WORKING TOGETHER - myroyalmail€¦ · keep delighting customers, we can’t afford to miss a beat....

INSIDE: FIND OUT MORE ON HOW WE CAN DELIVER

JANUARY 2014THE ROYAL MAIL NEWSPAPER .com

THE BEST

BEING

BEING A SUCCESSFUL PARCELS

BUSINESS

MANAGING THE DECLINE IN LETTERS

BEING CUSTOMERFOCUSED

2 January 2014

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Moya GreeneMY VIEW

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MOYA ON DELIVERING…

Deputy editor: Jo Gurman

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I ALWAYS SAY that we shine at Christ-mas. And this year was no exception. We all came together to deliver a first-rate service for our customers.

You can see from the criticism levelled at other carriers across the world how damag-ing it can be when things go wrong. But, de-spite gale force winds and excessive flood-ing, you pulled out all the stops.

As proof, there’s a selection of just some of the many, many tweets from delighted customers on page 9. Thank you for all your efforts.

WORKING TOGETHERAs many of you know, however, social me-dia can just as quickly turn against us. 2014 is an important year for us. To make sure we keep delighting customers, we can’t afford to miss a beat. And we’ll only succeed if we work together.

The agreement in principle that we’ve reached with the CWU is the first of its kind. It is one of the best in the UK. It is about a new way of working together. It is about col-laborating and responding quickly to chal-lenges. It is about looking at building in the right flexibility for you and for the company. And it is about how we can be more effi-

cient. That’s very important for all of us.

DELIVERING OUR STRATEGYYou already know we face tough competition, particularly when it comes to parcels. We are proud to deliver the Universal Service. And we offer among the best, if not the best, pay and terms and conditions in our sector.

We can’t always beat our competitors on cost. That’s why we have to be the best in everything we do and be better than every single competitor on quality. In addition, we need to figure out how to keep delivering a great customer experience at the right cost.

PARCELS ARE KEYMany of you saw first-hand the huge num-ber of parcels we handled this Christmas.

We had a good Christmas. So did most of our competitors. Let’s not forget that Ama-zon has set up its own delivery network and started delivering on Sundays in the run-up to Christmas. It has just announced that it will do so permanently in some centres across the UK.

The competition is hot on our heels; in some cases they are overtaking us. You play a crucial role in delivering every parcel right – first time, every time (see pages 4-5).

LETTERS MATTERWe still handle billions of letters, but we know that letter volumes are falling. So we’re taking action to manage this decline.

For example, on pages 4-5 you can see how we’re investing in Mailmark. This allows cus-tomers to track their mail through our network.

TNT Post continues to expand its end-to-end service. I welcome competition. But there has to be a level playing field. And that’s not just down to the regulator. As I said earlier, we must help ourselves by being more efficient and more flexible.

BEING THE BESTWe have to stay one step ahead of the com-petition. Otherwise, our customers will go elsewhere.

Being their first choice means tailoring our products to our customers. It means improving their experience by investing in enquiry offices. It means driving down complaints in key areas like redirections and redeliveries. We are doing all these things and will need to do more.

Every one of us can make a big differ-ence. The next three pages set out our strat-egy and what we need to do to be the best, day in, day out. I know we can do it.

Editor at AB: Lisa MobleyEmail: [email protected]

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CONTACT US

WE HAVE TO BE THE BEST IN EVERYTHING

WE DO AND BE BETTER THAN EVERY SINGLE

COMPETITOR ON QUALITY.

588.86pper share as at 23 January 2014The price and value of securities can go down as

well as up. Past performance is not a guide to future

performance. Information published in Courier cannot

be relied upon as a guide to future performance.

You can check the share price any time the stock market is open at myroyalmail.com

FOR OUR PEOPLE It’s time to think about your

nominations for this year’s Chairman’s Awards for Excellence (page 13). This is our chance to recognise individuals and teams who have gone the extra mile. Do you know someone who deserves an award? Nominations open on 3 February.

FOR OUR CUSTOMERS Being customer focused is a key

element of our strategy. We’re about to launch a new barcode system called Mailmark that will help certain business customers track their products throughout the Royal Mail pipeline. Find out more about it and why it’s good news for business customers on page 4. We also meet a customer that’s really happy with the service we deliver for its many customers, particularly at this time of year (page 12).

IN THE UK (AND THE WORLD) Once again, we’re the biggest single

corporate contributor to Movember in the world. On the centre pages, you’ll see just a handful of the hundreds of people who grew a Mo or raised money in other ways. With Prostate Cancer UK as our charity of the year, this cause is especially close to our hearts. Well done on a fantastic fundraising feat. And our Payroll Giving scheme also continues to get bigger and better, reaching an amazing £50 million for more than 900 good causes (page 15).

WORKING TOGETHER

January 2014 3email: [email protected] daily news: myroyalmail.com latest news: watch RMTV twitter: @RM_COURIER

BEING THE BESTWe have to consistently be the best to protect as many high-quality jobs as possible.

It’s in all our interests to deliver – as employees and shareholders.

What we’re doing:

• Putting the customer at the heart of everything we do

• Improving the customer experience, eg transforming our enquiry offices.

How can you help?

• Tackle the top four causes of complaints: redirections, redeliveries, misdeliveries and ‘Something for you’ cards

• Everywhere in the UK: provide first-class customer service. Go the extra mile.

BEING A SUCCESSFUL PARCELS BUSINESS

What we’re doing:

• Planning to barcode significantly more parcels

• Rolling out new scanners so our people have the right equipment to do their job

• Launching new IT systems so big customers can do business with us more easily

• Getting more companies to use our Click and Collect service.

How can you help?

• No damage or delay to items

• Scan every barcode

• Deliver to a neighbour if a customer isn’t home.

BEING CUSTOMER FOCUSEDMANAGING THE DECLINE IN LETTERS

What we’re doing:

• Getting a fair price for everything we do

• Competing on a level playing field. Seeking regulatory reform on direct delivery

• Launching Mailmark barcoding so large, bulk mail customers can track their mailings.

How can you help?

• Deliver ALL mail to a high standard. This includes Access mail and Door to Door

• Consistently meet our Quality of Service targets – everywhere.

Getting it right – every time. Being flexible.

Establishing the value of mail and securing a level playing field. Being more efficient.

The flexibility and technology customers expect.

4 January 2014 January 2014 5email: [email protected] daily news: myroyalmail.com latest news: watch RMTV twitter: @RM_COURIER

TURNING PLANS INTO ACTION Just a few examples of how we’re delivering the three strands of our strategy – being a successful parcels business, managing the decline in letters and being customer focused.

PERFECT PARCELS

Being the best parcels delivery company is a priority for us.

Claire Bragg, postwoman from Leeds City delivery office, says: ‘We’ve worked hard to involve everyone in the parcels process.

‘We looked at the three most common complaints – damage, loss or delayed delivery – and reorganised the office to ensure we avoid those.’

In the run-up to Christmas, if a customer was not at home a dedicated team took those parcels back out later

in the day. Claire says: ‘We

had a lot of happy customers who got their parcel on the right day.’

This approach promoted first time delivery and, along with delivery

to neighbour, minimised the need to travel to the enquiry office and reduced redelivery requests.

When a customer is out and we can’t deliver, the P739 ‘Something for you’ card is designed to provide the information the customer and our staff need.

Malcolm Brown helped to drive improvements to P739 cards in the Leeds City enquiry office. He says: ‘We looked at how cards were filled in, and then talked to people about how they could fill them in better. Now we only occasionally get one that’s wrong.

‘It needs to be clear so we can find the item easily when the customer comes in. Before, people

weren’t ticking whether it was Special Delivery, Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 or Royal Mail Signed For. We need that information as we store each type of item separately.’

For Malcolm and his colleagues, including the item number on the bottom of the card allows them to look it up on the system. ‘I know it’s hard when you’re standing on the doorstep and it’s raining. But taking time to get it right means we have fewer customers complaining.’

CORRECT CARDS COUNT

ROYAL MAIL MAILMARK IS COMINGMailmark is a new barcode option for machine-readable business, advertising and publishing mail consignments.

It gives customers access to reporting. It provides visibility of Royal Mail performance and data on the quality, performance and predicted delivery day of their mail.

One customer that’s already signed up is N Brown Group – one of our largest direct mail customers. It operates more than 40 brands and trading titles such as Simply Be, Jacamo, Marisota and JD Williams.

Account director Peter Senior says: ‘Mailmark is a hugely exciting prospect to N Brown, because it will help it understand its customers’ buying behaviour better. This will help it improve the timing of its customer contact and the shaping of its messages, and it hopes Mailmark will help it retain and win new customers.’

Mailmark will enable N Brown Group to see when its mail consignments are predicted to be delivered. Its sales team can resource its customer service centre in line with the predicted demand.

Predicted delivery is only one aspect of what Mailmark can do.

Peter adds: ‘It will allow N Brown to understand how its customers respond to direct mail in conjunction with other complementary media.’

‘PASSIONATE ABOUT POST’For Keep Me Posted chair Judith Donovan, the campaign is about championing consumer choice as well as keeping post going.

