Post Office Queue Chaos Hits Borough

Davey demands meeting with Post Office

22nd December 2008

Long queues this December in the Royal Borough’s three main post offices have been blamed on a combination of “inefficient management” and “deliberate profiteering at the expense of a public service” by Kingston and Surbiton’s Liberal Democrat MP, Edward Davey, whilst long queues at the Royal Mail’s Villiers Road parcel pick-up office provoked the MP to ask Royal Mail to “adapt quicker to the age of internet shopping.”

Edward Davey’s comments come on the back of his “Post Office Queue Watch” Campaign launched earlier this year, in response to the closure of 6 post offices across the Royal Borough.

Edward Davey argued before the closures that the impact would be much longer queues, especially at the three main local post offices, and surveys undertaken by his team have shown his predictions have come true. Edward Davey is writing to the Royal Mail asking for a meeting early in the New Year.

Edward Davey’s “Post Office Queue Watch” focused on surveying queues at the main branches in Kingston, Surbiton and New Malden at different times in December, and the key findings were:

Queues longest at Kingston Post Office

• Up to 32 people observed in the queue, at the peak
• Average queuing times varying between 5 minutes and 26.8 minutes, with 4 out of 5 surveys observing average waits longer than 16 minutes. Some people clearly queuing for more than half an hour.
• People regularly observed “walking away” from the post office having seen the length of the queue, including 103 people during a two hour survey period

Queue survey at New Malden

• People queuing up to 35 minutes, at the peak
• Average queuing times at 9 minutes and 15 ½ minutes
• Staff more responsive than other offices, though empty stamp book machine outside the cause of longer queues than necessary on one visit

Queue survey at Surbiton

• Average queuing times between 3 minutes and 12 minutes, with 2 out of 4 survey visits finding average queue times of 12 minutes
• During one survey, 16 people observed “walking away” from the post office having seen the length of the queue

Commenting, Edward Davey said:

“These extremely long queues can’t just be put down to Christmas or “busy days”, as the contractors who run these branches would have the public believe. The truth is that they are the combination of the impact of post office closures we saw earlier in 2008, and inefficient management. Surveys taken in August and November found similar results.

“If we still had another 6 smaller post offices branches dotted around the Borough, the pressure would be off these main post offices. But what’s happening is that post offices are actually losing business, as people are turning away because the queues are so long.

“Merely the presence of my team surveying the queues forced local managers to take action, either by putting more people on the counters or by sending staff from behind the screens to “manage” the queue by giving advice on everything from packaging to other places in the office to buy stamps. People actually thanked my team for the effect they were having on the branch managers and the queues!

“Other inefficiencies my survey team found include stamp book machines that were empty, forms that weren’t on display forcing people to queue and the bizarre observation that the queues got longer during lunchtimes, because the staff were having their lunch break. Surely the managers realise that many people go to the post office during their lunch hours, and so the post office needs to stagger lunch breaks, just as happens in restaurants and cafes, who want to provide a service not a sentence?

“The British people may be the best, most patient queuers in the world, but these queues are beyond a joke. It’s time Post Office Limited ensured their contractors and even their Crown Office met acceptable standards, and I have asked for a meeting to demand improvements in the future. If Post Office Limited don’t crack down, they are either excusing poor queue management, or allowing their contractors to undertake deliberate profiteering at the expense of a public service.”

As an additional finding to Edward Davey’s Post Office Queue Watch Campaign, the Liberal Democrat MP has become increasingly alarmed at the long queues at the Royal Mail’s Delivery Office in Villiers Road, where people go to pick up parcels and packages, increasingly from having ordered them or having been sent a parcel via an internet site. He believes that a major reorganisation of the “enquiry office” at the Villiers Road depot is needed, and will be raising that with senior Royal Mail managers in the New Year.

Commenting on the queues at Villiers Road, Edward Davey said:

“This really isn’t the fault of local managers, as the staff at the enquiry office at Villiers Road are working in impossible conditions, in a room that simply isn’t fit for purpose.

“Far more parcels and packages are being sent back to the depot in these internet days. Whilst Royal Mail need to work harder with customers, to reach agreements for parcels to be stored safely in porches or with neighbours, and not brought back to the depot, it’s clear there needs to be a much bigger enquiry office at Villiers Road, both for the staff and to ensure a quicker service for the public.”