Saturday Royal Mail post may not return to Bexhill

So, Royal Mail has announced it has ‘suspended’ Saturday letter deliveries.

As an ex Royal Mail employee, (1955-1988), from ‘young postman’ (telegram boy) rising to the dizzy height of ‘postal executive’ (Grade ‘C’), I honestly believe that the Saturday delivery will never be reinstated.

I base this on the fact that RM have been trying to withdraw that delivery for many years. But it was opposed by the union (then the UPW).

When I progressed to postman in 1958 there were three deliveries a day and TWO on Saturdays. Also, at that time, RM was part of a larger organization which included: Post Office Telecoms, Post Office Engineers, POR (Office Railway) and the CCS (Central Controlled Services) the latter collecting and delivering to all the Central London Railway Stations. They also did the same for main London sorting offices that were not on the POR.

Along came Mrs Thatcher who proceeded to restrict the power of the Unions. Her government then started to decimate the nationalised industries and selling off the profitable ones.

At that time, RM was the ‘poor relation’ to Telecoms which was making profits. The Government then said to RM ‘You must stand on your own feet’. So the only way that poor old RM could start making large profits, was embark on a period of mechanization and cut services and save on the wage bill. At that time there were 250,000 uniformed grades.

First to go was the Saturday second letter delivery then the afternoon letter delivery. As the main sorting offices were mechanized, recruitment was reduced and retirement people were not replaced. Staff with really bad sick records were ‘medically retired’ with a pension. At that time you could be on long term sickness for six months on full pay and then reduced if it was longer, so it was cheaper in the long run for RM to pay a pension against full pay. Then the next cut was a masterstroke.

At that time, if a first class letter was posted before four pm the previous day it was guaranteed to be delivered by the first delivery (GP general post) by nine am. If a delivery officer failed to complete his/her round by that time, they had to explain why or face disciplinary action.

Then, as I say, came the masterstroke. It was announced that the second daily delivery was to be cut. In actual fact it was the GP that was cut. I say this because, how many of people up and down the country can say that their mail is delivered before nine o’clock. In our case in Bexhill it usually very late morning or in some cases late afternoon.

So there you have it, my honest opinion of the recent decision of dear old Royal Mail.

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