Royal Mail Vans - Why So Abused?
Discussion
Nothing new here. Back in the 70s the old GPO were still almost 100% running Morris Minor vans, which were specially made for them with a stripped out interior, one seat, better locks. In fact they placed a big final order when Minor production was being stopped in 72.
I used to clean the car of the local PO owner on a Saturday morning. I was always amazed at the state of the vans when they turned up to collect - dented to hell, and always filthy. For a laugh I washed the back of one while he was in the PO - he was proper narked, and I remember him saying the other posties would give him hell for having a vaguely clean van!
As other posters have said, this may change now they are in private hands - no private company would tolerate this.
I used to clean the car of the local PO owner on a Saturday morning. I was always amazed at the state of the vans when they turned up to collect - dented to hell, and always filthy. For a laugh I washed the back of one while he was in the PO - he was proper narked, and I remember him saying the other posties would give him hell for having a vaguely clean van!
As other posters have said, this may change now they are in private hands - no private company would tolerate this.
Do they let women drive the vans these days?
That's not a joke question. It was a long time ago, I guess the 1960s when my auntie joined the GPO as it was then. She's 92 now and doesn't drive but she wa one of the best drivers I know.
During the war when she was in the RAF she drove everything from hearses through crew busses, bin lorries and eventually she became a VIP staff car driver in Whitehall. Bomber Harris and others were regular passengers.
The Post Offuce gave her a bike to do her rounds in, whereas a lot of the blokes who according to her "couldn't drive for toffee" got Morris Minor vans. These guys actually laughed at her when she suggested it. I can imagine it was like a scene from On The Busses with those two sleazy blokes.
One day the vans were blocked in by some HGV. The driver couldn't be found. None of the blokes had the guts or capability to shift it. The manager was in a rage. Auntie propped her bike up, climbed into the cab then shifted and parked the truck.
They still wouldn't let her do her rounds in a van. She's still got a selection of Post Offuce bikes in her shed.
Her last car was a 1980 Mazda 323. She liked Mazdas. The last car she drove was my 2007 256 BHP Mazda CX-7. I think she was about 87. It was on private land. She told me there was something wrong with the power delivery. I explained turbo lag to her. She didn't buy my explanation. The following week the car spat its turbo out.......
And they wouldn't give her a beaten up Moggy van.
Off topic, but I wanted to share the story.
That's not a joke question. It was a long time ago, I guess the 1960s when my auntie joined the GPO as it was then. She's 92 now and doesn't drive but she wa one of the best drivers I know.
During the war when she was in the RAF she drove everything from hearses through crew busses, bin lorries and eventually she became a VIP staff car driver in Whitehall. Bomber Harris and others were regular passengers.
The Post Offuce gave her a bike to do her rounds in, whereas a lot of the blokes who according to her "couldn't drive for toffee" got Morris Minor vans. These guys actually laughed at her when she suggested it. I can imagine it was like a scene from On The Busses with those two sleazy blokes.
One day the vans were blocked in by some HGV. The driver couldn't be found. None of the blokes had the guts or capability to shift it. The manager was in a rage. Auntie propped her bike up, climbed into the cab then shifted and parked the truck.
They still wouldn't let her do her rounds in a van. She's still got a selection of Post Offuce bikes in her shed.
Her last car was a 1980 Mazda 323. She liked Mazdas. The last car she drove was my 2007 256 BHP Mazda CX-7. I think she was about 87. It was on private land. She told me there was something wrong with the power delivery. I explained turbo lag to her. She didn't buy my explanation. The following week the car spat its turbo out.......
And they wouldn't give her a beaten up Moggy van.
Off topic, but I wanted to share the story.
I have a very rural delivery , this year royal mail swopped my 55 reg van for a 57 with faded paint and dents before i even got my hands on it.
A few reasons for the scratches are i drive down a lot of single track roads, people who can't reverse also do so mostly i end up backing up until to a passing place which is normally overgrown so van gets scratched.
I drive up dusty unkept farm tracks so it gets a hammering then.
If i have something wrong with the van but it still works i'm expected to travel to the nearest workshop a hour round trip and i'm still expected to complete my delivery.
One last thing our local big delivery office has a automatic car wash, however since royal mail got rid of bikes and purchased more vans they then had the problem of where to park them all.
Solution is park 3 in the carwash.
