POSTAL PERFORMANCE

Sunrise over Yarborough Road, one decidedly wintry morning last December, with snow deep and crisp and even on the paths.


Brigg Blog’s most popular story so far, in terms of hits, concerned the disruption to postal services in the town during last winter’s awful snowy spell, with 614 page views.
You may recall that a regional TV news programme subsequently deployed a camera crew to Brigg and sought people’s views, the main issues being whether it was safe to send out the posties in the snow and ice and what people thought of the service being afforded.
Brigg Blog made no criticism of delivery staff but merely reflected on December 8 2010: “We haven't seen a letter in our letterbox for a week now. Could be no-one wants to write to us, but, like most Brigg households, we are the recipient of much junk mail, so that's unlikely. However, the gallant paper delivery boys, and girls, keep getting through, day after day. On Saturday I observed one young fella pushing a shopping trolley, loaded with papers, along Yarborough Road. The trolley idea didn't seem to be very successful, in view of the close proximity of wheels to ice and snow, and it was hard going, but he was sticking to the job in hand.”
Five months later the Royal Mail has issued a lengthy statement and list of statistics reviewing the past year, with reference to the snowy period when deliveries in Brigg were put on hold.
The company says it achieved its 93.0 per cent First Class quality target in the year to March 2011 “when taking into account the extraordinary combination of the worst weather in living memory and the unprecedented closure of UK airspace because of volcanic ash.”
Alison Wright, Regional Operations Director for the North East, said: “Royal Mail’s performance in the face of exceptional challenges last financial year is a tribute to the determination and dedication of our postmen and women.
“We are sorry for any difficulties experienced by our customers. We did everything possible to deliver their mail in the face of prolonged spells of extreme winter weather and the unprecedented closure of UK airspace.”
Nationally, Royal Mail was still beating its 93.0% First Class delivery target up to early November with a 93.3% performance for the first eight periods of the financial year - despite the impact of the ash cloud in the spring.
Last April was the first time UK airspace had ever been closed as a result of volcanic ash. This disrupted next-day delivery of mail. Royal Mail operates the UK’s biggest night-time air charter operation to fly First Class mail longer distances, eg between Scotland and the south of England.
Last winter also saw the coldest December in the last 100 years, according to the Met Office.
Royal Mail’s statement says: “Other delivery firms withdrew their services at times when Royal Mail maintained deliveries with a £20 million investment in additional transport, an extra 20,000 recruits and 18,000 additional deliveries.
“Royal Mail also faced a difficult recovery period after Christmas as parts of the UK continued to suffer from poor weather and transport difficulties. There were also heavy business mail postings in January.
Despite the exceptional conditions, Royal Mail achieved a 94.3 per cent success rate for ‘Standard Parcels’ against a target of 90 per cent – before any adjustment for exceptional events.
The disruption to air, road and rail services meant that Royal Mail’s “bellwether” indicator, First Class stamped and meter mail performance, was 91.4% for the 2010-11 year before adjustments for the impact on our operations from exceptional weather and the closure of UK airspace.
With adjustments for these exceptional events, the First Class performance would be 93.0%. Second Class exceeded its 98.5% target with a 98.8% performance if account is taken of the exceptional events. Without adjustment, it was slightly below target with a 98.2% performance.
Under the terms of its licence from Postcomm, Royal Mail is now asking the regulator to apply these adjustments to the 2010-11 Quality of Service figures to recognise the impact of the severity of the weather conditions and the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud. This is an established procedure. The company believes the exceptional conditions fully warrant adjustments as Royal Mail did everything possible to cope with events beyond its control. Postcomm will reach a view on these adjustments this year.

Royal Mail statistics showing performances by postcode area - Brigg being DN, of course.








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