‘I’m passionate about post. It’s the only medium that’s truly one to one. It links a person to an address. It’s more confidential than email and the internet.

‘It’s a matter of consumer rights too. Most people find it easier to do things online. But I resent

being told I HAVE to do something online or I’ll be penalised.

‘Most mobile phone companies and quite a few utility companies charge if you want a paper bill. Many banks are taking customers down to quarterly statements and you have to pay for a monthly one. Why?

‘Many people cannot carry out these things online. Defra fines farmers who don’t complete their farming returns online – and yet they may well live in an area that doesn’t have broadband.

‘There are also many disabled people, partially sighted people and those with learning difficulties who find it hard to use online services.

‘This campaign is about individual choice.’

Wessex Water is the first utility company to sign up to Keep Me Posted. Courier spoke to its head of customer relations Sue Lindsay.

Q: Why has Wessex Water signed up?

Sue: We’re committed to offering an inclusive service. It is very important that customers have a choice, whether it’s how they receive or pay their bill, make an enquiry or report a problem. Some customers prefer to call and speak to a person, while others are much happier using digital channels. We signed up to Keep Me Posted to show that commitment to choice.

Q: Why does Wessex Water think it’s important not to charge customers for paper bills or statements, like some companies do?

S: We recognise that some customers still do not have access to the internet. It would be unfair for those customers to be penalised.

Q: Does Wessex Water give its customers the choice of paper or online billing?

S: All customers currently receive a paper bill. This year we are going to give customers the choice to receive and pay their bill online. If customers choose to receive and pay their bill online they can still receive a paper bill for free.

Q: What response are you expecting?

S: Customers have told us they would like us to offer more online services. We’re expecting customers to choose to sign up for our online billing and payment service, but only those who favour that type of communication and are comfortable using it.

WATER WAY TO SHOW SUPPORT

Championing the cause... Judith

Customers first... Sue iscommitted to offeringcustomers a choice

Cutting complaints...Claire. Pictured on the cover is Louise Walker at Farnborough

Card sharp...Malcolm

Letters

Parcels

Customer

Letters

Customer

‘I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT POST. IT’S THE ONLY MEDIUM THAT’S TRULY ONE TO ONE.’

‘WE SIGNED UP TO KEEP ME POSTED TO SHOW THAT COMMITMENT TO CHOICE.’

‘MAILMARKIS AHUGELYEXCITING PROSPECT.’

‘TAKING TIME TO GET IT RIGHT MEANS WE HAVE FEWER CUSTOMERS COMPLAINING.’

‘WE HAD A LOT OF HAPPY CUSTOMERS WHO GOT THEIR PARCEL ON THE RIGHT DAY.’

6 January 2014

THREE-YEAR PAY DEAL*

* The base pay offer will apply to all Royal Mail Group Ltd employees in CWU-represented grades. ** Pro rata for part-time employees. *** The 9.06% increase represents the expected compounded increase in salary between now and 2015/16.

2013/143%

increase + £200 lump sum** (paid in December 2013)

2014/15

3%increase

+

2015/16

2.8%increase (subject to review if inflation is below 2.3% or

above 3.3%)

+

LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT • A legally binding agreement with the CWU to

provide protections and ensure industrial stability.

• They are ongoing, with periodic reviews starting from January 2019.

• The protections may be terminated in certain exceptional circumstances, such as a threat to the financial sustainability of the business.

As you know, we have agreed in principle a groundbreaking new agreement with the CWU on an agenda for growth and stability. The deal includes a three-year pay offer. The CWU is now asking its members whether they support the new deal and pensions agreement. The ballot closes on Wednesday 5 February. Here’s a reminder of the headlines of the deal…

NEW DEAL

A NEW APPROACH• We will develop a programme of activity to build a

new culture of trust and employee engagement.

• To face the competition and deliver business success, our approach to greater efficiency will look at improving understanding and involving employees in a new way.

• New governance procedures will involve the CWU in key decision-making bodies, led by the Chief Executive and Deputy General Secretary at the Growth Forum.

PENSIONS• Following the consultation earlier this year, the

agreement reconfirms the amended proposal for the Royal Mail Pension Plan (RMPP).

• Royal Mail will make higher employer contributions to the Royal Mail Defined Contribution Plan.

• There will be no further changes to the RMPP until at least March 2018, subject to certain conditions. Any proposed changes would be discussed under a joint review process with the CWU.

Higher employer contributions

Providing protections

£

Building a new culture of trust and employee engagement

9.06%***increase over 3 years + £200 lump sum**

in year one

=


SPOT THE BALL AND WIN A WEMBLEY TOUR AND HOTEL STAY – PAGE 16

SUE TAKES THE HELM

Sue, what are your first impressions in your new role? First, I’m incredibly excited. It’s a fantastic opportunity and a great challenge. The transformation work in Ops over the last few years has been very impressive, and fundamental to the success of the company. But we’re now entering a new phase where we need to focus on culture, ways of working, quality and efficiency, as well as a continued focus on safety. I’m already impressed by the calibre of the people in Operations. We have some fantastic people.

What would you say are your main challenges and priorities? We need to deliver an even better service for our customers, day in, day out. We need to establish a Royal Mail Way of doing things, including World Class Mail, that everyone knows and understands and that underpins what we do on a daily basis. It’s important that we deliver parcels first time, increasing opportunities for when, where and how customers receive their parcels.

The new agreement also gives us a platform to establish new ways of working with the CWU to tackle the challenges we face. I’m looking forward to working together to put that in place.

How are we doing on our transformation? We’ve made huge progress over the last few years. There’s been significant change in mail centres

when it comes to processing, coupled with a big programme of delivery revisions. We’re now entering a new phase where we need to embed the changes we’ve made and work together on new opportunities.

How important is efficiency, productivity and flexibility across the network? Very important, not just for Operations but across the business. We now face competition on letters as well as parcels, from strong competitors who are doing well.

We can’t always beat our competition on cost, but we must be the best. We need to do everything we can to improve service quality and reduce cost, particularly if we expect the regulator to keep the Universal Service. We have to be the best if we’re to keep as many high-quality jobs as possible.

How impressed are you by the

improvements in health and safety? It’s been one of the highlights of

the transformation programme over the

last few years. Of course, there are

always areas where we can improve, but the safety and wellbeing of our people will continue to be right at the top of my agenda.

We face tough competition, particularly when it comes to

parcels. How important is driving down complaints? Very important. I’d really like us to focus on first time delivery. We need to deliver parcels first time,

delivering to neighbours when customers are

not in and developing other delivery options. We have to make sure we don’t deliver a P739 if the customer

might be in, giving them time

to answer. These need to become part of

the Royal Mail Way of doing things.

What about World Class Mail? It’s really important that we have a highly engaged and motivated workforce.

World Class Mail is one of a number of initiatives in place to ensure that happens and that have helped increase our engagement scores, as well as identifying initiatives that improve our safety, quality and cost-effectiveness.

The majority of offices who have applied World Class Mail have improved their engagement scores far more significantly than other units. And bullying and harassment? It’s a zero-tolerance policy in all areas. Whenever it occurs I want it tackled. There is no room for it anywhere in Royal Mail. I want us to introduce some new ways of working, making sure we adopt professional and respectful behaviours.

You were responsible for regulation. How big a threat is direct delivery competition? It’s one of the biggest threats we face and the biggest threat to the

future of the Universal Service.Ofcom has recognised that it

could be a threat to the USO and has set out a framework for how it might address it through the powers it has been given. But Ofcom made it very clear that it expects us to do everything we can to be commercial and drive efficiency and productivity. That’s what we need to focus on as a business. It’s the only way we can make a case for Ofcom’s support.

Finally, what’s your message to staff working in Operations? The first thing I’d say is thank you for delivering a great Christmas and all the great work you do for our customers.

Now, we need a Royal Mail Way of doing things across the country. We do such good things in many areas. We just need to have the same great performance everywhere.

And finally, I’m really looking forward to meeting people and working together to deliver the very best we can for our customers. That’s the best way to protect our future.

Sue Whalley is our chief operations officer, responsible for leading the next phase

of the transformation in Operations. Sue was previously director of regulation,

pricing and government affairs and is a leading light in women’s career

development programmes such as Springboard

INTERVIEW BIG

by IAN LYNCH

Chief executive Moya Greene says: ‘Mark Higson has decided to leave the company following the Annual General Meeting in July 2014. Mark joined us in 2007, and since then has played a key role in planning and executing one of the UK’s largest industrial transformation programmes. He leaves Royal Mail in a considerably stronger position than it was before he joined us.

‘I would like to thank Mark for his considerable contribution to our company and wish him all the very best for the future.

‘Last year was a significant one for Royal Mail. We’re now entering a new stage. There is a lot to do to deliver our strategic priorities. Sue Whalley will lead the next phase of the transformation in Operations, with a specific focus on further developing culture, safety, quality and efficiency.

‘Sue is a very experienced executive with a great deal of knowledge of Royal Mail’s main operations. Her analytical abilities, along with her strong track record of delivering major projects, will be of great benefit to us as we move on to the next phase of our transformation programme.’

