Post people and elastic bands
Post people and elastic bands
Author
Discussion

Ayahuasca

Original Poster:

27,580 posts

308 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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What is it about postmen and women that makes them incapable of not strewing elastic bands everywhere? They are elastic band incontinent. It is as if they would get lost if they didn’t leave a breadcrumb trail of elastic bands on the pavement behind them.

Don’t they know that there are few things more damaging than discarded elastic bands? When it rains they get washed into drains and the river system, to choke, suffocate and strangle wildlife.

How much does the post office spend on elastic bands ? They could cut that budget by 90% by telling posties to stop throwing them on the pavement. How many posties have been fined for elastic band littering? None, probably. fkers.

A500leroy

8,406 posts

147 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
Its not done on purpose,
We are tracked and have an average of 48 seconds to deliver to each property, if we dont the manager is within his rights to ask why you are being so slow and bring a conduct charge against you for repeated failures, on top of that we also have to deliver 30 large parcels an hour (1 parcel per 2 minutes) that includes driving to an address, getting the correct parcel out the van, knocking on your door waiting for you to answer, and repeating the process. The average round goes to 1200 addresses and covers 12 miles all within 5 hours.

If we notice a band has been dropped then we will of course pick it up. But with the pressure of doing all the above correctly and with the added worry of catching /spreading the virus we do have higher things to concentrate on.

We are only human.

trickywoo

14,149 posts

259 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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A500leroy said:
The average round goes to 1200 addresses and covers 12 miles all within 5 hours.
That’s not a foot round is it?

In my day a big walk would have been 400 calls and that would have had lots of flats.

Most of your commuter town, with gardens and cul de sacs, rounds were around 300 calls.

No way one person could do 1200 on foot on bills day.

Anyway I always used to bring my bands back and the management encouraged it. Problem was they would break after three uses or so and it starts to hurt when you are doing loads of bundles.

I think it’s just bad posties who leave bands everywhere. Probably the same ones who carve up a round when they want to go home early.

A500leroy

8,406 posts

147 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
trickywoo said:
A500leroy said:
The average round goes to 1200 addresses and covers 12 miles all within 5 hours.
That’s not a foot round is it?

In my day a big walk would have been 400 calls and that would have had lots of flats.

Most of your commuter town, with gardens and cul de sacs, rounds were around 300 calls.

No way one person could do 1200 on foot on bills day.

Anyway I always used to bring my bands back and the management encouraged it. Problem was they would break after three uses or so and it starts to hurt when you are doing loads of bundles.

I think it’s just bad posties who leave bands everywhere. Probably the same ones who carve up a round when they want to go home early.
The 1200 address walks are trolley jobs generally in big towns terraces etc, cul de sack walks are around 600- 700 and rurals are 300-400.

ApOrbital

10,586 posts

147 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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tts should use a bag to put them in? my place is full of them fairy laccy bands every day.

Chozza

808 posts

181 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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Its a requirement of the job , from at least the seventies.

The postie is required to drop elastic bands at street corners and the like .. so that primary school children can pick them up and make elastic band balls.

( They briefly replace them with Green Plastic in 79 but this was not popular with either the postie or school children/ a similar attempt in 2006 to introduce red bands was also short lived )

What you have noticed is not an increase in elastic bands .. but the impact of CV-19 and school closures on the number of boys either traveling to school or meeting with school friends to show each other their balls



Edited by Chozza on Friday 8th January 19:20

A500leroy

8,406 posts

147 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
ApOrbital said:
tts should use a bag to put them in? my place is full of them fairy laccy bands every day.
Its great that you think the people that are delivering covid kits and nhs letters as well as all the other essentials you cant get at the moment are tts, we really appreciate that.

anonymoususer

8,444 posts

77 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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A500leroy said:
ApOrbital said:
tts should use a bag to put them in? my place is full of them fairy laccy bands every day.
Its great that you think the people that are delivering covid kits and nhs letters as well as all the other essentials you cant get at the moment are tts, we really appreciate that.
I'd be impressed if some postmen could do their jobs and actually ping your PDA things when your delivering.
I get you don't actually have to obtain a signature on Signed for packages but would be a great help if you just pinged them


