acceptable. In areas where there are specific problems and in the short term they are trying to rotate deliveries so that there is at least a delivery every other day. In parallel they are also doing all that they can to increase recruitment including offering a “signing on bonus’. Anyone interested should have a look at the Royal Mail website to find out more. Locally they are particularly seeking staff in both Oxford and Wallingford.  

Royal Mail also acknowledged that there are problems in rural areas with what they call ‘route knowledge.’ In some villages it can be difficult to find properties especially where homes have names rather than numbers. A regular post person will get to know the route and where letterboxes are located but for temporary cover staff the round can take considerably longer.

John also raised concerns over parcel deliveries and will shortly be going to visit a sorting office to see the operational issues around this. 

The Royal Mail team indicated that measures had been put in place which should see improvements coming through in a matter of weeks. John has a slot in the diary with the Royal Mail team to review this in November.