MOYA SAYS…

8 January 2014

IT’S REALLY interesting to see how Courier is put together, particularly the way it evolves in terms of layout, colour and content along the way.

In this issue, we have a reminder of the main points of the proposed new deal that will, hopefully, be acceptable to all sides and enable us to move positively forward.

As a workplace coach, I know the importance of on-the-job training. So, during my stint as guest editor, it was only fitting that I enjoyed a sneak peek at the articles on the engineering scholarship and the Get Set programme (page 14). It’s great to see Royal Mail supporting people’s career development in this way.

Once again we have articles showing lots of our people going beyond the call of duty, both in helping the general public and in fundraising events.

I gained a really good insight into the process behind Courier, and hope we can encourage more of our staff to contribute to Courier in future.

Fancy filling the guest editor’s

chair? You’ll enjoy an expenses-paid trip

to the Courier office in London to

see how it’s put together, and a

sneak preview of the pages

before they go to press. Email

[email protected] or call

020 7922 5670

Steve Goodchild, workplace coach, Gatwick mail centre

GUEST EDITOR’S COLUMN

HEALTHY RECOGNITIONWORKPLACE WELLBEING was recog-nised at our manual data entry centre (MDEC) in Stoke when the local authority handed the team a gold award.

For nearly three years, staff have been working towards a Workplace Health Award, going through the bronze and silver stages. Now they’ve been awarded the gold standard.

Angie Dunning, Manpower planner, took over facilitating the scheme from work area manager Teresa Barlow, who’s moved to Stockport MDEC. Angie says: ‘We’ve spent more time measuring our colleagues’ health and sharing the results so we can all work better and stay healthy and safe.

‘We’ve changed our training on things like manual handling and VDU use. Also, issues such as flexible working, special leave arrangements and supporting disabled people have helped us make MDEC Stoke a better place to work for all of us.’

Awarded… Angie and Teresa with their certificate, withhealth improvement specialist Michelle Halfpenny, healthinspector practitioner specialist Marie Barley, LeoCapernaros, public health development officer, andGulnawaz Hussain, Joaquin Borruel, Andy Hodson andCaroline Toft from the improvement council

FIRST AID was the focus when colleagues put their skills to the test at regional events.

More than 100 regional winners then took part in our national first aid competition, treating casualties with simulated injuries in-cluding chemical burns, sunburn, CS spray injuries and full-thickness burns in the indi-vidual tests.

Postman Mark Wallder from Mount Pleas-ant was winner of the written paper. He says: ‘Everyone contributed well and we had great

support from the Atos team that works so hard to put on these competitions every year. Without them, the competitions would not be possible.’

The overall winning teams from Edin-burgh, Bristol and Mount Pleasant went on to represent Royal Mail in the UK-wide cham-pionships run by St John Ambulance. They were competing against champions from industries and organisations including the police, fire service, British Gypsum and Glaxo- SmithKline.

Karen Ford from Bristol won the highest scoring individual award – the first time Royal Mail has won it for more than 30 years.

Karen says: ‘I’ve been competing as a first aider since 1986 but had never won anything at this level before. The competitions are a great way to build your confidence and skills ready for when you’re actually needed to help someone.’

Rachel Daly from Bristol and Francis White from Mount Pleasant were among the three overall winners.

Stop bullying and harassment guide for employees

NEW ANTI-BULLYINGGUIDE LAUNCHED

LOOK OUT FOR your personal guide to our new ‘Stop bullying and harassment’ policy and procedure.

Everyone will be sent a copy of the booklet. Like the policy itself, it’s been developed jointly with both unions, and we hope it will be a useful source of information and advice.

It contains a handy cut-out-and-keep card show-ing confidential helpline numbers you can call if you have concerns about

bullying and harassment.We’ve also appointed

an independent mediation partner to help resolve issues quicker and stop them from escalating.

Working with the unions, we chose TCM Group, which has a wealth of experience in developing mediation schemes for big organi-sations including Marks & Spencer and BT, as well as developing con-flict resolution systems for Amnesty International and the UN.

Where can you go for help?

All these confidential helplines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

Independent Bullying and Harassment Helpline0800 5874 777

CWU Bullying and Harassment Helpline0800 1071 909

HELP employee assistance0800 6888 777

Winners... Karen and Sharon Byfordfrom Bristol collect their award from

Chris Thornton, regional director, St John Ambulance

OUR THIRD annual Royal Mail Group employee survey launches soon.

It’s an opportunity for everyone in the business to give their views on what it’s like to work here. We need to know what the real issues are so we can continue to take action.

Many of the comments you have made in previous surveys have already resulted in improve-ments. For example, we are in-vesting £70 million in improving some enquiry offices over the next three years, creating a bet-

ter customer experience and im-proving the working environment.

We’re also improving access to career opportunities and learning and development throughout the company.

So make your voice heard and help shape the future of Royal Mail.

The survey opens on Monday 24 March and closes on Friday 11 April. Once again, it will be run by independent research company Ipsos MORI.

SURVEY ON THE WAY


PRESS COVERAGEMedia coverage has shown that Christmas is definitely the key time of the year for Royal Mail.

National and local media reported in their droves on our massive effort to deliver the country’s Christmas mailbag.

• The Sun reported that we’ve hired 21,000 extra workers to cope dur-ing the festive period. The news-paper joked: ‘Where’s Santa when you need him, eh?’

• The Scottish Daily Express said: ‘Staff at Scotland’s biggest mail sorting centre in Springburn, Glas-gow, dealt with 2.8 million items of Christmas post. Employees have been working 24 hours a day, sev-en days a week to deliver the fes-tive postbag.’

• The Flintshire Leader told its read-ers that Chester mail centre was expecting to handle up to 1.5 million items of mail in just over three days

leading up to Christmas.

• The Yorkshire Evening Post, under the headline ‘All present and cor-rect at first class mail centre’, re-ported: ‘First class posties at a mail centre in Leeds have the stamp of approval after sorting more than 5.5 million items during its busiest day of the year.’

• The Bradford Telegraph & Argus spent a day at Bradford North de-livery office. Under the headline ‘Getting sorted for Christmas’, it reported: ‘The delivery office is a hive of activity, with thousands of cards, letters and parcels being sorted and taken out in sack-loads to waiting vans.’

• Meanwhile, in Northern Ire-land, BBC Radio Ulster, City-beat Radio and UTV broad-cast from the mail centre in Belfast, while BBC Radio Leicester broadcast live from our operations in Leicester.

• North of the border, BBC TV Scotland, BBC Radio Scot-land and STV broadcast live from Glasgow mail centre.

• Other media visits to our operations around the coun-try included BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC East Mid-lands Today, BBC Radio Essex, BBC Radio Lanca-shire, Press Association, the Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and the Warrington Guardian.

Well done @RoyalMail Belfast. No queue when picking up my parcel, Xmas music and super jolly staff! Merry Christmas.@royalmail thanku for a great delivery service in Brentwood, staff have been superb with my parcels and redelivery, excellent service. V happy. Thank you Glyn @RoyalMail Brightside Lane for delivering 1,000 bags so that we can get #MissionChristmas gifts to thousands of kids #hero.Thanks @RoyalMail in Hertford for quickly getting a card to me that had key part of my address missing.Excellent service from @RoyalMail depot in Llansamlet this morning! Credit to the

manager for sorting mine and many others’ problems! #thanks.BBCCumbria @RoyalMail Fiona our smiley postie who delivers to Allonby is fab! Always cheery, battling through all weathers. #toppostie.@RoyalMail Ivan G at your Omagh DO really need commending, always lovely service, by a lovely person with a lovely smiling face :-) !!The boys got replies to their Santa letters in the post!! Delighted and hyper doesn’t come close! Ta @RoyalMail #lovelygesture xxSuper impressed with @RoyalMail ... in and out in less than 5 minutes 2 days before Christmas. Thanks and Merry Xmas to you busy bees!

CHRISTMAS TWEETS

A RECORD number of politi-cians – including Home Secre-tary Theresa May, cabinet min-isters Iain Duncan Smith and Danny Alexander, and Speaker of the Commons John Bercow – visited our delivery offices in the run-up to Christmas.

We hosted more than 750 visits across our network.

Politicians were keen to tour their local delivery offices to see us in ac-tion during our busiest time of the year, and were quick to pay tribute to our postmen and women.

On the Friday before Christmas alone, delivery offices hosted 100 visits from MPs, MSPs, assembly members, councillors and mayors across the UK.

The Lord Mayor of the City of London toured Mount Pleasant mail centre – and revealed she was

once a relief postwoman when at university.

Alderman Fiona Woolf and her consort, Nicholas, toured Mount Pleasant and the EC1-4 delivery offices.

Mick Berry, plant manager at Mount Pleasant, says: ‘It was such a privilege for us to welcome the Lord Mayor.

‘I know the postmen and women who work on the site really appre-ciated it and are proud to serve the City of London.’

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, visited Fort William delivery office.

He told staff he too worked as a casual at the delivery office when he was younger. He praised deliv-ery staff for maintaining a good level of service during the storms and

remarked on the high number of parcels being delivered.

