DVLA and postal strike 04/10 - 10/10

[danny_kiernan]

Hi All,

Due to the current postal strike, I would advise anyone sending in letters to the DVLA, to leave it till after the 15th (which royal mail have stated, is when deliveries will be back to normal).

If you are taxing your vehicle or declaring SORN, you should do this via the DVLA website Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency ,but remember to print out a copy of your receipt, as the actual paperwork will be delayed.

You can also tax/SORN your vehicle over the phone:
0870 850 4444
Text phone/minicom users 0870 850 4445

You can also Tax your vehicle at Post Office Counters (of branches that are open) - as the information is transmitted electronically to the DVLA , so they should not be affected by the strike.

You can also Tax/SORN your vehicle, or hand in a letter at one of the DVLA local offices - The list is available here Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) contacts : Directgov - Directories

Kind Regards

Dani

[barracad]

Originally Posted by danny_kiernan

Due to the current postal strike, I would advise anyone sending in letters to the DVLA, to leave it till after the 15th (which royal mail have stated, is when deliveries will be back to normal).

You can advise what you like, but the mail will be dealt with in the order it is received, so the sooner it is posted, the sooner it will be delivered. If somebody leaves posting something until the 15th then all they will be doing is delaying their own mail!

[danny_kiernan]

Originally Posted by barracad

You can advise what you like, but the mail will be dealt with in the order it is received, so the sooner it is posted, the sooner it will be delivered. If somebody leaves posting something until the 15th then all they will be doing is delaying their own mail!

The royal mail have not sealed postboxes for this strike, so all mail posted before 11/10/2007 is at the senders risk, plus the royal mail will have a massive backlog. People tend to stick all sorts of things in postboxes - so it is not advisable to post mail till after the strike is over.

It would be best to wait till the backlog is cleared on the 15th, so that royal mail will be able to deliver letters/correspondance as normal, otherwise it will take a lot longer for the backlog to be cleared.

barracad - I question your advice, have you not heard of the knock-on effect? Plus royal mail is not operating at peak strength at the moment.

[barracad]

Originally Posted by danny_kiernan

barracad - I question your advice, have you not heard of the knock-on effect?

Obviously the more mail entering the system will cause greater backlogs, but the fact remains that mail will be dealt with in date order - i.e. the backlog will get dealt with before any newly posted items.

Full details are available at royalmail.com/update

Also, the current round of strikes will end on 10th, so the point of anybody waiting until the 15th is beyond me.

[The GodMother]

um i think there has been sum type of mistake over the dates of the mail strikes. The current strike action has finished due to it stopping at 12 midday saturday 6th october but restarts on monday the 8th october at 3am till wedneday 1oth october at 3am.

Weekly strikes start from week begining the 15th october. That is the OFFICAL line from royal mail as my uncle nick and father in law both work for royal mail.

so post boxes and mail from post offices are being collected but not between the dates mentioned and on the day strikes from the 15th october. Also in case anybody did not no they are no longer going to be emptying post boxes on sundays and bank holiday mondays from the 28th october.

Maybe you should look on www.royalmail.com before posting inaccurate info

[danny_kiernan]

Hi Fairy Godmother,

Hadn't seen that update myself - but it does say
'This will be followed by an unspecified programme of weekly strikes, starting week commencing October 15th, until the resolution of the dispute.'

Not that they will actually be on strike on october 15th, The post office's official line is that due to the two 2 day strikes, mail will be backlogged until the 15th, so it is advisable not to post till then.

I know this due to going into a main post office on Thursday and Saturday to mail items via parcelforce. Parcelforce is not part of the strike btw.

Dani

[The GodMother]

well that is not the offical line that my Father in law and uncle came back with at 9am this morning. They have already cleared the back log from the previous 2 days strike action and according to the sorting officer at main local sorting office it is only a few sorting offices that are advising ppl do not post there mail.

Oh and btw the update as up put it is not new. This was announced to royal mail staff and members of the public when the 48 hour stoppages were announced. his has also been all over the television and radio on the days leading up to strike action.

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by The GodMother

They have already cleared the back log from the previous 2 days strike action and according to the sorting officer at main local sorting office it is only a few sorting offices that are advising ppl do not post there mail.

There is no way they have cleared any backlog, there hasn't been any deliveries and won't be until probably Thursday of this week. And the advice is still being given not to post anything.

[The GodMother]

well actually post boxes have been emptied and so have the post office parcels. Both of these have been sorted and are ready to post. Just to correct you some ppl are still getting there post as only cwu members are striking and not the other 2 unions that are under royal mail. There is a seperate one for the manages, if they want to join that one, and a seperate one for the ppl who do want to be in the cwu.

Anyway this only relates to were my uncle nick lives and were i live. Even tho my father in law is a sortin office manager he is still part of the cwu and is striking.

[patdavies]

Originally Posted by Chesterexpress

There is no way they have cleared any backlog, there hasn't been any deliveries and won't be until probably Thursday of this week. And the advice is still being given not to post anything.

We've had home deliveries for the last three days

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by patdavies

We've had home deliveries for the last three days

Your one of the few lucky ones then. Most people I talk to from all over the UK have had no deliveries whatsoever.

[barracad]

Originally Posted by danny_kiernan

The post office's official line is that due to the two 2 day strikes, mail will be backlogged until the 15th, so it is advisable not to post till then.

Rubbish. The official line is that mail will be dealt with in the order it's received, as detailed on their website.

[The GodMother]

yes barracad you are rite.

Mail will be delt with in order of recipt but it will only be delivered from offices that are not striking.

[danny_kiernan]

Industrial action: an update from Royal Mail

Monday 8th October update

Royal Mail regrets the impact of the latest CWU strike and the disruption this has caused. We are also disappointed to see that the CWU has communicated the next planned strikes which are due to commence on Monday 15th October 2007 - we are awaiting full details so we can assess the impact.
We are heartened that there continues to be an increase in our operational staff attending work . Managerial and support staff continue to work within the operations across all shifts to help keep mail flowing and we are still talking with the CWU and continue to try and reach an agreement.
We apologise for any disruption caused to our customers and whilst Special Delivery items are being delivered and some mail is flowing through the network we are building up significant backlogs. Currently we are not able to give details of mail volumes on hand or the timescales for clearing the backlog once this round of industrial action finishes on Wednesday - we apologise for any inconvenience this causes.
We would like to assure our customers that all mail will be handled in sequential order and we will be working hard to get the mail through the system and delivered. We will do our best to return to normal as soon as possible but customers should expect significant delays.
We will continue making every effort to support our customers throughout the strikes but our ability to serve remains extremely limited as a result of the CWU strike.

[danny_kiernan]

As an aside - Business Post (the company), are operating normally, even though they use royal mail, for the last leg of some journeys, they have got around that by using other small, private postal companies and couriers. So for something urgent - Business Post can be used - if you want to be sure that it will arrive.