General Chat

The new system starts today and as we got post wemust be on MWF this week and TT next. Which had annoyed OH as his fortnightly magazine is due Friday of next week - so he will have to wait until the following Monday.

Is it only me that is confused by this? I don't think I have seen anything about it.

I did hear a little about a 3 day postal service a few weeks ago but I haven't seen anything else like Names has mentioned. I wonder if it is a trial area thing.

I have just done a bit of googling and as far as I can tell, the new system is everywhere and we are all starting with MWF this week.

There has been ‘talk’ of this for some weeks but don’t think there has been much of an announcement on the changes starting. The 3/2 day service is only for second class post. I think first class will be still be daily but I think there will be no Saturday deliveries.

I didn’t realise we were all on the same rotation. I assumed different areas would go to 2/3.

I understand that the new alternate (midweek) delivery days are for 2nd class post only, 1st class post is being delivered Monday to Saturday as usual.

Joan,

I do remember seeing that they were cutting deliveries. Strangely just this minute had a piece by the local paper on line pop up on my face book. But that says some areas are beinged trialed from today.

Yes you are correct Joan. It said that too in the piece I just read.

We haven't had daily postal deliveries here for at least a year. We are lucky if we get deliveries two days a week, sometimes three and that is for 1st class as well as second.

Our postman said that they try to deliver NHS letters as soon as they can but there is no guarantee. The sorting office is just so busy and there aren't as many postmen or women as there used to be and they are all doing extra rounds.

Kath. x

I wonder how this works in reality?

If there is 2nd class post sitting ready in a sorting office do the 'posties' have to walk out and leave items on the shelf and only take 1st class mail.?

Does incoming mail into the office have to be hand-sorted into separate class categories, in order to differentiate the different delivery requirements?

I don't know a post=person to ask.

We rarely see post being delivered here until well into the afternoon.

Kath, I wonder how that works with NHS appointment letters in this area as many of them larely seem to come in plain (i.e. not marked NHS) envelopes.

Almost all NHS letters here are in white envelopes with a blue NHS logo stamp rather than a normal stamp.

As far as how they sort the post I think they do part of their round on one day and the rest on another. We never seem to get post on a Monday or Tuesday but quite often do get post at the end of the week. Saturday post seems to be thing of the past apart from just before Christmas and we never get post before about 1pm.

Kath. x

Our NHS letters come in a white envelope with the blue NHS logo on the front. Up till now we have had a daily delivery about 1 pm but I haven’t yet seen the postman today. Will we notice any difference in delivery times? It might be an improvement if1st class arrives in 2 days and 2nd in 3 days. OH recently received something that had been posted 1st class from 50 miles away. It took 9 days to reach us!

yes I did say many of them lately were in plain envelopes. Normally our always came with the NHS on the envelope. I am wondering if it is anything to do with the fact that the department from which the appointments came has moved to a clinic down the road whereas it always used to be within the hospital.

As I saw our postmen on Tuesday and have just seen him again today, I guess the cost cutting exercise is working in this area. And any post now on its way to me will not appear until next week So one week we will get two deliveries and the next week three. (I rarely get first class post).

Poor postman had a huge pile to carry much larger than usual. I wonder how many important letters will be in that pile.

Seems to me like a way of forcing first class on everyone.

If you only’saw’ The postie it could mean they were doing the first class ( and packages).

Just had a look at the Royal Mail site ( instead of relying on the newspapers :-( ) and it said the new system was being rolled out over the next 12 months.

That would explain why we have had mail 3 days running this week!

In an area like this, with houses set back from the road and long front drives, delivering only 1st class will be a lot quicker. The postie backs up the drives if the gate is open otherwise he runs up it. If he has one of the many leaflets that have to be delivered to every house (usually from something like the Council) it can add quite a long time to his round. Our post arrives sometime between 11.00 and 2.00.

Our NHS letters have NHS Scotland in large blue print on the front of the envelope.

I saw posties (same one as usual for letters) because he delivered a letter to next door. He had a huge pile of letters in his hands, he usually takes letters out of his bag for the estate when he gets out of the van at the end of the road. He then carries them all in his hand I think he probably had two days of letters which would be first and second class, I can't imagine there will be one postie for first and another for second. parcels come via a different van.

An NHS appointment letter for outpatients at a local hospital came today.

Like another recent NHS letter, it has a Bristol postcode printed on the back of the envelope :-S

I think the 2 I had were the same Gwyn. Maybe that is just the sorting office for returned unknown address letters. Post graveyard?