Deliveries hit in mail ‘shambles’

The firm’s new Pegasus computerised delivery system was criticised as a “shambles” by business owners and private customers awaiting delayed letters, bills and cheques.[>

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In one area, irate customers were told by sorting staff that they were 250,000 letters and parcels behind and it could take months before the new system was running smoothly.[>

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Managers and administrative staff have even had to be taken off their normal office-based duties and drafted in to make  street deliveries in an effort to help shift the backlog.[>

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The Pegasus computer holds detailed information on 27 million UK addresses and helps automate the sorting of 80 million items of mail a night, and up to 120 million over the Christmas period.[>

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But when it was used recently to redraw and reduce the number of routes for delivery staff in Watford – where 17 postal workers had their short-term contracts terminated – chaos ensued.[>

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Up to a quarter of a million items of mail languished in the town’s Ascot Road sorting office, which angry customers were visiting daily to seek their undelivered post.[>

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Similar problems have been reported in Milton Keynes and parts of Essex, with managers accused of trying to introduce new postal routes, known as “walks”, overnight rather than phasing them in gradually by postcode.[>

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One postman, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s a complete shambles. We’re getting it in the neck from the general public who blame us but it’s all down to the managers. No postmen are to blame.”[>

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Pub chain JD Wetherspoon, which has its head office in Watford, was among a number of businesses believed to have made formal complaints to Royal Mail after receiving irregular deliveries in recent weeks.[>

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The town’s mayor and local Labour MP Claire Ward have demanded talks between staff and management to tackle the crisis.[>

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“I was told this system is being brought in across the country over the next three years but they decided to start with my constituency, and it’s a mess,” said the MP.[>

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“The whole situation is absolute madness especially in the present economic climate.”[>

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Watford businessman John Bacon said: “I even posted a first class letter to myself and it took four days to arrive.”[>

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It recently emerged that Royal Mail was forced to pay £4million compensation to disgruntled customers during the first three months of this year as complaints soared to 4,200 a day.[>

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Royal Mail spokesman David Simpson confirmed that Watford had experienced “glitches” in deliveries but said the service was now operating normally.[>

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He added: “We have used managers who have come off other duties to help get the mail out and now the service is running as it should be.”[>