Royal Mail - latest correspondence

10.41.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 12th Oct 2005

David Rundle and me - continuing the campaign to improve Headington's postal service

Latest update on your Headington councillors' battle to try and improve the local postal service, which I've covered on this site ad nauseum… My colleague, David Rundle, has been in e-mail touch with our contact at Royal Mail. Click on the link to read it.

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It's been some time now since we were last in contact about this closure. I was wondering whether you had available any performance indicators to show how the move has improved service. I ask because my colleagues and myself are getting many tales of inconvenience, repeated non-delivery and downright confusion. At the moment, we can only sympathise with local residents, and would like to have your side of the story.

All best,

David Rundle

City Councillor (Lib Dem), Headington Ward

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Dear David,

Our main performance indicator is our 'quality of service' measure. This is a measure of how our products (first class, second class, Special Delivery etc.) perform against targets. The measurement system is administered by an independent company Research International, audited by the postal regulator Postcomm and involves the posting of thousands of 'test' items each month around the UK.

Currently, the figure for the amount of mail delivered next day for first class mail in the OX postcode area is 93.8% - this is against a local (OX) minimum target of 92.5% and also reflects well against the overall national target of 93%.

Having spoken to the senior local operational manager for your area, there was some disruption in the days immediately following the relocation in June - which given the scale of the task in hand was probably inevitable.

However our view is that this was a bedding in period and we believe those small number of teething problems are now behind us. To specifically improve customer service, following the move, we both increased the staffing and the opening hours of the 'callers office' at east Oxford (to allow customers to collect undeliverable items etc.). Since the move we have also eradicated use of any agency (or 'casual') staff, meaning that permanent postmen and women are serving the area - this should mean that missdelivery is kept to a minimum as regular and experienced staff are used.

Of course with such a large operation that is so labour intensive, there will inevitably, from time to time be occasions when our service is not satisfactory and I would then urge any of your constituents to contact our customer services team on 08457 740 740 - this will ensure that a. any available compensation can be applied for and b. will allow us to identify and remedy any specific problems.

I trust that this information proves useful.

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