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and political pundit for the BBC, was given a guided tour of the Stoke Newington delivery office.

During the tour she met and chatted with postmen and wom-en who deliver mail to her con-stituents. She said she was over-whelmed by the number of items we deliver in N16 every day.

NATIONWIDE PRAISEAROUND the country, politicians tweeted advice and praise following their visits.

Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, tweeted her praise for staff at her local delivery office: ‘Delighted to meet hard-working manager and staff at Royal Mail South West delivery office this morning. Thank you all!’

Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, also praised Royal Mail workers, saying: ‘It was great to meet the dedicated, hard-working postmen and women at Greenock delivery office.’

The Mayor of Taunton Deane tweeted some advice about sending cards through the post. She said: ‘Things I learnt today. NEVER use red envelopes!’

Nicola Blackwood, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, tweeted following her visit: ‘Major operation at the Abingdon Royal Mail delivery office this morning. Huge respect to posties over Xmas.’

Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Limehouse, also tweeted his praise for our staff following his visit.

Fiona Woolf, Lord Mayor of the Cityof London, tours Mount Pleasant

RECORD-BREAKING VISITS

WE DELIVERED a real Christmas tweet over the festive period, with a great performance across the network.

Customers took to the Twittersphere in droves to pay tribute to our postmen and women for delivering an excellent Christmas.

Here is a small selection of the hundreds of positive tweets from satisfied members of the public, praising the first class customer service delivered by you…


Charles Kennedy MP visited Fort William

The Mayor of Southwark with staff at SE1

David Tanzini-Lloyd and PontypriddAssembly Member Mick Antoniw

Secretary of State for Wales David Jonesand postman Mark Geary at Colwyn Bay

Iain Duncan Smith and Chingforddelivery manager Beverley Headley

Cllr Denise Cobb, Mayor of the Cityof Brighton and Hove, and Rod Burlton

St Ives MP Andrew George met staff

Movember marvels Once again, we’ve raised more for Movember, including matched

funding, than any other

single company in the world. The latest total stands at £350,000, and money is still

rolling in. Royal Mail is matching all the money raised, penny for penny. If you haven’t

already banked yours, please do so as soon as possible – find out how on myroyalmail.com.

At Fraserburgh delivery office, postwomenKasia Jochimek and Kimberley Wemyss raised £200

ADAM CHAPMAN, HEAD OF LOGISTICS OPERATIONS FINANCE, SAYS: ‘I run a kids football team and they wanted me to run for Movember in fancy dress. They came up with a list of outfits and I put a fundraising target against each one. Top target was for £1,000 to run in a mankini! I never thought I would get near that amount, but then on 9 November my dad was given a very early diagnosis of prostate cancer. This meant I really went for it in terms of seeing how much money I could raise, and beat my target by raising £1,676.’

Gary Ware, Safety pillar lead, Medway mail centre, raised £92

Jared Skinner, operatorMedway mail centre, one of the team thatraised £1,000

Bill Johnson, operator, Medway mail centre, raised £80

Indira Patel, operator,Croydon mail centre, raised £1,150

James Clark, plantengineering manager, Croydon mail centre, raised £260

Bradley Leader, operator,Romford mail centre, raised £270

Perry Sunnar, operator,Romford mail centre, raised £257

Michael Allen, operator,Romford mail centre,

raised £76

IAN ESPINOSA, NIGHT WORK AREA MANAGER AT PETERBOROUGH, HAS BEEN TAK-ING PART IN MOVEMBER FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS. HE SAYS: ‘This year, I thought I would try something slightly different and recruit some Mo Bros to help me. I managed to recruit five postmen – Arran Sturman, Clive Burton, Roger Clarke, Jez Oliver-Smith and Kris Maslanka. We named ourselves the Hairy Nighters, put in a sustained effort and trained and groomed our own personal Mos. Together we raised £756.50.’

Stansted air hub held its annual charity night and raised £734 for Movember. CHRIS SCOTT, WCM FOCUSED IMPROVEMENT PILLAR DEPUTY, SAYS: ‘There was a blue theme including dressing up, blue hi-vis sale and competitions.’

All right on the night!

Not for the squeamish!

Andy Gale, early collections driver, Croydon mail centre, raised £250

Paul Clayton from Customer Solutions in Milton Keynes says: ‘I took part in a Mo Run atGreenwich. It was great fun and I raised £530.’

Scott Ross, driver, Romford mail centre, raised £90

LINDA TONGE, OPERATOR AT PETERBOROUGH MAIL CENTRE, SAYS: ‘I celebrated turning 60 in style by having my head shaved. We have a colleague here who is in remission for prostate cancer, and also I have a friend who has been diagnosed. I have raised £915 so farfrom all the staff, family and friends.’

Andrew Cotterill, postman at Wellingtondelivery office in Telford, ran the Nottingham Mo Run and raised £250

Three Medway Mo Sistas undertook a triathlon challenge – Larissa Hedges ran, Debra Bose cycled, and Sandra Pizzey swam, raising £200

Basildon delivery office staff ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in the summer and raised more than £2,000. Pictured are Ray Arnold, Darren Chaplin, Natasha Harris, Kristian Keegan, Eugene Yeboah-Afari, Callum Potter and Ray Smith.

Micky Aikman, WCM People Developmentlead at Croydon mail centre, raised £347

DJ Patel, operator at Croydon mail centre,

raised £1,800

Lowestoft delivery office Mo Bros enjoyed acurry night and celebrated raising more than £1,100

DAVID WOOLLARD, ENGINEER, NORWICH, SAYS: ‘I have had a moustache in some shape or other since I was a teenager, so none of my colleagues have seen me without one. My 39th wedding anniversary fell on 1 November and, apart from a brief period more than 30 years ago, that is the only time my wife has seen me without a moustache as I shaved it off to start again in aid of Movember! I raised £800, plus matched funding.’

At Mount Pleasant, eight of the participants enjoyed a shave down just before their Mo growing efforts began. The Movember Barber Shop team, in partnership with Gillette, came along to carry out the shaves when staff were on their breaks. The Mount’s Mojos team raised £2,279, plus £1,200 raised by Keith Williamson from WC deliveries.

HAIR-RAISING!

FAN-TASH-TIC!

Handlebar special!

FAN-TASH-TIC!

FAN-TASH-TIC!

FAN-TASH-TIC!

FAN-TASH-TIC!

Stansted stalwarts… ClaireJones, Chris Scott, Elaine Pinder and Michelle Olive

FAN-TASH-TIC!

12 January 2014

WARRANTY 100,000 MILE

ROYAL MAIL EMPLOYEE BENEFIT www.partnersprogramme.co.uk LOGIN: RMGROUP

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Offers end 1st April 2014, to fi nd out more visit: www.partnersprogramme.co.uk login: RMGROUP, call 0844 875 2448 or visit your Vauxhall Retailer.

Offi cial Government Test Environmental Data. Fuel consumption fi gures mpg (litres/100km) and CO2 emissions (g/km). Vauxhall range (excl. Ampera): Urban: 14.4 (19.6) - 76.3 (3.7), Extra-urban: 27.4 (10.3) - 91.1 (3.1), Combined: 18.0 (15.7) - 85.6 (3.3). CO2 emissions: 373 - 88g/km.#

Available on selected models, at participating Retailers. Finance subject to status. Terms and Conditions apply. Applicants must be 18 or over. Finance supplied by Vauxhall Finance, PO Box 6666, Cardiff, CF15 7YT. Offer will apply to Vauxhall Partners only. **Vauxhall Deposit Contributions vary and exclude certain models. Refer to www.vauxhall.co.uk/offers or contact your local Vauxhall Retailer for details. ‡First year insurance offer available on new Corsa models (excluding Expression, S, Sting, Design and VXR). The offer will cover the full premium (motor policy only) for drivers aged between 21-75. Drivers must have held a valid full UK licence for a minimum of 1 year. Only available through Vauxhall Insurance. Policies are underwritten by Ageas Insurance Ltd. Other insurance specifi c Terms and Conditions apply. Offer applies to Vauxhall Partners only. For Partners Terms and Conditions go to partnersprogramme.co.uk/legal-notice-and-privacy-policy. #Offi cial EU-regulated test data are provided for comparison purposes and actual performance will depend on driving style, road conditions and other non-technical factors. ◊Vauxhall Lifetime Warranty covers lifetime ownership of fi rst registered keeper, 100,000 mile limit. Terms and Conditions apply. Offer available on orders or registrations before 1 April 2014. Correct at time of going to print 09/12/2013.

Plus one year’s free insurance available on Corsa models‡

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Arulampalam BALENTHIRAN, a postman at Kingston and Surbiton delivery office, stole debit cards and PINs to draw out cash. Balenthiran pleaded guilty to 11 charges of theft and one of intentional delay at Kingston Crown Court on 17 December. He received 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months, together with 200 hours’ unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £5,100 in compensation and costs.

Barry FITZGERALD, a postman at Harlow delivery office, stole postal packets containing items including light bulbs. He pleaded guilty to three charges of theft, one of intentional delay and one of criminal damage at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on 29 November. He received eight weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, 100 hours’ unpaid work, a 12-month supervision order and an order to pay Royal Mail £1,799.95 in compensation and costs.

