delivery person

mail carrier

delivery driver

driver

vehicle technician

Royal Mail

Sort and prep your mail then go out and deliver it....
 
Sounds nice and easy doesn't it ? well..... trust me the reality is far different once you actually do it. 

Initially I was on a part time 25 hour contract. None of my mail was ever prepared by my full time colleagues. The amount of times that it did happen I could count on two hands. What this lead to was me always leaving the office an hour or more behind my other postmen colleagues which lead me to be late back. If you got out late and got back late managers would moan at you but did nothing to help.

Job was great in the summer as you get a nice tan but the winter/wet months are so bad you will wish you never left the house in the early morning. 

No proper training given after your induction day. I was trained for two days when I started at my office and after was let out in the deep end to do the round which took me ages. This was not a major gripe as the round I was doing was one of the better ones but I felt I needed another day or two learning with an experienced person.

When I started the job we used bikes to do our rounds which kept you very fit like athlete fit in a month I kid you not!!. My area was a valley which had long steep hills and going up these with a heavy mail bag at the front and more mail/packets at the side really did you in physically. Carrying the heavy bags over your shoulders is ok when you are young but I will bet that after 15 years of doing this your body will soon get problems. Management wont care though they just want the mail out and don't care about your health. 

Don't bother using the trolleys managers and the company say's your just wasting your time getting out and walking along with it. It's far quicker to sling the heavy bag over your shoulder and like well run your round as fast as possible to get it done quickly

Forget about eating when doing your run, don't even bother! you wont have time as you will be on a time constraint and will just again want the round done as quick as possible so you can go home and prepare your body to do the same again the next day. I lost a stone after a month of working  there and I was already a slim bloke.

You can eat but most people did it before they went out or when they got back but most as soon as they got back in the office would just get out as quick as possible so that they did not see the manager. If you came back before your time manager would ask you to go back out and do some lapsing or extra mail. 

You need to be firm with management if you don't want over time just say you don't want to do it. But eventually you will be forced into doing it. Lapsing was a pain it's where your understaffed so everyone does a bit of a round at the end of their round. Annoying it is.

Work life balance is great though, if you get to finish your round early  you have the rest of the day to yourself which was nice. But the day is so stressful and physically demanding you needed the rest of the day off. 

New workers were on worse contracts then the old timers though which was very annoying. I did the same job as them but got paid far less and worked less hours :/ they also got better perks and had more authority against new peeps. 

I saw quite a few new youngsters come in and last a couple weeks either because they was to slow or smart enough to know that the job is not very good and they was the smarter ones to see it before I did.

I loved being out and about meeting and talking to people on the round that was the best bit along with the banter with my workmates in the office this part was excellent and kept me going. Without this area I would have left after a month or so. Nice tips at xmas but only if you cover a round permanently. forget about nice tips if you cover multiple rounds and you will be as a part time new person.

All the best rounds and short ones the old timers have and they wont give them up. No career progression unless you want to be a line manager or office manager. Two places to go up no thanks!! there was many postmen their longer then I had been born who was still a postman lol. Nothing wrong with this but nah not for me. Again the old timers had seniority so they could like bend things which worked out for them and managers did not do anything.

Door to door mail oh my :(, you will hate doing this every week, rip your hair out. Customers hates it so just wait until one comes out and moans at you it will happen!. All you can do is say you agree and to call the office for them to complain lol.

pay rate is poor for the labour of work involved. Yes it pays higher then most entry level job but it needs to because it's so bad. 

When the office went to vans you lost most of the fitness as you had the van but good luck parking that and stopping it on busy roads. You also have to do special deliveries and large packets for no extra pay. OHH and rub salt in the eyes the driver gets the same pay as your partner but the drivers has to look after the van and do these extra deliveries whilst your partner is out walking. Don't seem fair does it??? you might as well not drive and not be a driver at all. 

Holiday is annoying you have to book way in advanced. Bullying from managers, I was forced out by a line manager who did not like me no matter how hard I worked. Funny thing was after me the line manager got on other new peoples faces and they left as well. 

