Email From Royal Mail 21/10/09

Below you will find the email we received this afternoon from Royal Mail with regards to the strikes and their levels of service over the next few business days.

At P&P we are able to offer alternatives to Royal Mail for your post requirements, why not get in touch with us to find out more?

Whilst this is a further and serious development, national strike action is not inevitable and concentrated talks between Royal Mail and CWU are continuing.

In the event national strikes do take place, mail services on strike days will be limited and as a consequence, some delay to the collection, sorting, distribution, and delivery of mail would be inevitable.

What does this mean for business collection services? Our ability to perform business collections in the South East on Thursday will be limited and we are unlikely to be able to collect your mail as we usually do.

If we are able to collect from you on Thursday, the Customer Services team or a member of your local mail operations team will contact you before Thursday. Otherwise, here are some alternatives for getting mail into our network on Thursday:

Mail can be dropped off at any Post Office® – You can take your mail to any Post Office branch as they are not involved in this industrial action and services are available as usual. To find your nearest branch, visit: Post Office® Branch Locator.

Mail can be taken to your local Mail Centre – You can hand your mail over at the following Mail Centres in your region to get mail directly into our network:

South East Mail Centres
London Mail Centres
Anglia Mail Centres

You also have the option to hold your mail until your next collection, which should be on Friday 23rd October. Please be advised that collection times on Friday may be later than usual because of large volumes of mail to collect as we get collection services back to normal.

What does this mean for mail delivery services?
Almost all of our delivery postmen and women will be working as normal and making deliveries on Thursday 22nd October.

On Friday, strike action means mail deliveries in most parts of the South East area are likely to be limited to that of premium services (Special Delivery™ and Royal Mail Tracked™).

However, in the TN9-12, ME14-16 and some parts of ME17, DA1-2, DA4, and CT1-4 postcode areas, mail deliveries will be affected on Thursday 22nd October, rather than Friday 23rd October, with a resumption of mail deliveries on Friday 23rd October.

Whilst we expect to deliver Special Delivery™ on strike days, the nature of the strike action means we cannot guarantee these services for items posted on Thursday and Friday. We will restore the guarantee as soon as we can assure customers we can honour the service promise and expect to do this by Monday 26th October.

On days following industrial action delivery times may be later than usual as we work to recover services.

We are really sorry for the impact the CWU’s action may have on customers and for the inconvenience and uncertainty we know any national industrial action would cause.

Keeping you up-to-date
Our priority remains to support customers with detailed information and advice to ensure they can get the best service we are able to provide. We will continue to update you with information about contingency plans, the impact of industrial action and the recovery of service after any industrial action.
Regards,

Royal Mail Customer Services