Samuel Watson LAWRIE, a driver at Edinburgh mail centre who stole cash from greeting cards, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 26 July 2013. He pleaded guilty to seven charges of theft and was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment.

Keal Ravel POLSON, a postman at Chiswick delivery office who was in possession of stolen cheque books

and bank cards, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on 11 November. He pleaded guilty to two charges of assisting in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of certain stolen goods under the Theft Act. He received a 12-month custodial sentence suspended for two years, a 250 hours’ Community Payback Order, and was ordered to pay Royal Mail £4,000 in costs.

Steve Leslie TURNBULL, a postman at North Tyneside delivery office who stole postal packets containing aftershave and gift tokens, appeared at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on 29 November. He pleaded guilty to four charges of theft and was sentenced to eight weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, together with an order for 12 months’ supervision and 100 hours’ unpaid work.

Sijad SADDIQUE, a member of the public, ran an online business and evaded paying postage by printing labels for a false Printed Postage Impression account. Saddique pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to one charge of obtaining services dishonestly under the Fraud Act and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, together with 180 hours of unpaid work. He had repaid Royal Mail £4,608 and was ordered to pay a further £2,000 in costs.

COURT IN THE ACTOur regular round-up of convictions across the country. Phil Gerrish, director of investigations, says: ‘If you steal or interfere with the mail, you will lose your job, get a criminal record and you may go to prison. We will also use all available legislation to take your assets away and get Royal Mail’s money back.’

SLIM CHANCEEVOLUTION SLIMMING RELIES ON US TO DELIVER ITS PARCELS, AND WILL SOON BE SENDING OUT DIRECT MAIL WITH US TOO

JANUARY is the time when many of us try to shed a few pounds, and that’s great news for Evolution Slimming.

Like many businesses, Canterbury-based Evolution Slimming, which sells health and diet pills and products, began when managing direc-tor Nick Curry saw the oppor-tunities of selling online.

He says: ‘I used to take a few parcels at a time down to our local Post Office branch. As we began to grow, we had to set up a collection. Now there are between 30 and 40

bags going out every day.’Evolution uses our

Royal Mail standard and International services, and everything is sent out the day it’s ordered.

‘We’re a high quality brand, with all our products manu-factured in the UK,’ says Nick. ‘Other delivery companies regularly approach us for the business, but we’re happy with Royal Mail.’

So happy, in fact, that a campaign will see 300,000 catalogues sent out to existing customers this spring.

New business managers Michael Hamlett and Vicky Raven are helping to devel-

op Evolution’s first piece of direct mail.

‘It’s an exciting project,’ says Michael. ‘We’re helping to en-sure the mailing is successful and demonstrate the power of direct mail, which helps bring in even more business.’

Driver Stefka Ally – known to everyone as Cha Cha – collects regularly from Evolu-tion. She says: ‘I always try to be friendly and have a chat. If they need anything such as additional labels or bags, they know I will bring it back.

‘They also know I treat their packages with care. They’re lovely people and it’s easy to go the extra mile for them.’

EVOLUTION

SLIMMING IS OFFERING ALL ROYAL MAIL STAFF AND PENSIONERS A GENEROUS

20% OFF ALL ORDERS. SIMPLY GO ONLINE TO WWW.EVOLUTION

SLIMMING.COM AND ENTER THE CODE RM20 AT THE

CHECKOUT.

CUSTOMER CORNER

by HILARY ROBERTSON

Bagging up... Cha Chatakes away the parcelsat Evolution Slimming

Packing... AlisonGrosvenorprepares theparcels


DO YOU KNOW someone who has gone be-yond the call of duty to help customers, their community or their colleagues?

If so, why not put them forward for the Chair-man’s Awards for Excellence 2014?

The awards will recognise employees for their outstanding contribution in five categories:• Best Colleague – someone who really makes

a difference to the place where they work• Customer Excellence – a team or individu-

al who delivers exceptional customer satis-faction or customer service

• Community Champion – a team or indi-vidual who makes a real difference to the community they work or live in

• Change Champion – a team or individual who has played a major part in helping to transform any part of our business

• CEO’s Award for Bravery – a team or in-dividual who has gone above and beyond their normal daily duty and shown excep-tional bravery, for example by rescuing a customer or colleague, or facing a difficult situation with moral or physical courage.

Voting opens on 3 February and closes on 28 March. The winners will be announced on 6 June.

You can register your nomination online on myroyalmail.com or by calling 0845 603 2327.

Royal Mail Group employees save 10% on car insurance with CSMA Club

Join today Call 0800 247 1162 Visit csmaclub.co.uk/royalmail quoting ‘ROYAL MAIL’

Plus, CSMA Club members automatically receive Motor Legal Expenses insurance worth £24.90†.

Lines are open Mon to Fri 8am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-5pm. Calls may be recorded. †Based on normal price including IPT to add MLE to an LV= car insurance policy. The use of MLE is not limited to LV= policies. R1-1N-Jan14-COURIER.

SAVE 10% OFF GENERAL PUBLIC PRICES

Join CSMA Club for just £19 a year and access preferential rates on insurance, lifestyle and leisure built exclusively for you

13_0543 Courier ad LV 260x91mm.indd 1 09/01/2014 10:51

Staff celebrating 40 or 50 years’ service this month:

CONGRATULATIONS

• David Brookman, Cardiff North East delivery office

• Alan Dashfield, Swanage delivery office• Bryn Devitt, Scarborough delivery office• Brian Hedley, Swindon vehicle

operations centre• Keith Jenkins, Merthyr Tydfil delivery

office• Timothy Lonergan, Newport East

delivery office• Sean McCullagh (50 years), Plumbridge

delivery office• Barry Newman, Kingsbridge delivery

office• Philip Peckitt, Cottingham delivery

office• Julian Pont, Bexhill delivery office• Phil Robinson, Crow Lane delivery office• Alexander Smith, Edinburgh mail

centre• Christopher Torrie, Scottish distribution

centre

WOULD YOU know what to do if you came across a driver strug-gling to breathe after their vehicle hit yours?

For Keynsham postman Richard Winckless, this was exactly what hap-pened. The man suffered a fit at the wheel of his car as it hit Richard’s van.

‘I had parked my van and delivered some mail,’ says Richard. ‘I saw a moving car with the driver slumped at the wheel and it crashed into the side of

my van. I ran to help but the door was locked, so I broke the window and held the man’s head up to keep his airway clear.’

A passer-by rang for an ambulance. ‘I was just pleased I was able to help,’ says Richard. ‘I could see the driver had difficulty breathing and it seemed obvious to help him with that. The ambu-lance crew said I did the right thing. Afterwards, the police came to say that he was doing much better and that I’d really helped him.’

BULLYING & HARASSMENT HELPLINE 0800 587 4777

SPEAK UP (WHISTLEBLOWING) Report a breach of our licence or legal obligations to a confidential external hotline. Call 0800 097 1131 or visit www.intouchfeedback.com/royalmail

DISABILITY HELPLINE 0800 028 6142 or email [email protected]

PENSIONS HELPLINE Postline 5456 4545 or 0114 241 4545 (employees) 0845 603 0043 (pensioners)

HUMAN RESOURCES Royal Mail business units: Postline 5456 7100 or 0845 606 0603/0114 241 8890

HELP Employee assistance service for free advice. Call 0800 688 8777 Visit www.rmghelp.co.uk

SECURITY HELPDESK Tel 020 7239 6655 or email [email protected]

ROYAL MAIL UNIFORMS HELPLINE 0800 731 5137 Email royalmail@dimensions- corporatewear.co.uk

QUESTIONS/IDEAS TO MOYA GREENE Email [email protected] Or write to Freepost Just Say It

WATCH&WIN PO Box 1356, Sunderland SR5 9NJ Freephone 08000 32 1144 Email watch&[email protected]

CHARITY FUNDING SUPPORT Email [email protected] Tel 0151 284 1221

PROPERTY & FACILITIES HELPDESK (reporting building faults) 0844 800 9191

SPRINGBOARD Development programme for women in non-management grades. For more information, call Rose Jolliffe on 01788 208208 (Postline 5926 8208) or email [email protected]

SHIFT INTO SPORTS www.shiftintosports.com passcode: post2012

FEELING FIRST CLASS www.feelingfirstclass.co.uk passcode: FFC1

ROYAL MAIL ON-SITE GYMS www.royalmailfitness.co.uk

How to get in touch

CONTACTS

WHEN PAUL HOULT, postman in Garforth, West Yorkshire, accepted a customer’s offer of a cold drink on a warm day, he didn’t think he would end up helping her in return.

‘I was on my round and Mrs Pollard, who’s in her seven-ties, asked me if I’d like a cold drink,’ says Paul. ‘As she came back into the garden with it, she fell and bumped her head. I helped make her comfortable and called an ambulance.’

Mrs Pollard was kept in hos-pital ovenight but was soon home, albeit a little bruised. She wrote to the manager at Garforth delivery office to praise Paul’s actions. She says: ‘He showed great pres-ence of mind and kindness to me in an emergency.’