I would not recommend this job unless you really like working outside in all weathers, doing lots of over time and getting no credit. If you want to keep fit from walking and being outside in the fresh air and having no one breathe down your neck.  


mail gets heavier as xmas nears and so heavy that if you cant do it all you have to do it the next day along with all the new mail!! good luck with that !! you wont get help either. When the work went to van deliveries it meant doing more so like packets and specials to add onto your normal mail. Just more work and no extra pay :(

some rounds are very long will take 4 hours+ to do and it is tough and in the winter sooo cold your fingers will turn to ice even with gloves as when its cold and rains you cant get dry not in the van either.

You cant do your van checks either  like tyre pressure, tread depth, oil, coolant checks etc as you don't have enough time to do it you just want to get out as soon as possible and finish. Your working partner will have an impact if your with a slow walker person then GG you will be back late. I had five hours each day to do my job. One hour in the office the other 4 out on delivery. Any slip up and you will put pressure on yourself and want to get out and rush to get it done.The only days you enjoy the job is when the mail is light and its nice weather. But with thousands of more houses needed to be made delivery rounds will just longer and longer. 

also as you now do specials and timed deliveries these have to be done first before you start your normal mail run so yeah this adds on extra time and just hinders the round. when doing the original way on bikes you did not have to do this which made it better and more fair.

You will also on the day you go into work be asked to go to other delivery offices with no notice in your own car! and do a round for a new office when you don't no that area at all!!!! its horrible when that happens and it happened a fair few times. But don't worry none of the old timers went it was the new younger ones. sigh..

I loved the people I met and worked with just hated the job and the management.

The working day typically begins two hours prior to my official start time, since the office is massively short-staffed, yet Royal Mail continue to recruit posties on part-time contracts and rely heavily on people's willingness to work overtime.

Generally, the first 2-3 hours are spent sorting the mail for your particular route, prepping letters and parcels for delivery.  These are then loaded into the van, which is driven from the delivery office to the start of the route.

Each route (or duty) is divided into around eight "loops" consisting of letters and small parcels.  These are separated into the red bags (pouches) and delivered on foot.  The larger parcels are driven to their respective delivery points before/after each loop.  Most duties include one or two postboxes to be emptied.

The PDAs used for scanning certain items of mail are terrible.  They were recently upgraded to a model that is just as unreliable as the old one.  They crash frequently become virtually unusable in wet weather.  The GPS and route optimisation apps included on the handsets are extremely poor.  Everything about them screams "cheap and nasty".

The duties across the office are, for the most part, unrealistically large.  Some require between 13-15 miles of walking to complete, depending on the quantity of mail.  If you intend to do the job properly without cutting corners, it is virtually impossible to complete these duties without incurring overtime at the end of your working day.

Upon returning to the office, collected mail and any undelivered parcels are deposited.  If you have gone over your time by more than about twenty minutes then you will probably be unable to find a manager to authorise your overtime as they will have all gone home, leaving the office unsupervised.

Training for this role is non-existent.  My first day of employment was spent completing a generic e-learning package which had very little to do with the job for which I had been hired.  Once on the job, I spent half a day with a "workplace coach" before being left to fend for myself and pick things up as I went along.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything positive to say about the line managers at this delivery office.  They are doing nothing to address the multiple failings over which they preside and generally treat the posties with contempt.

Due to increasingly unachievable workloads, the workplace culture has become somewhat selfish.  Posties are so consumed with getting mail for their own duty sorted and out the door that they become almost oblivious to what is happening around them.  It's a real "sink or swim" type job where you won't receive much in the way of assistance or support because everyone is struggling.

The building itself is completely insecure.  Absolutely anyone could walk into the yard as there are no security gates, and from there into the building via one of several unlocked doors.  Very few members of staff wear their security passes and those who don't are never challenged regarding their identity.

The office is massively overcrowded, both in terms of personnel and the amount of mail being dealt with.  It is absolutely filthy, presumably because it is so untidy that cleaning staff cannot get near half of it.  Parcels and trolleys are left scattered around the place, resulting in numerous trip hazards and making it difficult to navigate the shop floor at peak times.  Likewise, the yard and the loading bay are often peppered with discarded trolleys.  Standards of health and safety are disappointingly poor.

