Royal Mail Snow service update for 8th Feb

The Scots are (I’m reliably informed) laughing at the English today due to some snow falling across the country. Whilst Scotland is accustomed to snow on an annual basis, it always catches England by surprise. However, on a more serious note, there is a Royal Mail snow service update today warning that you may or may not receive a collection today depending on local conditions.

As a side note, it’s distressing to here that the Scottish mountains have some of the best snow for skiing that’s been seen for years. Why did that have to happen in a year when there’s a pandemic and no one can take advantage? I’d love to get my snowboard out and head for the hills!

Royal Mail snow update

“Deliveries and collections are taking place across most of the UK today, though some disruption may be experienced in areas affected by snow and ice. We’re out delivering and collecting wherever it’s safe and possible to do so. Additionally, deliveries may also be disrupted in some areas due to resourcing issues in a number of our delivery offices. Please see the ‘Royal Mail Deliveries’ section below. We’re working hard to deliver as comprehensive a service as possible to all our customers during these challenging times.

Every single parcel and letter is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards. This is due to the exceptionally high volumes of mail posted during this further lockdown period, alongside necessary coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can.”
– Royal Mail

The Royal Mail snow update has also triggered emails to merchants regarding their collections. However it’s slightly informative and equally slightly unhelpful as it only says you might not get a collection… those with parcels to ship would much rather a straight yes or no rather than get everything picked, packed and labelled just to discovered a collection doesn’t materialise. If you knew a collection couldn’t take place, you might for instance be able to deliver your outgoing parcels into the local delivery office yourself or if you are a smaller seller drop them in a Parcel Post Box. We have to be slightly sympathetic to Royal Mail as the snow fall is a bit of a moving feast, but be prepared to email customers if your collection doesn’t take place this afternoon.

“Due to the current weather conditions, we’re letting you know we may be unable to provide a collection service from you today.
 
Our people are out delivering and collecting today but only in areas where access is possible and it’s safe for them to do so. Access may not be possible at different parts of their journey which could also prevent us getting to some seemingly unaffected areas.
 
We apologise for any inconvenience, we’ll return services to normal as soon as access is possible and it’s safe to do so.”
– Royal Mail Customer Services email to retailers