Paul was pleased that she was home quickly. ‘I dropped in a card and some sweets,’ he says. ‘She’s a friendly cus-tomer and it’s good to see her recovering so quickly.’

‘GREAT PRESENCE OF MIND AND KINDNESS’

Kind... Paul’s quickactions were praised

GET READY FOR CHAIRMAN’S AWARDS

by HILARY ROBERTSON

CALM AND COLLECTEDPleased to help...

Richard did theright thing


NOMINATIONS OPEN NEXT MONTH

14 January 2014

ENGINEERING FUTURE SUCCESS

Future engineers…George (left) andAlex (right) withIan at the awards ceremony

AS PART OF OUR con-tinued dedication to educating the future workforce, we have sponsored two sixth form students as they progress towards engi-neering careers.

The Arkwright Engineer-ing Scholarships are sup-ported by the Institution of Engineering and Technolo-gy and BAE Systems. Young people are chosen for their potential as future leaders in engineering following a

rigorous selection process. There is an assessed appli-cation form with a teacher’s reference, a two-hour apti-tude exam and a universi-ty-based interview.

The scholarships support students through their sixth form studies and encourage them into top universities and higher apprenticeship schemes.

Ian Fraser, head of central engineering, says: ‘This scheme confirms our dedication to engineering. The scholarships are a big commitment from us to the students, with mentoring and a week’s work expe-rience placement in each

year of their A-level course.‘Through schemes like

this, we give students an insight into the wider world of business, as well as en-gineering within a major organisation like ours. The students are massively en-thusiastic.’

The two students we’ve sponsored are George Bra-ham from Wiltshire and Alex Bowen from Dorset.

George says: ‘I feel very honoured that Royal Mail has agreed to sponsor my scholarship over the next two years, and I am very excited about the opportu-nities that may be given to me.’

A NEW government initi-ative involving 15 colleg-es across the UK has led to us placing a student into Blackburn delivery office.

The Get Set programme is for young people with additional needs as they prepare to leave college. Student Daniel Barker from Blackburn College is now enjoying extended work experience four days a week for six months.

As part of Get Set, stu-dents learn about first aid, customer service and health and safety. They also cover interview skills, real-istic CVs, telephone skills, interpersonal skills and im-age consulting.

Daniel says: ‘I’ve learned to communicate with people and to fol-low instructions. I’d like to spend more time outdoors, perhaps helping to deliver mail.’

GET SET, DELIVERLearning lifeskills… Danielwould like to helpdeliver the mail


SCHEME JUST KEEPS ON GIVINGOUR RECORD-BREAKING Payroll Giving scheme reached the £50 million mile-stone in January. This amaz-ing figure has been donated by colleagues to help more than 900 community-based and nationwide charities.

And your fantastic efforts don’t go unnoticed.

Help the Hospices sent us a cer-tificate to mark an Outstanding Achievement in Payroll Giving.

We are one of its top 20 Payroll Giving donors, with more than 3,600 employees donating.

Zahra Scott from the NSPCC wrote to thank us for our contri-butions to ChildLine. Zahra says: ‘Over the last few years, you have donated a staggering £270,000. Last year, ChildLine answered more than 1.4 million contacts from children desperate to have their voices heard.

‘Thankfully for the children who need us, we have amazing people like yourselves willing to help us be there every minute of every day, for every child.’

And Water Aid Payroll Giving manager Anissa Msallem wrote to thank us for the £5,167 Royal Mail employees have donated to the charity through Payroll Giving over the last financial year.

Anissa says: ‘Payroll Giving is an important source of regular and reliable funding for our work in helping some of the world’s poorest communities get access to clean water, decent toilets and improved hygiene. It’s about so much more than just clean water; it’s about helping communities take their first steps out of poverty.’

Community investment manag-er Gary Grange says: ‘Receiving this type of feedback from char-ities shows just how important it

is to enrol for Payroll Giving. It is a tax-efficient way of providing much-needed funds to charities and good causes.

‘A huge thank you to every-one who has helped us reach the amazing £50 million milestone.’

Our Payroll Giving scheme holds the Guinness World Record for the highest number of causes to bene-fit from a company scheme.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the scheme in 2014, a special promotion will see extra funds going to good causes. For every employee who signs up for the first time in January or February, a one-off payment of £10 (if they sign up to benefit our charity of the year – Prostate Cancer UK) or £5 (for all other charities) will go to their chosen charity.

A STAND-IN Santa stepped in at short notice to cheer children with autism.

Scottish charity Speur-Ghlan (Gaelic for blue skies) is near to Stirling delivery office.

It offers Scotland’s first specialist early intervention therapy service for pre-school children with autism and other developmental challenges, as well as advice, sup-port and training for families and professionals.

When Santa was unable to attend the charity’s chil-dren’s party in December, Linda Rolton, delivery perfor-mance manager for North and East Scotland, asked for a volunteer to step in.

‘Speur-Ghlan is a lifeline for my family,’ she says. ‘My two-year-old Regan started therapy there six months ago when we first realised he was showing signs of having autism spectrum disorder. He has come on leaps and bounds, from being a toddler that didn’t communicate in any way, hated physical contact and preferred to play by himself, to being a happy and sociable little boy who can communicate, cuddle and play with others.’

Postman Robbie Stevenson had appeared as Santa before and was keen to help out. He also took along a donation of nearly £100 raised by Stirling staff.

STIRLING EFFORT FROM SANTA

GENEROUS STAFF at Portsmouth mail centre collected non-perishable food to stop families going hungry at Christmas.

Work area manager Graham Burns began the collection with his own team, but word soon spread.

Stephanie Hynes in the Address Management Unit helped set up the collection. She says: ‘We chose to support The Trussell Trust at Christmas. It supplies food to families around the country to help stop adults and children going hungry because of situations such as redundancy or unexpected bills.

‘Trussell supplies three days’ emergency food and support to families, and the charity was delighted when we took in our mountain of food.’

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Santa saves the day… Linda with Robbie, ready to meet thechildren

Dinner donation… Stephanie, Sam

Yenklom, Graham, Di Brett, Bob Baldwin,Sue Demain-Stone and Wayne Hatton

OUR FARNWORTH Custom-er Experience and Finance team in Bolton gave away more than 100 toys to make Christmas a little merrier for local children.

Toys were collected for three charities – Sarah Lodge, Caritas and Fort Alice.

Joanne Beckwith, business

support manager, says: ‘We’ve also been raising money over the last few weeks. With matched funding, we’re hoping this will be used to give the chil-dren a lovely day out in the New Year.

‘It’s thanks to all the staff here that these children had a won-derful Christmas.’

Christmas collectors… Farnworth’s Paola McTigue, Jo Sedman, Joanne Beckwith, Christina Vaziri, Sam

Chase and Debra Towers. Missing members of the charity team are Julia Sutcliffe, Michelle Brady, Lindsey

Watkins, Karen Trenbath, Vichy Bailey and Shamim Patel

SIGN UP to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK at a Football League match near you and you’ll get a free ticket to the match.

You can volunteer to raise money at around 70 Championship, League 1 and League 2 matches in March and April, plus some of the finals at Wembley.

Volunteers will collect for around two hours before kick-off. Up to two friends

or family can join in too, and will also get a free ticket.

Collections are just the ticket

Touring in styleTHE TOUR de France Challenge in our gyms got a further boost when the winner auctioned off his prize bike.

Warrington mail centre plant manager Dave Dunn and performance improvement manager Mark Lawrence began the challenge with the aim of completing 145 kilometres as quickly as possible, by cycling for an hour each day.

Mark says: ‘I raised £1,128 and, as the top fundraiser, I was awarded the green jersey and won a £300 bike from Halfords. So I raffled it off and raised an extra £250 for Prostate Cancer UK. All in all, a great result, even though we didn’t actually win the original challenge itself.’

Find out more information and apply on myroyalmail.com or scan this code with your smartphone or tablet

Jumping on the bike… Markand Dave with the prize bike

ADDED BONUS

16 January 2014

GENERAL COURIER TERMS & CONDITIONS: Unless otherwise stated, the following terms and conditions apply: 1. Prize draws and competitions are open only to Courier readers who are UK-based Royal Mail employees over the age of 18 or UK-based Royal Mail pensioners. 2. Closing date for receipt of entries is Friday 28 February 2014 (unless otherwise stated). Only one entry per person. No third party or bulk entries. Entries must include entrant’s name, home address and contact details such as telephone number or email address. 3. No responsibility can be accepted for entries incomplete, delayed, wrongly delivered, damaged or not received for any reason. Proof of posting is not proof of receipt. 4. Prizes must be accepted as offered and are subject to availability. No cash alternative or cash difference will be offered and prizes are not transferable. Values of prizes correct at time of going to press. 5. Winners will be notified by post 28 days after closing date. 6. Winners of prize draws are the first names drawn at random or the first correct entry drawn at random by an independent person after the closing date. 7. If a prize is not claimed within three months of the closing date, a redraw will take place. 8. Promoter’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. 9. Entry implies acceptance of these rules. 10. The promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value, if necessary. 11. Winners’ details are available 28 days after closing date. Send an SAE marked Prize Draw/Competition Results to Courier, AB Publishing Ltd, 24-26 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0UE. 12. Winners may be required to take part in publicity for promotions. 13. Promoter is Royal Mail Group Ltd, 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HQ. 14. Neither AB Publishing Ltd or Royal Mail are responsible for any third party direct marketing or third party offers or services. 15. Prize supplier may want to contact you directly for marketing purposes. If you would like to unsubscribe from marketing mail, please contact prize supplier directly. If you do not want to receive further information from the prize supplier and you enter by post, please write ‘no’ on your postal entry. If you do want to receive information from the prize supplier and you enter by email, please write ‘yes’ in the subject line of your email entry.