A lot of the vehicles are in a state of disrepair, many of them displaying faults that would render them un-roadworthy.  This is overlooked by many posties who choose not to conduct daily vehicle checks.  Again, this is generally a result of their increasing workloads and the idea that they do not have time to inspect their vehicle before leaving the office.  Staff who try to report issues with the vans and take them off the road for repairs are often discouraged from doing so.

For me, the hardest part of the job is any time I have to discuss something with a manager.  As I've previously mentioned, their attitude toward their staff is really quite lamentable and they offer nothing in the way of support.  Large amounts of mail is going undelivered every day and they are failing to address the situation.

The most enjoyable part of the job is being out of the office and delivering letters.  Unfortunately, it doesn't quite compensate for the stressful atmosphere inside the office.

It's depressing to read statements from the CEO (whose salary is north of £500k) in which he boasts of the company's financial success over the last couple of years, while seeing so little of that money being invested where it needs to be.

When I first started, I was employed on a 24 hour per week contract: 6 hours per day over 4 days starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm. I was told that I would come into the depot, pick up the mail and packets and go out on a "park and loop", "split walk".
The first problem that arose is that despite being told I would have Tuesday and Wednesday off by the "DOM" the line-managers would change this from week to week, posting next week's schedule on a Friday afternoon. This makes it almost impossible to make any plans or have a life outside of work.
The second problem is that the mail is never ready when I start work. This means spending time sorting mail, which should be done by full-time staff who start at least two hours earlier and has a knock-on effect that leads to not leaving the depot until 10am or later. If it is a particularly heavy day this means working past 3pm. Which leads on to the third problem, overtime.
The Royal Mail are terrible at paying overtime. Managers will ask you to come in early, finish later and work your days off but, because there is no system of clocking in and out you are reliant on the line manager making a note of it and actually submitting it to the wages department. This very rarely happens, and you find yourself having to chase the manager down for days or weeks before you get the money owed.
Also, don't expect to get familiar with a particular area. Only the staff who have been employed for many years get a regular walk. Everyone else is shifted around daily. In the beginning this will mean you will be in areas that you don't know and left to find your own way around. It can lead to a lot of "dead-walking" which in turn leads to working overtime.
My final problem is with the way the Royal Mail have handled the pandemic. They won't allow staff to be in the same vehicle at the same time and instead of leasing more vehicles they brought in an afternoon shift. Are there any full-time, long-term staff on this shift? No, it's all part-time newish staff. Of course, all the above problems still apply except you'll be starting at 1.30pm, sorting mail until 2pm, waiting for a morning shift van to return, starting delivery anywhere between 2.30- 3pm, and finishing work after 7pm. The Royal Mail have said that they will continue to disallow van-sharing until after Christmas and beyond, so be prepared to work alone and without any back-up should any problems arise, as managers are still only working until 3pm.
If you are young, single and have no-life then this may be the job for you. If you have a family and/or commitments, then I'd look somewhere else. The money may appear attractive, but you'd be better off working more hours a week in a job with regular hours and regular days off.
As the staff who have been there for many, many years keep telling me it's not the enjoyable, enviable job it once was.

I worked as a Christmas Casual for a month in Edinburgh Mail Centre in 2015. I read the reviews before I applied because I have anxiety, but looking back I shouldn't have worried.

The interview:
- Extremely easy and the least stressful interview I've ever had. Don't worry about it, just turn up with the right documentation and look smartly dressed/competent/reliable. They didn't ask any interview questions.

The induction:
- Sit around in a room, watch safety video, practice safety instructions.

The job:
- Moving trolleys (yorks) around, opening mail bags, sorting parcels and letters into yorks with the right postcode. Some moderate lifting but not very heavy. Some stamping of letters and parcels.

The good:
- The people I was working with were friendly and this made it enjoyable. Had some good chats and met some great people.
- I actually enjoyed the cafeteria food and the 30 minute lunch break was always welcome.
- Hot/cold Drinks and snack machines around you can buy stuff from. Helps break up the day. You can leave your post anytime but don't be gone for to long.
- I couldn't work some days and they didn't seem to mind.
- Managers were nice, generally approachable, and occasionally helpful.

