F is for Fake Stamps and Flowers

If your letter does not arrive one of the most likely causes is fake postage stamps. This is quite an issue these days. Royal Mail has a very helpful page on the subject of how to spot fakes, but the main message should be price ... if you are paying less than 95p for your first class stamps then they are most probably fake. If someone offered you a £5 note for £4 you would be suspicious, and the same should be true of stamps. Some are so obvious as to be laughable, with poor colour and bad printing but most are quite convincing to the casual glance. Genuine stamps have the words 'Royal Mail' in wavy lines printed in the background of the queen's image. Some fakes have this background printing but if you look closely it may be backwards, have poor printing or be in straight lines. 'They' have apparently already managed to fake the new barcoded stamps (that were supposed to prevent fraud), though I have not come across any yet. I had one customer who had bought her book of stamps from a local corner shop so be cautious if you buy them anywhere other than the post office. People online claiming to buy stamps in bulk cheaper are lying, you can only get cheaper postage if you have a business account (and this is metered post not using stamps). The sorting machines are pretty clever and can spot fakes and filter them out of the system to be processed by Revenue Protection. Underpaid items will be surcharged and delayed by at least a week.

Flowers by post seems like a lovely idea (not a fan myself, I like my flowers still attached to the plant) but, if you send someone flowers as a gift, tell them! Every week we return dead flowers that nobody has collected. Often the recipient is not expecting anything and does not pay attention to their P739 card. Sometimes people call in a week later, by which time the flowers are pretty shrivelled and unappealing. These nice flat boxes are designed to 'go through the letter box' ... but only certain kinds of letter boxes. Just give them a call and ask if the flowers arrived, or check your tracking number to see if they have been delivered. It feels like such a waste that so often nobody gets to enjoy them.

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Stop and smell the flowers.

E is for Empty Space

 

Royal Mail are making grand claims about their 'Steps to Zero' and efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of packets, but they are doing little to address overpackaging that endemic across many companies. Tiny items are regularly packed into unnecessarily large boxes adding to transportation costs and thus carbon footprint. I regularly suggest to customers that they complain when they collect a huge box that is mostly empty space, but have no idea of anyone ever does. 

This was my experience buying a camera a decade ago, and the situation has not improved.

Worst offenders are Adidas and Rebok, who send pairs of trainers in a box large enough for a small child to hide in, though Amazon and The Hut Group are also awful:

Challenge companies if you receive things that are over packaged, don't just shrug and recycle.

Stay safe. Be kind. Buy less stuff.

D is for Dogs

1,673 dog attacks were reported on postmen and postwomen last year. It's a fairly steady figure over time I believe. I have been bitten, hard enough to leave a mark, three times in my career to date. In the worst case scenario deliveries can be suspended to an address with an aggressive dog and the customer obliged to call and collect their mail. Quite a high proportion happen on the doorstep, where people open the door without first securing their animal. During the summer months people often leave their doors open giving their dogs free access to the garden. We are advised not to enter a garden is there is any concern an animal might be loose. I am suspicious of the people who announce that their dog is lovely and not to be concerned; it is best to be cautious of all dogs and never assume they are friendly. 

Just keep them under control, it's not hard.

But look, apricot tree seedlings, nuts planted mere weeks ago, from fruit that we ate earlier in the summer:

Stay safe. Be kind. Plant a tree.

C is for Christmas

I started working for Royal Mail a week before Christmas. This meant that what I was told would be a 1.30pm finish was actually a 4pm finish. It is kind of mind boggling how a business can magically absorb a 100% increase in it's workload over a very short period of time, and yet somehow, most of the time, we manage to get the cards and pressies (not to mention the chocolate advent calendars) where they are supposed to be. I like this time of year because, despite the workload, there is a nice atmosphere in the office and a sense that we are integral to enjoyment of the season. And I've been working hard on the home-made paper chains to decorate the office. As you may be aware we are currently experiencing an industrial dispute. This is likely to be ongoing, up to, but not including, (because we don't want to lose the support of the general public) the Christmas period. So the advice, as always, is to get organised and buy your pressies early. Don't leave things to the last minute. 

