Without warning, and without any consultation, Royal Mail have inserted new information plates in many local pillar boxes advising of a much earlier collection time for mail, typically changed by almost eight hours from 4.45pm to 9.00am, on Mondays to Fridays.
The Saturday collections have been brought forward by more than four hours to 7.00am from 11.30am.
This is a major reduction in service level for customers. It is also disrespectful of the users of the postal service, many of whom rely on a late afternoon uplift of their mail.
The cost of posting letters seems to frequently rise and yet the service level falls, now with earlier collection times and later delivery times. Against competition from electronic mail, and also other parcel and letter delivery companies, one would have thought Royal Mail would try to provide a better service than others to maintain a competitive advantage.
The revised collection times in this suburban location are much earlier than many rural locations in the Highlands and Islands. Even at the few remaining pillar boxes with later collections, adjustments have been made to worsen the weekday uplift times to 4.00pm instead of 4.45pm.
In a small survey of local pillar boxes it appears more than 80 per cent have been downgraded with much earlier collection times. This is very unhelpful for mail that is time-sensitive. It is very inconvenient, especially for home workers or the elderly or the less able, who will have to travel much further to the small number of pillar boxes with later collection times.
Not too long ago, around 2005, typically there were four collections per day from local pillar boxes during the week, two on Saturdays, and even a Sunday collection from Milngavie Post Office.
The timing is inappropriate some four weeks before Christmas when Royal Mail receives massive revenue.
Is this the thin edge of the wedge? Do we need a campaign to Save our Pillar Boxes? Is this the start of the demise of the suburban and possibly rural pillar box? Will the Saturday delivery be the next target for cutbacks? Is this reduction in service an unacceptable consequence of privatisation ?
Robin M Brown,
46 Buchanan Street,
Milngavie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article