Bad:
- You'll probably be standing most of the time. It's not that bad, but not great either.
- Some of the work can be very boring.
- Christmas songs playing constantly in the Mail Centre.
- You'll sometimes be doing nothing because you're waiting for a manager or the instructions weren't clear and none of you know what to do. I spent ages standing around because the manager whispered the instructions to one person who wasn't listening then went for his lunch break.

What I learned honestly:
- The managers and other employees didn't seem to care much about anything and the general organisation could've been better.
- Opening bags and handling parcels/letters makes up most of this job and your hands will get mucky. (Royal Mail gives you gloves if you ask)
- You can spend time doing very little work and probably nobody will notice, but you're making it harder for yourself because time goes slower.
- If a manager or someone in a suit walks past everyone suddenly works harder.
- Wear steel capped shoes or you can't go into certain areas of the Mail Centre.
- Everything gets done in groups. The CFC machines were the best position in the place. Basically you stand at a coveyer belt and and remove items that shouldn't be there and chat while doing so.
- If you are a fan of standing around with your hands in your pockets apply for this job immediately and you won't be disappointed.

Royal Mail was easy work and some of it was enjoyable when in a good group, but it's a bit repetitive and can be boring at times. If you're on the edge of applying for Christmas Casual I recommend it for the experience. Cheers for reading.

Let me start with my experiences at work place. I have worked for many retail companies includes food retail, fashion retail, train companies and Royal Mail too. I am 38 years old male. Working at royalmail is far worst than working for Lidl or pound shop. Simple reasons 
1. As a new joiner you will get very hard area to cover (for e.g.: many big blocks without lifts, far away from office, and with out any shops near by so peaople order online and mostly from china.)
2. As a new entrant you will get only part time contract. (During interview manager will give you honey bite by saying" in near future you will become full time but don't take it serious as company is trying to make all full timers into part timers" also less holidays less benefits and no chance of overtime now a days.
3. I have still friends working in different delivery office and working on part time contract even after 3 years including me,
4. There is help so called union at work place but this union is just a waste. You will not get help unless you are most senior. This union rep will first look after himself manage and seniors and than you..(just avoid this company)
5. During difficult time (winter and rain) you will get most hardest area to cover which are refused by seniors.
6. Every week manager and union rep make a rota for following week. Union rep always allocate easiest walk to their friends and hardest to new entrant. 
7. Its hard to get overtime for new entrant and even if you get overtime it will be hardest area to cover as easy area will be snatched by big faces at work.
8. People think that postman finish their job by 2 or 3 in afternoon and you can have remaining day to do something new or extra. But stop there, you will be tired and thrashed by amount of work. So your remaining day will be used to cover your sleep and rest.
9. This job is for someone who does not want to spend sometime with family or whose mortgage is paid off.
10. Day by day amount of work is going high.
11. Along with letters you need to deliver leaflet as well. In return you get only one hour per week extra money.
12. No future and no promotion.
13. Useless manager (who are joined as apprentice) who did es not know anything to being as a postman.
From overall experience there are many other job which has low and decent pay but you can at least keep your self healthy.
Working for royalmail for 6 months, and in return you will be 1 year old from your fitness and ability. 

I strongly recommend youngsters to look for other jobs like train station colleagues,  retail colleagues,

Good place to work with many benefits.
Job security
On the job training
good career advancement , educational background is not taken into account ,experience is all that matters.

A typical day at work would begin with me checking with my line mangers the attendance sheets to make sure all staff had reported for duty any uncovered duties would the be covered by lapsing different duties to cover the shortfall.
I would the brief my team on any matters that needed sorting out , staff would be given the chance to ask questions , I would tell the daily estimate of delivery traffic. I would tell them any complaints that had arisen the day before. The team would be briefed on accidents that may have happened the day before , if any accidents had happened one of my managers would go out and take photographs of the site of the accident , these then would be displayed on the health and safety noticeboard  , the accident would be entered on the delivery walk log. Staff would also be told of what PPE equipment they would be required to wear , this would be dependent on the weather.
I would then check my emails  , I would receive 100+ per day.
Staff would come to see my about any personal problems or A/L.
At 0930 I would take part in a conference call this normally lasted an hour,
I would check with my line managers that all delivery walks were covered , that all special delivery mail had been delivered we would then carry out a clear delivery office check.
The rest of my working day would be made up of maintaining  risk assessment  and SSOW , meetings ,resourcing meetings with my line managers , budgets , weekly payroll , overtime payments , annual leave , success factors , PSP, security, and transport.

