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.
