Post Office staff caught fixing tests on first-class deliveries

Royal Mail staff at a London sorting office are said to have been ordered to search bags of mail by hand to find “test” letters and ensure they arrive at their destination on time.

It is not clear whether post chiefs know delivery figures could be being manipulated, but if the Royal Mail were shown to be unaware of such a problem, it would raise serious questions over managers’ ability to do their jobs.

It could also raise concerns about the credibility of a Post Office report, due out this month, which deliveries’

will claim deliveries in London have improved dramatically. Today, postal regulator PostComm and consumer watchdog PostWatch said they would look into the allegations of a fiddle.

The Royal Mail employs a company called Research International to send out test letters from firms and postboxes across Britain to see how long they take to get to their destination. Local depots are not supposed to know when and where these letters are sent.

The research shows how close the

Post Office is to meeting its targets, set by PostComm, to ensure that 92.5 per cent of letters arrive on time.

But the Standard has been told that at one London sorting office, staff are being ordered to find these letters and speed them on their way.

Royal Mail van drivers are said to have been told which firms are sending test letters, and to keep these bags of mail separate from others they collect. Once they arrive at the sorting office, it is claimed, workers are taken off their usual duty of unloading the vans, and sort through each bag, letter by letter.

They can identify the test letters because the address is written in a certain way and when held up to the light, a reference number can be seen inside. These letters are then rushed through the sorting office and sent on to their destination.

A senior Post Office source told the Standard: “We have seen these letters being unloaded and checked. If it is happening in this one depot, it is probably happening elsewhere in London. Most staff reckon it is a waste of time. It delays other vans getting into the sorting office and uses up staff who should be doing other jobs – like sorting normal mail posted by the public.”

Yesterday, the Post Office refused to comment on details of the story. A spokeswoman said: “Our research is carried out through an independent company and is scrutinised by PostWatch and the regulator Post-Comm and is robust as can be.”

Research International said it could not comment on confidential surveys for clients.

However, Kay Dixon, chairwoman of PostWatch’s London branch, said: “This is a very serious allegation.

Postal statistics are provided to us as part of Consignia’s licence conditions to run the service and we are contacting Royal Mail immediately to ask for an investigation.”

PostComm said it was alarmed by the claims. A spokesman said: “This is something we would take extremely seriously and we’d need to investigate.”