I learned how to delegate some work to my line managers , however, I was responsible for most of the day to day running of the office,

One area manager was responsible for 17 delivery offices this meant that the delivery office manager was left to run their own office.

The work place culture has changed since the Royal Mail went private , the staff are aware of the amount of competition they face , however , in some delivery offices they are influenced by the trade unions,

The hardest part of the job was resourcing , there are usually large amounts of job vacancies that are covered by overtime or by lapsing duties , however , it is difficult to recruit because all HR is centralised in Sheffield.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the satisfaction of customers receiving a first class service.

I left my last job of ten years to join Royal Mail, which was a big aspiration of mine as I really enjoy being active, so I thought this job would be ideal as I got to be outside in the community most of the time. I started off going out on foot with a trolley delivering to a regular route, then after three weeks a van driving assessment was arranged, with the view of me going out over the busy Christmas period to deliver parcels. Unfortunately I did not pass this, and was deemed not confident enough with the van. This lead to me losing my job, as I was told this assessment was a one time thing and that they could no longer keep me on at the company. 

Of course this news completely devastated me, and left me without the job I had wanted to do for so long. I strongly feel that the van assessment should have been done prior to my start date, as if failed I likely would have had the time to get my old job back. If van driving is such an important part of the role, why hire someone without testing this? especially since I had no prior experience of being in a van. This would also have saved the company time, as they wouldn't have had to shell out on training me, giving out uniform etc.

At no point prior to the assessment was I told that this was the only chance I would get, and that this assessment was effectively testing whether I kept my job or not. There was much more at stake then just being deemed if I was allowed to drive a van.

The job itself was great, it still has that community spirit from the people that have been there decades, and even being there just three weeks I felt like I was part of the family.  There are some great people at Royal Mail. I also highly enjoyed the work, being outside was great and I felt a sense of pride even just walking down the street in uniform, knowing I was representing a company with such a long history.

A point I'd like to add is that after the assessment, I had to grade the instructor myself on how I think they did. There were multiple questions that I had to grade from 1-5. He already circled 5 on everything before I even read it.

On a final note, if I heard from anyone that they were interested in joining Royal Mail, I would tell them to go for it, but insist on having the van assessment before starting, especially if you have never driven a van before, otherwise there will be no role for you at the company, you won't even be allowed to continue working on foot as I asked to.  You could potentially lose this job on day one, so take care and all the best.

I had the misfortune of working for a short time for Royal Mail in 2018 and I had no choice but to quit. I'm amazed that the average rating on here is so high. I can only think that those who've disliked it, and left, haven't bothered leaving a review. Unless you are absolutely desperate, and unless there has been a massive change at the depot I was at, OR the depot to which you are applying actually sticks with what you are told about at your induction (how would you know anyway?), I would certainly not recommend working for them. I have never known such an appalling place of work in 30 years as an employee.

The job was advertised as 10am till 3pm, Wednesday to Saturday. This was not the case - I was expected to phone up the day before to ask what time I should go in, and it would vary anywhere between 7 and 9. As it turned out, this was to fit in with the full-time employees who already had established rounds, many of whom would get in early and get their round done as quickly as possible in order to get home way before 3. All very well and good for them, and fair enough too as they were working hard enough, but not for someone fitting their Royal Mail work around other work commitments. Perhaps I was paid overtime for the extra hours? No chance. I was not told - by my trainer or by any of the half a dozen managers - how to make a proper record of my starting time until my third week. 

The training with regard to the practicalities of delivering different types of mail was clear enough (it isn't rocket science) but out of four different rounds I went out on, each permanent postman worked differently - not good for a beginner. Only one of them carried out their duties in what the union reps considered the 'correct' way. As a part-timer, it became apparent that you would only ever be employed as a 'stop gap', and that, bar a full-time employee retiring, you would have no chance of having your own round, where you could establish a method of working that suited you. The 'prep work' at the start of the day was the most stressful, particularly bearing in mind the full-time workers' obvious need to get out as early as possible, and more fool you for applying for a job with the wrong hours.