Across6 First utility company to sign up to Keep Me Posted (6,5)7 Bride’s response (1,2)8 And 18 Across. Leading politician who visited our delivery offices before Christmas (7,3)11 See 4 Down 14 ‘_____ And The Tramp’, a Disney movie (4)16 Tooth on the rim of a gear wheel (3)17 Part of a tennis match (4) 18 See 8 Across19 Part of a book (4)20 Linford, the Olympic sprint champion (8)

21 ‘The ______’, a Pink Floyd album (4) Down1 Canvas canopy on a shop (6)2 Norway’s capital (4)3 George, Manchester United’s football legend (4)4 And 11 Across. This scheme reached the £50 million milestone in January (7,6)5 Agreement between countries (6)9 School in the Harry Potter books (8) 10 Archaeological excavation (3)12 Frozen water (3)13 They take part in an election (6)15 One of the characters in our

Classic Children’s TV special stamps (6)17 Unwell (4)19 Long bench in a church (3)

We have 10 £10 gift cards up for grabs. Once again you’ll find some help with your answers to the crossword within this issue of Courier. Post your entry to January crossword, 24-26 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0UE to arrive by Friday 28 February 2014. See below for full terms and conditions.

Name

Home address

Postcode

WIN A £10 ONE4ALL GIFT CARD IN OUR CROSSWORD COMPETITIONTHE ONE4ALL CROSSWORD

November’s answers

CLU

ES

ACROSS6 Dinosaurs. 7 Eternity. 8 Opal. 9 Leeds. 10 Orange. 12 Muffle. 14 Eve.15 Swindon. 16 Elk DOWN1 Disapproval.2 Homeland. 3 Wales.4 Prince Of. 5 Polyester. 11 e-mail. 13 Frog.

7 9

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YOUR SPOTTING skills could win you a be-hind-the-scenes tour of Wembley Stadium, together with dinner for two and a stay in a London hotel.

This fantastic prize is worth £250, and we’ve got 20 to give away.

Once you’ve decided where you think the ball was, simply go to www.myroyalmail.com and enter your co-ordinates from the grid – you’ll see the rel-evant box to click on the home page of the website.

We’ll pick 20 correct entries after the closing date of 28 February.

Where do you think the ball was in this photo?

A SOGGY Courier was a worthwhile price to pay for this issue’s winner. Peter Sinai, LGV driver at Coventry national hub, is pictured at Daedalus Reef in the Red Sea, Egypt, on his scuba diving holiday.

Also getting wet for the cause is postman Martin Yelland from St Ives delivery office in

Cornwall. Martin didn’t venture quite as far – he’s pictured at Porthcurno – but as he says, it’s ‘one of the most beautiful beaches in the county, if not the country’.

Ian Hall, postman at Albany delivery office in Washington, found an audience when he took his Courier to the Dr Seuss Park in the USA.

You could win an Olympus VG-170 featuring 14 megapixels, 5x wide optical zoom, 720p HD movie and 7.6cm/3.0” colour LCD.

● Send your snaps to [email protected] or post to Courier photo competition, 24-26 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0UE. Please include your home address.

Now for some New Year celebra-tions.

John Hacking from Leyburn de-livery office is pictured at the record-ing of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, shown on BBC2 on New Year’s Eve.

‘I thought it would be a good ad-

dition to January’s Courier, being the first photo of a new year,’ says John.

But he had competition for that ac-colade, as Justin Nutter, postman at Burnley, sent his snap in from the New Year fireworks display in London.

Happy New Year folks!

WINNER!

Peter Sinai

Justin Nutter

Ian Hall

John Hacking

Martin Yelland

SPOT THE BALLWIN A WEMBLEY TOUR!

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January 2014 17email: [email protected] latest news: watch RMTV twitter: @RM_COURIERdaily news: myroyalmail.com

CHERISHED MEMORIES

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LOOKING BACK AT MOVING FORWARD

FROM THE ARCHIVE

A DECADE has passed since the final journey of Royal Mail’s Travelling Post Office (TPO), an integral part of the business for more than 160 years.

Introduced in 1838, the TPO revolutionised the transportation of mail, providing the means to move vast volumes of letters and parcels across the country in an age before automobiles and aircraft.

They ran for the final time

in January 2004, replaced by road and air transportation.

The TPO’s most famous journey was also its most disastrous: the Great Train Robbery.

The British Postal Museum & Archive’s (BPMA) travelling exhibition, which began commemorating the event’s 50th anniversary last year, will arrive in Aberdeenshire in March, at the Grampian Transport Museum.

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE?We have 10 presentation packs

of the Classic Children’s TV special stamps to give away.

Just email your name, home address and a contact number to [email protected] putting Children’s TV in the subject box, or on a postcard to Children’s TV competition, 24-26 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0UE. Entries need to arrive by Friday 28 February.

WIN THE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S TV STAMPS

WIN

SOME OF THE most popular chil-dren’s TV characters spanning the generations have appeared again – this time on our special stamps.

Classic Children’s TV is the first launch in our special stamp pro-gramme for this year.

Each decade since the 1950s is rep-resented in the set, so there’s a child-hood memory for everyone.

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of Bagpuss, everyone’s favourite saggy old cloth cat, appearing on TV, and the 50th anniversary of The Magic Roundabout.

The full line-up includes Andy Pan-dy, Ivor the Engine, Dougal from The Magic Roundabout, Windy Miller from Camberwick Green, Mr Benn, Great Uncle Bulgaria from The Wombles, Bagpuss, Paddington Bear, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, Peppa Pig and Shaun the Sheep.

Andrew Hammond, managing

director of Stamps and Collectibles, says: ‘For more than 60 years, Britain’s children’s TV has brought cheer to generations of viewers. More impor-tantly, it has presented us with a cast of characters that, like the memories of the programmes themselves, remain with us throughout our lives.

‘It feels appropriate to celebrate all these unforgettable characters on a set of very special stamps.’

www.royalmail.com/childrenstv

TO CELEBRATE the TPO anniversary, the BPMA is offering the GPO Film Unit’s most famous production, Night Mail, with a special TPO postcard set and a reproduction of GPO’s 1939 leaflet, Night Mail – The Story of The Travelling Post Office, for the special price of £14.99 with free delivery.

To order, please visit www.postalheritage.org.uk/TPOset or call 020 7239 5125 quoting TPO10.

SPECIAL READER OFFER

LETTERBOX All letters printed win a £25 One4All gift card, with a £50 gift card for each month’s star letter. We try to include as many publishable letters as possible, but due to space we are unable to publish all of them.

PLEASE MAKE YOUR LETTER NO MORE THAN 100 WORDS AND ABOUT ONE CLEAR TOPIC

Some corporate discounts are only available to current employees. But Royal Mail pensioners will still be able to access the same pensioner offers that have previously been offered in Courier.Please note that we will not be running these in every issue of Courier in future, so please cut out and keep this handy guide for future reference.

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HEALTHbenenden health Healthcare from £1.80 a week.Tel: 0800 414 8242Visit: www.benenden.co.uk/courier

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ROYAL MAIL PRODUCTSSmilers stamps Get 10% off sets of Smilers (paper and telephone orders only). Quote: 11JHAFor more info, visit: www.royalmail.com/smilers

SHOPPINGApple Employee Purchase Programme Up to 17% off some gadgets. Visit: http://store.apple.com/uk/go/eppstore/royalmail

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We are currently being given the great opportunity to enrol on a first aid course. Surely it makes sense to include a small first aid kit in our vehicles?

We are told our safety is Royal Mail’s top priority with all the current dog attacks, so a first aid kit would at least be a start if the worst happened to us! Chris Scaldwell, postman, Wigan

I recently asked my line manager if we could have a first aid kit for our vans as we are on a rural delivery. I was told that they had asked and had been told no!

I do not understand why we are not allowed this as it is our place of work when we leave our office. After two dog bites, my experience is that our only option is to bleed while we drive for a number of miles until we can break off our duty to get some basic medical attention, which we would have had if we had a first aid kit available. Name and address supplied

Helen Dawson, HR project manager – Health and Wellbeing, replies:Thank you for your suggestions to introduce first aid kits to our 41,000 vehicles.

We will investigate your suggestions as part of our ongoing reviews.

We do, of course, continually review our health and wellbeing offering, and welcome your suggestions and any others you might have in the future.

To ensure we make the biggest improvement in the health and wellbeing of our employees, we have identified the priority areas for the business to invest in this year. These are mental health and musculoskeletal.