A few reasons for the scratches are i drive down a lot of single track roads, people who can't reverse also do so mostly i end up backing up until to a passing place which is normally overgrown so van gets scratched.
I drive up dusty unkept farm tracks so it gets a hammering then.
If i have something wrong with the van but it still works i'm expected to travel to the nearest workshop a hour round trip and i'm still expected to complete my delivery.
One last thing our local big delivery office has a automatic car wash, however since royal mail got rid of bikes and purchased more vans they then had the problem of where to park them all.
Solution is park 3 in the carwash.
Edited by egor110 on Wednesday 17th September 16:57
lightthefuse said:
minky monkey said:
I can't believe they've gone over to Fiat, I can't see them lasting long!
Fiat must be keeping all the postal companies in Europe sweet, the Swedes have gone over to them as well. Though I'd reckon it might just be a step up from a Kangoo.The primary reasons for the vans being in a state in London are
1. Intensive use across three shifts.
2. Driven by many different people, so it's not "your" van.
3. Lack of budget for spare vehicles to cover when a van is off the road so they are never properly repaired.
SteBrown91 said:
I would imagine it would be the public sector rot (I work in the public sector and our fleet cars are abused to hell). Now it is private I would expect this to slowly improve.
Lol you are deluded , things are going to get worse as van maintenance gets put off to save money.We already had a situation where we stuck vans in for repair and it was rejected as the van was still running and it was money that didn't need to be spent and that was before we were floated.
minky monkey said:
I can't believe they've gone over to Fiat, I can't see them lasting long!
I'm a postie, these fiats are not up to the job. DPF regeneration every week, doors dropping, and the worst thing is that they have absolutely awful steering lock. One was picked up from the workshop as a replacement and went into limp mode on the way back! Incedently the van it was replacing was a vx combo that had been whining like a time machine for 3 weeks until the gearbox exploded dumping all the oil on someone's drive. I brought that one back today with a new (probably used) gearbox. As someone else said, we just had to keep driving it until it actually blew up as the workshop wouldn't repair it. Still 62000 miles out of a gearbox isn't too bad for a royal mail van...Edited by JoeMk1 on Wednesday 17th September 18:32
lightthefuse said:
minky monkey said:
I can't believe they've gone over to Fiat, I can't see them lasting long!
Fiat must be keeping all the postal companies in Europe sweet, the Swedes have gone over to them as well. Though I'd reckon it might just be a step up from a Kangoo.I used to work for Parcelforce, mostly on 7.5 DAFs, but occasionally on Iveco Daily vans. Where I worked, it was mostly one van: one driver, and it showed who the scruffy b
ds were. The spare vans were nasty LDV things with the Transit engine, and they were abused because nobody had to use them day in day out.
I now work for a small company running a fleet of around 20 vans and half a dozen 7.5 ton trucks. They're almost all double shifted, and they're all horrible. The trouble is that you get into one and the interior is covered in coffee, tobacco and cigarette papers, and you think "fk it, I only have to spend 10 hours in here" and you don't bother cleaning it because you know the next dirty bd will ruin it again. We've got one that's got a huge dent above the windscreen where someone has clearly run into a car park barrier, but no one knows who did it.
ds were. The spare vans were nasty LDV things with the Transit engine, and they were abused because nobody had to use them day in day out. I now work for a small company running a fleet of around 20 vans and half a dozen 7.5 ton trucks. They're almost all double shifted, and they're all horrible. The trouble is that you get into one and the interior is covered in coffee, tobacco and cigarette papers, and you think "f
k it, I only have to spend 10 hours in here" and you don't bother cleaning it because you know the next dirty bd will ruin it again. We've got one that's got a huge dent above the windscreen where someone has clearly run into a car park barrier, but no one knows who did it.klunkT5 said:
As far as Tesco goes you have to pass a driver assessment, Vans are tracked, Speed, RPM, Braking, Cornering monitered and MPG, Go over 10% of the speed limit and its flashed up and your in for an investigation, Drivers that speed excessively are simply taken off driving. The van damage is due to where the vans go, Where i work its mainly Rural, Farms etc so they pick up a bit of damage, Its all logged.