The managers seem very distant and unapproachable, with the exception of two of them out of so many, and as someone genuinely wanting to do a good job - the physical side, out in the fresh air on a round, was the best part, and the contact with members of the public - I felt very unwelcome and isolated.

So, to emphasise: unless you're desperate for work, avoid at all costs.

I have been working with Royal Mail for a couple of weeks. My first week consisted of 1 day of watching videos, then 3 days on the road training. 1st day you learn your frame and your walk with someone. 2nd day you set up your frame yourself (organising letters and parcels banding up your bundles and setting up your HCT on your own). 3rd day you are completely left to do everything by yourself so if you take a while to learn/pick things up your gunna struggle. The management is absolutely shocking! They messed up my hours I was contracted 37 they put me on over 40. I won’t get paid for the extra hours worked. I was also rotated every weekend except Sundays due to how short staffed the my are. If you start at 7am you realistically have to be out of the warehouse by 9 otherwise there’s absolutely no chance you will get your round done due to the how expansive your route is. If you start any later than that then you best pray it’s a quiet day because you won’t have the time and you will get back logged with mail and parcels. The upside is you do get a lot of exercise and you get to be outside most of the day. The downside is everything you do is wrong regardless of how fast, how organised or how much effort you put into your work it’s never enough. You are also allocated 40 mins break per day broken up into 2 20 min slots which you don’t take because again you fall behind on your work so you don’t get any break at all. And don’t bother phoning in sick or ringing to say you have an emergency you will just get berated by the management saying and I quote “you have let the team and company down this is not how you conduct yourself in this place of work as a new starter you have got off on the wrong foot with this company”.  I heard this being said to a new girl that had been there 3 weeks and called in because someone in her family passed suddenly and because she couldn’t get through to the managers phone line (which we are told to ring) she sent a text to the direct manager to explain her situation. The next day when she came in the manager said this to her in front of the entire warehouse as you can imagine she was absolutely mortified and quit that day. Apparently this isn’t uncommon for managers to talk to staff like this and people who have been there 20+ years have left due to these reasons. If your looking to work for Royal Mail I would highly advise you do some research read reviews and ask people who work there what it’s like before you apply so you can get a real insight into what this job entails. I wish I had done this before I started working there. 

Working as a Postman

I start a typical day by preparing a delivery route by sorting letters and parcels.
Next step is to bag up all items into pouches (usually around 6-10 pouches) and load into van along with partner's load too! (so around 12-20 bags between us)
Deliver posts on our delivery route which is around 4 hours on a standard day.
Return to office with undelivered items, record all undelivered items and check-in vans and PDA etc.

As a part-timer, i start around 8am and can finish between 1pm-3pm depending on workload.

You will learn the true side of a Postie's job!!

The workplace is great only because of the people you work with, they are your reason you can enjoy the morning!!

Management is disappointing, not because of individuals taking the mickey or abusing their position, but more about the structure.
Line managers follow orders from Office Managers, who follows order from Area Managers etc etc.

Things such as claiming overtime, working past your contracted hours are problems because managers (following orders, remember!), will say things like "based on today's volume and time calculation, the computer says you shouldn't need to be going over your contracted hours, you should finish on time!"

Some orders or rules that come from them are ridiculous and mostly just laughable.

Hardest part would be working in unforgiving weather, especially in Winter.
Posts volume will understandably be horrendous during Holiday periods and this could be mentally draining and you will just have to drag along until its all over, especially the Xmas period.

I would say the pay is good, there are many benefits for being a staff. I had employee shares when i was there which paid dividends, good pension scheme, bike scheme, child-care scheme, car schemes.
You can also get discounts off high street shopping, holidays, insurance, utilities, medical and many more.

It is a job that once you are employed, you can basically stay forever, unless you do something stupid, or too ill, or grow too old!
Stick by the rules and you can stay as long as you want.

For people who are serious earners, there are plenty of Overtime opportunities

Quick message for people considering this job, what i experienced through this employment may all be about to change!!
I don't want to list the changes they are considering making, as they are dependant on the outcome of the upcoming strike later the year!!

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