And while we're on the subject, Christmas wrapping paper is not suitable for sending items through the post. It's another thing I have mentioned before. It's not robust enough and will arrive in tatters. We may very well return to the subject of packaging later in the A to Z.

C is also for Chronic Understaffing, which appears to be the (deliberate?) policy of senior management. 10% of roles in our office are currently vacant and there is a moratorium on recruitment while we are in dispute (extending the moratorium that was in place over the summer). One aspect of the dispute is the sickness cover and the claim by management that sickness rates are very high. Their response to this 'situation' is to put staff under further stress by overworking everyone. I fail to see the logic. But then I am just a lowly postie. 

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Plan ahead.

A quickie for National Poetry Day

Dunk pointed out this morning that it is National Poetry Day (I would have missed it, being at work for 11 hours), so with my cup of tea I reach over to the poetry shelf and pick out 'Blue Coffee - Poems 1985-1996' by Adrian Mitchell and chose this little contribution to their theme of 'environment':

Another Attempt at a Nature Poem, But Don't Worry, Ted.

The vixen springs

The sparrow sings

The mole grins in his trap

The eagle swings

Her brazen wings

The bunny has a crap

Stay safe. Be kind. Read a poem.

B is for Blue Bin

To blue bin or not to blue bin, that is the question?

I was once reprimanded for leaving a package in a blue bin. The customer had gone away, and their neighbour very helpfully put their bins out for them. I promised the manager I would never do it again. Then he left so I felt my promise to be discharged. Some customers come in and complain ... why did the postman just not leave it in the blue bin, then I wouldn't have to come and pick it up. They complain even harder if they requested it was left and then it was not left. Some customers come in with the words 'packet left in blue bin' on their P739 card, which they have not bothered to read (don't get me started). And then some people come in and complain that they did not want their packet left. We can't win. The blue bin is considered safe by quite a high proportion of posties. I have always felt it is a matter of judgement where you might leave a package safely for a customer, some people will never leave one anywhere. Use of a 'safe place', even one specified on the package, is at the discretion of the postie, as they are responsible for the delivery. So, the message is, if you want your package left somewhere safe, leave a note on your front door; while your regular guy may know your habits and preferences, they may be sick or on leave.

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Get a flu jab.

A is for Address

Lets start with the basics. Know the correct address for the person you are sending to. Make your handwriting neat, and use a pen that stands out from the colour of the envelope. If you put a half-assed address it will get a half-assed delivery. Remember that councils are very unimaginative and will reuse road names, sometimes multiple times across a city ... this is why postcodes are important. Here is a random postcode search on the Royal Mail postcode finder:

Similarly, in the countryside, cottage names will be equally unimaginative and repetitive, so include the village name. (When I worked in Morton every village had a Beech cottage, Cotswold Cottage, Church Cottage; Oddinton has three cottages just called The Cottage.) If your recipient lives in a flat, don't forget the flat number as well as the house number ...  a flat number without the house number will also be unlikely to arrive. (Sometimes you can get away with this if it is a student residence block that has a reception that holds all the mail, but ...)

Use the postcode. Please. (Pretty please.) They are an amazing invention. If a letter or packet has the correct postcode the chances are that I can get it to the right place if for some reason the rest of the address is defaced or missing. They do have their limits however. Some places get one all to themselves, but sometimes 100 houses or more may share the same one, so do not assume they can be used to track down the house of your auntie Gladys who you haven't written to since she was in hospital three years ago.

Put a return address on the back (everywhere else in the world seems to put it in the top corner, but here in the UK we use the back). Everything you put in the postal system needs a return address. I mean everything!

(Images here from the Royal Mail 'How to address your letter' page.)

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Send someone a real letter.