Royal Mail can’t be carpeted for slow postal deliveries in Dundee East or anywhere else because the rules are set aside for Christmas.
The organisation, which has come in for extreme criticism for its admittedly poor performance over the last month in DD4 and DD5 postcode areas, should deliver first- and second-class mail within target times.
These are the next working day for first-class mail and three working days for second-class mail. There are also agreed targets for packages and parcels.
The quality of service targets are laid down by the postal regulator Postcomm and failure to meet them can prompt an investigation.
If complaints are upheld Royal Mail can be subject to enforcement action and ultimately be fined.
In Scotland the standards set down by Postcomm for Royal Mail’s quality of service measurement are suspended from the first Monday in December to the first working day in January after the New Year public holiday.
The standards are set aside because of the larger volume of mail that enters the system after the end of November and it is felt it would be unfair to impose the same standards on the service during this period as for the rest of the year.
The exemption has prompted statutory consumer watchdog body Consumer Focus to question the wisdom of people sending first-class mail at this time.
Under normal circumstances Royal Mail would aim to deliver at least 93% of first-class mail the working day after posting but during December the obligation is scrapped.
Consumer Focus says as a result people who send Christmas cards might as well send them by second-class post 9p cheaper at 41p.
The amount of undelivered Christmas mail in Dundee East is believed to run to six figures and The Courier has received a deluge of complaints from readers about what they regard as poor service.ApologyRoyal Mail has apologised for its performance over the period, blaming first a new delivery system called the Way Forward and then the bad weather.
The former caused a large backlog of undelivered letters and parcels which Royal Mail said was virtually cleared when the snow and ice arrived, making it difficult for posties to go on their rounds.
A spokeswoman said, “The vast majority of Christmas mail was delivered despite the most hostile start to winter weather in the UK in living memory.
“We will continue to deliver any remaining items posted before Christmas as quickly as possible.”
Royal Mail is to press ahead with plans to introduce the Way Forward in Dundee West, despite the difficulties with late mail in Dundee East.
Another aspect of the delivery service that has perplexed readers has been the sending of mail to sorting offices far away from their homes and they ask if this is causing unnecessary delays.
The latest illustration of this was offered by Dudley Dorman of Westmuir in Angus. He has received Christmas cards from as close as Cortachy and Kirriemuir and noticed that their envelopes had been franked as far away as Devon and Cornwall.
“Why has a letter that comes about a mile away to be sent on a round trip of over 1000 miles to reach its destination?” he asked.
Alf Mack from Dunfermline said he was bemused to find that three pieces of post all had English postmarks on them despite being posted locally and said he didn’t understand the reasoning behind changing postal staff in the busy period prior to Christmas.
He said, “We haven’t had much post lately and I realise there have been problems caused by the weather but we had mail that was posted in Oakley with a Southampton postmark on it and another that was posted in Blairhall with a Norwich postmark on it.”
He added, “We have had the same postman for just over four years and we were told that he was being taken off. We hadn’t seen him in ages and then we found out he was no longer working in our area.
“The Royal Mail seem to be changing all the routes of posties but why do this at their busiest time of the year before Christmas? It beggars belief.”
Jessie Gilchrist from Cairneyhill, near Dunfermline, said she had just received her first mail for over a week and called the whole matter a “nightmare.”
She said, “We have had mail with postmarks from the Lake District and south East Anglia.”
Royal Mail said such arrangements are implemented when there is a heavy volume of mail to be dealt with and the system is under strain from severe weather. Mail can be sent anywhere in the UK with spare sorting capacity.
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty said, “The delivery from the Royal Mail is rubbish.
“People should not have to wait for Christmas mail or deliveries to arrive at this time.”
He added, “I will be contacting the Royal Mail to tell them how inept they are.”