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Private Cars On Delivery - Union Issues Warning To Members Following Prosecutions

The CWU has called on Royal Mail to end the use of private cars on delivery following the prosecution of two Postman in different parts of the Country.

In August an Esssex Postman was stopped by Police whilst on his delivery round and had his car ceased and impounded when Police said the Insurance cover provided by Royal Mail and his own company was inadequate. The Postman paid fines and fees totalling £350 and had 6 points added to his Drivers Licence as a result. He also had to pay an additional £70 to upgrade his private Motor Insurance to commercial business cover. In an almost identcas case a Cheshire Postman was also hit with similar huge fines and fees plus 6 points on his Drivers Licence when Police stopped him on his delivery round.

A further row broke out when it came to light that agency staff, casuals and reserve workers, who the business are now employing in large numbers during the dispute were using uncontrolled and unchecked private cars on delivery in various parts of the country. 

Dave JoyceNational Health and Safety Officer Dave Joyce said "These people are using private cars to deliver the mail without any safety checks or driver legal compliance checks. It seems fairly obvious to me that many of these drivers obviously don't have business use commercial motor insurance cover if they have anything at all. Not to long ago an agency worker in Bedfordshire was stopped by the Police whilst delivering mail in his private car and was found to have no licence, no insurance and no MOT! The Manager had obviously not run any safety or legal compliance checks".

"We've had two postman suffer huge fines and 6 points on their licence, we've had members of the public killed by private cars on delivery, we've had a postman jailed as a result of an accident whilst using a private car on delivery and we've had a postman killed whilst out using his private cars on delivery. It's not a good record and it's time for Royal Mail to stop talking about it and to act by ending the practice and making sure that staff don't need to use their cars any more".

Norman Smith Royal Mail Safety Director responded "I can confirm that it is our intention to remove the use of private cars on delivery as part of the deployment of the new delivery methods, and so remove incidents like the examples you cite."

Source: CWU



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