Mailman Gets Dinged For Very Special Delivery

MayorBob.

Posted to Business on Fri Sep 01, 2006 at 09:57:51 AM EST. RSS.

The Royal Mail is the United Kingdom's public postal service.  Delivering 81 million items per day, it is quite proud of its performance.  Among Royal Mail's corporate goals is to provide the very best in customer service to the British public. It also reminds its employees they are part of a team which has "an important role to play in the community and a huge responsibility to all our customers."  One Royal Mail carrier recently found out that apparently the recipients of those items are not really considered customers.  And, because they are not, he's been placed on suspension and might end up losing his job.    

Among the 81 million items delivered daily is a substantial number of items known as "Door to Door" items.  These are leaflets, brochure, and advertising newsletter with no specific recipient listed.  They are also commonly known as junk mail.  It is apparently a lucrative business in the eyes of the Royal Mail, as it is a heavily promoted service.  In fact, the Royal Mail only delivers about a quarter of the junk mail delivered each day to UK residents - the rest gets delivered by private services.  But, true to its commitment to customer service, there is an opt out that recipients can take.  It was his taking the time and effort to let his route customers know about the opt out service which might cost Roger Annies of Barry, South Wales his job.  He delivered copies of a leaflet he printed up to each of his recipients explaining how they might opt out of their door to door service:

"As you will have certainly already noticed, your postman is not only delivering your mail; he/she also has to deliver some (anonymous) advertising material called door-to-door items.  For the near future, Royal Mail plans to increase your advertising mail. This will mean a lot more unwanted post in your letterbox.  If you complete the slip below and send it to the Royal Mail delivery office, you should not get any of the above-mentioned unwanted advertising."

For his troubles, Annies finds himself facing charges of "alleged misconduct."  According to a Royal Mail spokesperson indicated that the service's future depends on "competing effectively in all parts of the market and that includes unaddressed mail" and further indicated if the Royal Mail didn't deliver it, the business would simply be lost to the private carriers.  The Royal Mail's portion of the business works out to about 3 billion items per year which earn the service something in the neighborhood of (UK)£270 million per year. The people on Annies' route and commenters on the BBC article seemed to side with the mail carrier, however.  Many of them noted that the only place junk mail goes is in the trash and one pointed out that the information Annies provided was in the public domain (in fact, if you check out the first link, the opt out procedure is there on the top left hand side of the web page). A local politician said he felt Annies had done a solid public service as one of the leading problems in the local area is the amount of junk mail which ends up as litter on the streets.

Certainly, you would expect Annies to get some sort of cover from his union, Communications Workers Union, right?  After all, the CWU says its "first duty and responsibility is to protect and promote the interests of its members in the workplace."  But, alas, for Annies it seems the CWU and the Royal Mail see eye to eye on the issue of junk mail.  According to CWU official Bob Gibson:

"The CWU recognises the strategic importance of Door to Door in what is a financially lucrative and expanding market. We are already in negotiations with Royal Mail to conclude an agreement that will enable the number of weekly Door to Door contracts to be increased, whilst at the same time ensuring that all operational and health and safety requirements are in place and our members receive improved remuneration and longer term job protection."