Spent many times in the office as my stats are st. Strangely drive a police car the same and no one says anything about it being 'unsafe' unlike they do at Tesco.
buzzer said:
I was a fleet manager for Royal Mail many years ago… The drivers were animals even back then…
And I mean animals… it was not unusual for a driver to take a st in the back of a van and leave it there…
Lots of reasons why it’s like it is…
No pride in the job, never has been for the majority.
highly unionised – the drives felt untouchable… as an example when I worked there I heard of a competition between a group of drivers to see who could wear out the rear tyres on a new Sherpa van the quickest… we had loads of reports of drivers spinning the wheels up every time they pulled away. My tyre budget went through the roof, but management would not do anything…
I was then contacted by a company who had CCTV at their premises and invited to come and look at some video footage. It showed a driver come into the yard, collect the mail, and then drive to the rear of the factory. Another camera picked him up with the front of the van hard against the wall, while he spun the rear wheels until they smoked and smoked! I took the District Head Postmaster to see the video, and we suspended the driver… Result, an all-out strike. 2 days later he was re-instated – no action taken
We had three vans at a rural outstation where the drivers REALY looked after the vans, even polishing them. They were immaculate. So I used to give them a new van each every year, and put their old one into the reserve pool. Union intervened and said it was favouritism.. I was forced to stop it.
I could go on and on…
Sherpa's ! when was that late 80's early 90's ?And I mean animals… it was not unusual for a driver to take a s
t in the back of a van and leave it there…Lots of reasons why it’s like it is…
No pride in the job, never has been for the majority.
highly unionised – the drives felt untouchable… as an example when I worked there I heard of a competition between a group of drivers to see who could wear out the rear tyres on a new Sherpa van the quickest… we had loads of reports of drivers spinning the wheels up every time they pulled away. My tyre budget went through the roof, but management would not do anything…
I was then contacted by a company who had CCTV at their premises and invited to come and look at some video footage. It showed a driver come into the yard, collect the mail, and then drive to the rear of the factory. Another camera picked him up with the front of the van hard against the wall, while he spun the rear wheels until they smoked and smoked! I took the District Head Postmaster to see the video, and we suspended the driver… Result, an all-out strike. 2 days later he was re-instated – no action taken
We had three vans at a rural outstation where the drivers REALY looked after the vans, even polishing them. They were immaculate. So I used to give them a new van each every year, and put their old one into the reserve pool. Union intervened and said it was favouritism.. I was forced to stop it.
I could go on and on…
Re your 2nd paragraph drivers don't have time to polish vans as we have bigger deliveries (yes even spdo's) and secondly your job would now be done by some bright young thing straight from uni who repairs/replaces vans purely on budgets rather on which posties are managers favourites.
Vans are now only replaced when it's no longer cost effective to repair them.
Gareth79 said:
Magog said:
They'd all go on strike?
That was my thought - if the drivers were held accountable for damage then everybody would be out 
My parents live in a rural area and I can also confirm that the vans used in the sticks are thrashed to within an inch of their life. Only the milk tanker drivers are more insane.
The reason your parents post vans are a state is due to us going up unkept dirty dusty/muddy farm tracks combined with having no van wash facilities or time costed in to our duties to hand wash the vans.
This may come as a suprise to you but most farmers don't have a beautifully smooth tarmac driveway leading up to the farm.
minky monkey said:
I can't believe they've gone over to Fiat, I can't see them lasting long!
They've changed to fiats/peugeot due price and the higher driving position.Posties were getting back problems due to the low seating position in the vauxhall combi vans combined with the amount of time there getting in/out the van.
chris1roll said:
They drive like nutters on the country lanes.
I live down a stone track. You need to pick your route to avoid taking the exhaust or sump off, just first gear rolling speed.
The postie comes down at about 30mph.
You'd be surprised, sometimes it's a lot smoother down a rough road at speed once you start running over the top instead of dropping in the ruts. It's a stone/gravel lane to the workshop and you either go down at 5mph in 1st gear or you go down at 40mph. Anything in between hurts.I live down a stone track. You need to pick your route to avoid taking the exhaust or sump off, just first gear rolling speed.
The postie comes down at about 30mph.
John D. said:
I've noticed several very pink Royal Mail vans round my way. I know red paint fades in the sun but wouldn't have thought commercial vans would be kept long enough for it to be an issue. Surprising they don't seem to care about presentation.
Like I said until a year ago I was driving a 55 I now have a 57 reg.Nothing is replaced until its no longer cost effective to fix/bodge it up, I remember when I started every 3 or 4 years you'd get a new van.
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