14 July 2016
Sack Postman Pat
The rural postman and modern life.
by Lynda Goetz
The character of Postman Pat, created for the children’s animated TV series in 1981, was for many years used by Royal Mail for their promotional and charity work. In the fictional village of Greendale, on the border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire, Pat, a friendly country postman, and Jess, his black and white cat, go on their rounds. Unfortunately rural life seems to have a way of making postal deliveries somewhat less than straightforward, and delivering the mail sometimes ended up taking second place to helping out various locals with their problems. The programmes were popular and Postman Pat became part of our national culture. However, nineteen years later in an increasingly competitive world, Royal Mail decided that helpful but somewhat bumbling Pat was no longer the image they needed or wanted to take them into the 21st century. Pat was sacked.
On Wednesday 29th June, our ‘veteran’ postman, Richard Kemp, was informed by Royal Mail that he would not be doing his usual van round in Kentisbeare from the following day. Because his bosses deemed him ‘too slow’, he would be replaced and instead be allocated to a walking round in Cullompton. Effectively he was sacked. Richard, who incidentally is only 48, very fit and a marathon runner, has been a postie for 30 years and on the Kentisbeare round for much of that time. Not only had there been no complaints at all about his competence, but a recent independent assessment apparently said he was so good he should probably be claiming an extra hour and a half a day. He would not of course do any such thing. That extra hour and a half is probably accounted for by rural roads and stopping for a brief chat with people he sees on his rounds. This is simply an intrinsic part of his day. When asked to speed up and put an end to the chatting, Richard refused, knowing how much his few words could mean to some of those on his round. His bosses took exception to his approach to his job and decided he should be replaced by someone younger and faster.
Kentisbeare is not an ‘old’ village in the sense of being simply full of old people. Nor is it remote. The M5 is three miles away and Exeter, the county town, a half an hour’s drive. It boasts a church, a pub, a school and a village shop with Post Office. It is, however, that increasingly rare thing – a community. The shop owner and postmaster, Mike Wilkinson, was quoted in The Express as saying of Richard, “He is a real old-fashioned postman. He is an asset to the community.” Apart from many comments about his cheerfulness, friendliness and reliability, residents point out that Richard knows everybody and everybody knows Richard. Like Postman Pat, he keeps an eye out and has on occasion helped out. Richard has to contend with rural hazards on his round, which as well as the actual village of Kentisbeare also includes a wide surrounding area. Farmers might be moving cattle down a road; tractors may be hedge-cutting; horse riders, cyclists or joggers could be obstructing the narrow roads; he might even notice dogs worrying sheep and stop to alert the farmer. None of these things probably enter the consciousness of the management in their office looking at results on a spreadsheet. Being ‘an asset to the community’ is an intangible benefit which cannot be put on a spreadsheet.
The community was in uproar about Richard’s treatment. Phone calls were made and action taken. A petition was set up in the post office. An online petition was organised by the pub landlord and the local press were contacted. Within a matter of days, Richard had been reinstated. The ‘feel-good’ story hit the national press and was reported in The Telegraph, The Express and the Sun. It was featured in the BBC regional news. Somewhat ironically, it was not the power of letter-writing, which would probably have taken weeks to reach a resolution, but the power of modern communication and networking which proved so effective. It was, though, a concerted effort by the society and community of which Richard forms a part which made Richard’s employers think again. They had not taken into account the human element in the equation. People do not mind if their post is 10 minutes, 20 minutes or even 30 minutes ‘late’. They are not usually hanging around waiting for it anyway; it comes when it comes. In the meantime they are getting on with their lives, jobs and work. What they like is the personal service, the personal contact lacking in so many transactions today.
In any case, time is generally not, as the lawyers might say, ‘of the essence’, in such matters these days. For things that are urgent there is the phone, email or couriers. Nowadays most of our letter post consists of mail order catalogues (rapidly becoming passé themselves, as well), begging letters from charities and bills. Who needs any of those urgently? Royal Mail management, however, is not considering any of this. What they are concerned about is the increasing competition from all sides, particularly with the parcel trade and the ‘bottom line’. Having failed years ago to foresee the potential increase in business from online shopping, they have allowed the parcel business to slip through their hands. Letter-writing is a dying art. In May they saw a one-third drop in full year profits and have issued warnings that they are facing serious threats from firms such as Amazon who have set up their own delivery service. Royal Mail shed 3,500 staff in the last year, giving rise to questions about the firm’s ability to deal with the internet shopping boom. Royal Mail claim, however, that there is no direct correlation between the number of employees and ability to deliver parcels, particularly after they have introduced various efficiency measures. They also point out that they are better equipped to serve rural areas than many of their competitors. This is probably true, but they also need to recognise that, whilst efficiency is appreciated by those in both rural and urban areas, rural life does also operate at a different pace. That pace includes the time to stop and exchange the time of day with others – including the postman. Perhaps if many other public services and private businesses genuinely considered old-fashioned service and the human element, rather than simply considering ‘the bottom line’ then they might just find that those spread sheets and even the balance sheets could start to look better as well.
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