We are also investing in other areas of first aid, such as the introduction of defibrillator machines across more than 90 sites nationally. These machines are being rolled out now.

SAFETY FIRST? It is a dog owner’s legal responsibility to

ensure that it is under proper control, and – ideally – this should include not allowing the dog to run free and potentially attack us outside the house, but also not allowing them to snap at the inside of letterboxes.

I know what managers’ response will be – ‘use your post-it peg’. These things won’t grip more than a very thin pile of letters – what if the address gets big magazines or university brochures?

Most of the more aggressive breeds are kept by the most ignorant members of society. Asking them nicely to control their dogs is a total waste of time!

ANY address where there is an instance of dog issues on delivery should be sent a strong letter warning them that if they do not address the problem, their service will cease. No ifs and buts, no second chances.Adrian Willats, Waterlooville delivery office

Shaun Davis, group director of Safety, Health and Wellbeing, replies:We value our customers and enjoy a good relationship with them in most cases.

Asking them politely is the courteous thing to do, and most customers will happily support us.

We do stop the service if a situation is not addressed. There have been a number of suspensions over the last year – both individual addresses and streets where dogs roam. In the case of injury, all cases are considered for prosecution.

We work with customers and local authorities to manage any particular issues and reinstate deliveries as soon as possible. Typically all that’s needed is for a customer to ensure the dog is under control when our postmen and women call round to deliver the mail.

The peg is just one tool in our drive to reduce dog incidents; it is not a one-size-fits-all solution and is not always appropriate.

Also, it’s not necessarily the breed of dog that is the issue. The whole Royal Mail/CWU dog awareness campaign that Dave Joyce has tirelessly championed focuses on the deed and not the breed; all dogs, regardless of breed, size or age, have the potential to cause injury – the owner obviously has a part to play, but the issue is wider than that.

Campaigning has also led to new dog laws across the UK, and we welcome the expectation of an imminent government announcement that new laws for England and Wales will come into force shortly.

In July 2013, we partnered with Government, the Communication Workers Union, the Dogs Trust, Blue Cross and other charities to raise awareness of the issue in the UK’s first Dog Awareness Week.

With the help of the public, the number of animal attacks is falling. We hope that trend continues.

I read in Courier that you might be able to get hold of wide fit boots.

I have had a foot operation and have to wear orthotics. I cannot wear any Royal Mail footwear as I need half sizes and wide fit.

I phoned Uniform and they still say they can’t get any. I need size 6½ wide fit boots.

Hope you can help!Clare Reilly, Dunstable delivery office

Julie Brown, uniform and print supply adviser, replies:We can provide special measure footwear if our standard footwear will not fit.

The special measure form is available on our intranet site. If you can ask your line manager to print off the form, you can fill it in and then ask your line manager to forward it to me ([email protected]) and I will ask Dimensions to action this for you.

While waiting for my van to have work done on it at the workshop, I noticed that the staff were all wearing Royal Mail sweatshirts. So the next day I tried to order one myself but was told that I wasn’t allowed one. Why not?

We deserve them more when walking in freezing temperatures during the winter. You have taken away the waistcoat and blocked an ideal replacement for staff who need it most. Mark Atherton, Moreton delivery office, Wirral

Julie Brown, uniform and print supply adviser, replies:We provide uniform to meet the seasonal needs of our frontline staff, from hats and polo shirts in the summer, to fleeces and all-weather coats in the winter.

When the new uniform was designed, it was decided that a fleece would be

provided rather than a sweatshirt, as it was felt that the fleece would better reflect the professionalism that Royal Mail wanted to display to its customers.

Feedback from the trial we did also showed that most employees preferred the fleece over the sweatshirt as the zipper allowed them greater control over regulating their body temperature.

GETTING SHIRTY

MORE DOOR TO DOORSPlease can you explain why, as a company that now uses a large fleet of vehicles for delivery, we are not delivering many more Door to Door leaflets?

We should be aiming to deliver vast quantities of these daily. If we are delivering one item to an address, it might as well be 10 items so we increase our income, as the shared vans (a huge success) keep the extra weight off postmen and women’s backs.

This, I imagine, is a huge chunk of our revenue.

Also, many vehicles are dormant for parts of the day, which isn’t very resourceful. Why aren’t we attempting to deliver white goods for all the electrical stores or a similar project?M W Hudson, Newport delivery office

Christian Petersen, head of Door to Door, replies:You are right that Door to Door is an important source of revenue, and we are exploring opportunities and ways to grow our traffic, which has led to an increase in our weekly capacity to seven items (we delivered three up until 2010).

With Door to Door, there are two important constraints, besides customer demand.

First, prepping more than seven items can pose a problem on sorting frames, so we are testing automation to see if this makes prepping a large number of items easier. We also receive enquiries about delivering heavier weight items and we would like to meet this need, as long as we can deliver them without compromising the rest of our operational commitments.

Second, we have to consider the impact that delivering more items might have on their effectiveness. If delivering more items leads to poorer results for advertisers, it would make Door to Door less attractive, and give us the opposite result to the one we want. We are therefore investing in research to understand how recipients react to larger numbers of items.

Maintaining our quality of service and unique offering – we are the only company to offer leaflet distribution to all UK addresses – is paramount in keeping existing customers loyal and attracting new ones.

Is there going to be a share save scheme for Royal Mail employees?

It is customary for companies that float on the stock market to offer this type of tax-free savings. Royal Mail should appreciate all the hard work that the frontline staff have achieved by setting up this type of savings account. Richard Littlefield, South Woodham Ferrers Delivery Office

Gary Redmond, executive correspondence manager, replies:It is something we are looking into.

Added to the highly competitive proposed deal that the CWU is balloting members on and incentive schemes that are already in place, we are committed to introducing further incentives that recognise and appreciate the contributions of all our people and the impact they have on the growth and future success of the company.

OUT OF CONTROL?BOOT-IFUL RESULT

LETTERBOXEMAIL [email protected]

WRITE TO COURIER LETTERS,

24-26 GREAT SUFFOLK STREET,

LONDON SE1 0UE

TEXT COURIER TO 80800

(MAX 160 CHARACTERS)

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR HOME

ADDRESS WITH YOUR LETTER

Save and sound

STAR

LETTERS

KEEPING WATCH

I ‘m training to be part of the National Coastwatch Institu-tion (NCI) team that acts as

the eyes and ears of the coast-guard. While I’m training, I go on watch with a mentor, but even-tually I’ll volunteer on my own at least twice a month.

‘It’s perfect for posties because it’s an outdoor activity and a valuable com-munity service, with watches that can fit around our hours.

‘My training has taught me how im-portant another pair of eyes is to the welfare of sea and coastal users, and I’ve seen the co-operation between NCI and other search and rescue services.

‘I was a postman for 39 years in Sur-rey before I moved to Cornwall and was fortunate in being re-employed at Truro.

‘I wanted to give something back to my new area. The NCI is a worthwhile local community organisation to get in-volved with, and the work is varied but very rewarding.’

‘

TRURO POSTMAN LIAM MULVIN IS TRAINING TO BE A VOLUNTEER WATCH KEEPER AT PORTSCATHO COASTGUARD STATION, ON CORNWALL’S SOUTH-WEST COAST

FIVE STAFF at Home Counties North mail centre are now part of one big, happy family thanks to the wedding of Maxine Newell and Alex Brennan.

Maxine is on the DSA line, while Alex is a delivery driver. Maxine’s mum, Diane, is a TOPS 2K machine operator, while her dad David is fleet compliance manager. Alex’s brother Tom works in processing on the dock, and his dad Kevin used to be a late shift manager.

Alex and Maxine have been together for four years and met at the old Hemel Hempstead site. She says: ‘Both our dads used to work together and they got talking about me learning to drive. After that, Alex and I got chatting about driv-ing, and we have been together ever since.’

A HAMILTON postie has lost more than 10 stone in a year thanks to a strict diet and light exercise.

In October 2012, Robert Heggison topped the scales at 25st 11lbs, and had started to suffer from severe ankle pain. ‘It was worrying me a lot,’ he says. ‘If I can’t walk, I can’t work.’

Robert signed up to Scot-tish Slimmers’ weekly weight-loss classes. ‘They taught me the importance of a healthy diet and calorie counting,’ says Robert. ‘The weight soon

started to drop off.’Today, Robert is 15st 3lbs.

His amazing achievement was recognised by Scottish Slim-mers, which nominated him for its Slimmer of the Year award.

Robert missed out on the top prize but still feels like a winner. ‘I feel great and my ankle is 10 times better – that’s a big enough award for me.’

MY OTHER LIFE

Hitched… Maxine and Alex(although this isn’t their wedding car!)

Roberthas shed

a whopping 10 stone

It’s a family affair

... AND AFTER

TAKE THE WEIGHT

OFF!

BEFORE...

WORKING TOGETHER - myroyalmail€¦ · keep delighting customers, we can’t afford to miss a beat....

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Transcript of WORKING TOGETHER - myroyalmail€¦ · keep delighting customers, we can’t afford to miss a beat....