Royal Mail Tries to be Helpful

Is the Royal Mail finally wising up to the fact that they are not one of the UK's best-loved institutions? Has the marketing department had a quiet word in their shell-like? (We know that they have a marketing department: it's called Postman Pat.) Or is it the prospect of imminent privatisation that's done it?

Working in hand with two of the country's on-line retailers, they have announced a scheme wherein (for a fee, of course) they will offer evening deliveries to customers within the M25 during the run up to Christmas. This is astonishingly helpful: the business of waiting in to receive a parcel, which often arrives late if it arrives at all, is one of the most irritating minor stresses known to modern city dwellers. And the ensuing kerfuffle if you fail to wait in for said parcel (queuing at the sorting office not once, but twice, because you did not have the right ID the first time) is equally wearing. The concept of the Royal Mail being anything other than (for the most part) jobsworths is quite revolutionary. It has made our day.

Seeing as they seem to be listening to what we want, we've got one or two other suggestions:

on seasonal staff - please check they can read before you take them on: we have to frisk our postie to make sure he's given us all our letters, and frequently end up re-delivering all the wrongly delivered letters ourselves;

on collection office hours - a bit of common sense here would be grand. The reason we weren't in to get our special delivery letter this morning is the same as the reason we can't come and pick it up between 8.30am and 12pm tomorrow. We work for a living. Please stay open late at least one evening a week.

on staff morale - with one or two diamond exceptions, most Royal Mail staff look pretty miserable. Which makes us miserable. Please supply regulation smiles with the uniforms. Thank you.

Any more? Please feel free to comment below.