Skyedriver

23,397 posts

311 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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The red ones were hopeless, you saved them for the next day and they snapped when stretched.

dumfriesdave

403 posts

166 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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Yep.
Such tts us lazy posties are OP.
Jumped into my van yesterday at 0830 with temperature reading -7. By 11am it was nice n toasty at -4.
Possibly dropped a few bands myself, but hands too cold to pick them up.
Did you see them while you were out clearing snow and ice from your path,or steps to your door OP, to ensure your essential jiffy bag of tat from AliExpress arrived safe ?
Probably not. Bit difficult to bend over holding a bundle of mail in one hand, parcel in the other whilst walking up a garden path that has a 2 inch layer of ice. Feel free to try it, and report back here how easy it is.
After being the busiest ever during lockdown 1, then the usual Xmas rush we are now looking forward to more lockdown shopping.
As Leeroy stated we are human and drop them sometimes.

Puggit

49,794 posts

277 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
A500leroy said:
Its not done on purpose,
We are tracked and have an average of 48 seconds to deliver to each property, if we dont the manager is within his rights to ask why you are being so slow and bring a conduct charge against you for repeated failures, on top of that we also have to deliver 30 large parcels an hour (1 parcel per 2 minutes) that includes driving to an address, getting the correct parcel out the van, knocking on your door waiting for you to answer, and repeating the process. The average round goes to 1200 addresses and covers 12 miles all within 5 hours.

If we notice a band has been dropped then we will of course pick it up. But with the pressure of doing all the above correctly and with the added worry of catching /spreading the virus we do have higher things to concentrate on.

We are only human.
So why can my union-rep postie stop for half an hour for a chat? scratchchin

ApOrbital

10,586 posts

147 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
A500leroy said:
ApOrbital said:
tts should use a bag to put them in? my place is full of them fairy laccy bands every day.
Its great that you think the people that are delivering covid kits and nhs letters as well as all the other essentials you cant get at the moment are tts, we really appreciate that.
This has been going on for years and don't give me the covid crap wink

wiggy001

7,351 posts

300 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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Puggit said:
So why can my union-rep postie stop for half an hour for a chat? scratchchin
Same here. Nice bloke our postie. Had quite a chat the other day about bird of prey whilst watching a sparrow hawk take a parakeet.

He certainly want in a rush.

The postie that is. The parakeet probably should’ve rushed a bit more...

Last Visit

3,677 posts

217 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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No need for the faux rage from the resident posties, no one is saying you're lazy good for nothing wasters. And yes you're delivering covid testing kits, which is clearly relevant to the thread. What's being quite simply said is stop dropping elastic bands everywhere. Its not rocket science. You've been doing it for years, its not a 2020 thing.

C70GT

335 posts

116 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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I was only bemoaning to 'er indoors the other day that our postie doesn't drop elastic bands anymore. We have been kept in elastic bands for years and a simple job to collect them off the drive - good quality too. Now I have had to order some off ebay to keep us going and nowhere near the quality of genuine Royal Mail ones.

Jader1973

5,137 posts

229 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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There must be some sort of global rule about dropping elastic bands because the posties in Australia do it too.

I suspect there is a globally common oath they take when they join.


MiseryStreak

2,929 posts

236 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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Why don’t they use Earthworms instead? Then when they drop them they’re feeding the little birdies instead of littering.

48k

17,392 posts

177 months

Saturday 9th January 2021
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Ayahuasca said:
What is it about postmen and women that makes them incapable of not strewing elastic bands everywhere?
Try living with one.
Still, we're never short of elastic bands.laugh

rowley birkin

513 posts

129 months

Saturday 9th January 2021
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I came here expecting to see pictures of people with elastic bands. Disappointed.

sociopath

3,433 posts

95 months

Saturday 9th January 2021
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I'm disappointed because our postie has never dropped any on our drive and I could do with a few.

And he's a great postie because he hides our parcels if we're not in.

Gave him a tip this Christmas as usual, apparently people don't do that nowadays?