Letterbox rant

Savvy_Sue

My colleague who usually deals with the post has been away, so I've been responsible for getting the franked mail into the postbox. It has to go into the postbox before the final collection or the sky falls in, according to said colleague. They usually takes it on their way home as they go past a convenient post office.

Great, except when they're not here, the collection at the nearest letterbox has been brought forward from 5 pm to 4 pm. No notification to local homes and businesses.

Undeterred I walked down the road to another box, which used to have a slightly later collection than the nearest. No luck: that's now going at 9 am. 9 am? What use is that if you want a letter to arrive next day?

I have now found a 4.45 pm collection only slightly further away than the nearest, which helps those of our staff who are tied up with clients until 4 pm but then may need to get a letter out.

This page explains all about it, but it's undated, so I have no idea when these changes happened. And it says "As usual, the indicator tablet on the postbox will show if the collection has already been made." My nearest box has no such indicator, not designed for one, and some of the other boxes have the indicator missing.

It also says "There will be clear sign-posting for customers on the new postbox plates, indicating where their nearest later posting box is." But if you've found a 9 or 10 am box, they don't tell you where the nearest afternoon collection is, and the one they do direct you to is no help at all if you're on foot.

This just removes any chance of getting a letter posted at the end of the business day to arrive the next day.

Mistral001

The collection times for my local post boxes have been almost set in stone for as long as I can remember, but in the last year they have all been brought forward in time. It is 15mins. here and 45 minutes there and it is very annoying.

Credit-Crunched

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

My colleague who usually deals with the post has been away, so I've been responsible for getting the franked mail into the postbox. It has to go into the postbox before the final collection or the sky falls in, according to said colleague. They usually takes it on their way home as they go past a convenient post office.

Great, except when they're not here, the collection at the nearest letterbox has been brought forward from 5 pm to 4 pm. No notification to local homes and businesses.

Undeterred I walked down the road to another box, which used to have a slightly later collection than the nearest. No luck: that's now going at 9 am. 9 am? What use is that if you want a letter to arrive next day?

I have now found a 4.45 pm collection only slightly further away than the nearest, which helps those of our staff who are tied up with clients until 4 pm but then may need to get a letter out.

This page explains all about it, but it's undated, so I have no idea when these changes happened. And it says "As usual, the indicator tablet on the postbox will show if the collection has already been made." My nearest box has no such indicator, not designed for one, and some of the other boxes have the indicator missing.

It also says "There will be clear sign-posting for customers on the new postbox plates, indicating where their nearest later posting box is." But if you've found a 9 or 10 am box, they don't tell you where the nearest afternoon collection is, and the one they do direct you to is no help at all if you're on foot.

This just removes any chance of getting a letter posted at the end of the business day to arrive the next day.

Cool story!

Tigsteroonie

Most of our local postboxes have changed to 9am from their afternoon times.

I did however know about this, I can't remember if I saw a national or local news story about it, I'll do a little digging.

pooch

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

My colleague who usually deals with the post has been away, so I've been responsible for getting the franked mail into the postbox. It has to go into the postbox before the final collection or the sky falls in, according to said colleague. They usually takes it on their way home as they go past a convenient post office.

Great, except when they're not here, the collection at the nearest letterbox has been brought forward from 5 pm to 4 pm. No notification to local homes and businesses.

Undeterred I walked down the road to another box, which used to have a slightly later collection than the nearest. No luck: that's now going at 9 am. 9 am? What use is that if you want a letter to arrive next day?

I have now found a 4.45 pm collection only slightly further away than the nearest, which helps those of our staff who are tied up with clients until 4 pm but then may need to get a letter out.

This page explains all about it, but it's undated, so I have no idea when these changes happened. And it says "As usual, the indicator tablet on the postbox will show if the collection has already been made." My nearest box has no such indicator, not designed for one, and some of the other boxes have the indicator missing.

It also says "There will be clear sign-posting for customers on the new postbox plates, indicating where their nearest later posting box is." But if you've found a 9 or 10 am box, they don't tell you where the nearest afternoon collection is, and the one they do direct you to is no help at all if you're on foot.

This just removes any chance of getting a letter posted at the end of the business day to arrive the next day.

I understand you posted this as a rant, but let me see if I can turn it into a positive for you

As per this link

We started making changes in September 2014 (October in Scotland).

Most postboxes do have an indicator - they used to be to tell you what time the next collection will be ... or tell you the last collection wasn't made. But it's a manual operation by the postie who may forget and I do accept the indicators are sometimes missing. Even when they are there, what do they mean? Often it is just a number, which I think formally related to the next scheduled collection on the list, but nowadays does it relate to the day of the week? And is Monday a 1 or a 2?

The notice plate should have an indication of a local collection point with a late collection time, and as per your link, any post box with just an early collection should be no more than 0.5 miles from a late collection box (post 4pm) (although that me not be the one that is listed on the box as they tend to be post 5pm collection boxes)

In addition, as per your link

How do I find out where the nearest box with a later collection time is?

Call our dedicated Customer Service Team on 03456 011399 and they will be pleased to help you find your nearest box with a later collection time.

Finally, I would add that whichever box you post the mail in, if that post is collected that day it is considered to be within that same working day. We have one box that is collected at 7.15pm - it's outside the sorting depot so if the mail is posted before that time it is considered as posted that working day.

HTH

System

The changes started in August 2014. There WAS fairly widespread news coverage on the main channels' news programs

One of the news stories here from 8 August last year

custardy

Yup,guess what folks. RM got privitised,things change.
Did you think nothing would? When you look at the post box it should tell you (on the 9am collection on delivery boxes) where the later collection boxes are. Would you like a full list of boxes on every post box? The fact is they are streamlining the (costly) collection process.
People have been spoiled by the existing collection set up.

Nearly all boxes should have 'day tags' barring a few weird old PO type ones IME.
If it doesnt then you assume the collection has been made for the day if its past the advertised time.

firefox1956

Franked mail !!!!
You are living in the expensive dark ages............
Try email..........
:D:D:D

sjbrun

Franked mail isnt supposed to be put in standard post boxes anyway. If you look at your license it tells you that you need to put it in the larger franking post boxes (which always have later times) in the bags royal mail provide or hand it in to a post office.

You can loose your franking license if you don't or get a letter from them.

Stevie_Palimo

Did they not used to collect franked post ?

custardy

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

Did they not used to collect franked post ?

Collection are done at a cost.
Franking provides a cheaper postage method. It doesn't come with a free collection thrown in.

Some areas even have these