Only just caught up and read the whole thread through.I don't work in the parcels or deliveries sections of RM, so cannot comment on everything that happens in those areas. I work in Revenue Protection, which is involved in checking items and bulk business mailings sent to us and making sure it is correctly presented and the dockets they send marry with the quantities they have actually sent, and the type of postage method they have used. Get it wrong and I get to fine them!
I agree with Kin on presentation. A parcel that is well wrapped and has care taken with it is much more likely to reach its destination. Very clear and obvious address labelling is a must. I've seen some hand written addresses on post that you cannot read, and has been passed around the office trying to find someone who can decipher it. How do people expect something to get to its destination when you can't read the address?
Post codes are another must. Anything posted can in theory arrive at its destination with just the name and post code on it. However leave the post code off and it is not always as straight forward as many addresses can share similar road or village/town names. I'm not saying just put the name and post code on it as they also isn't helping. The house number and road is also a huge help, but we do have post code books to look up post codes when they are missing to try and find the correct one and add it to the address labels.
Badly written addresses also badly effect automation. RM is trying to work towards as much automation of the sorting process as they can. The recent postal strikes last year were because of these changes. The union was worried that automation would lead to job cuts and a drop in hours and pay. An agreement has now been reached, whereby they will be a 1 hour reduction in hours for full time postal workers, but they are getting a pay rise to compensate. Voluntary redundancies are however inevitable as a reduction in manual sorting will mean less people required. And to the point about automation. When letters go into the IMP sorting machines the machine scans the address and reads the postcode. It can then print the bar code onto the letter identifying its destination and the machine can then use this later in the system to sort it automatically into its destination box. A badly hand written post code will mean the machine can't read it so the letter is rejected and a scan of the address label gets sent to a machine operators monitor, where they then have to try and read it and type the correct postcode in so the letters destination can be identified. This slows the process down. And still not being able to read it means the letter gets rejected further and manually sorted, delaying it even further.
So, as Kin said, the presentation of a letter/parcel and its address label are very important.
I personally don't know what the reason is for parcels going missing. The distribution centre I work at is the best in the south with the highest targets reached and a very efficient service.
One other thing to mention is postal tracking. If you send a parcel or letter by stamped mail then it isn't tracked so you cannot blame royal mail for its lose or misdirection. Only by paying slightly more for a tracked service like recorded delivery can you be more assured of its progress being tracked and it reaching its final destination.
Return addresses included on the back of items is also something you should all do. How else can a parcel be returned to the sender if the destination cannot be reached?
A lack of correct postage is also an obvious one. You would not believe how many people underestimate the cost of the postage and just stick some stamps on it. It then gets delayed for days as it needs to be sent to an alternative revenue protection section to be processed, the correct postage worked out and applied and a surcharge costing added for the delivery office to charge the destination address.
Finally, make sure everything is actually on the item when posting it. You would not believe how often I see people have completely forgotten to pay for an item to be posted. This happens every day. The address, but nothing else. No stamps. And some people even put stamps on their items but forget the address, and don't include a return address. How is RM ever expected to get that to any destination?
