[guide.chat] Postmans to be banned from riding bikes

From: "Carol O'Connor" <missbossyboots33@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "guide chat" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:17:24 +0100

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Postmenare to be banned from riding bicycles due to health and safety fears. 
Bosses say posties will get back strain as postbags get heavier due to online 
shopping. They also want to cut road accidents involving cycling postmen.
Workers in all but four areas of Greater Manchester have already got off their 
bikes - and within 12 months the others will have followed suit. 
The ban is also being rolled out nationally. Some industry insiders have 
slammed the move as 'blinkered' and blamed it on cost cutting. But Royal Mail 
spokeswoman Morag Turnbull said it was nothing to do with savings and said the 
service has invested £74m in new delivery equipment - including trolleys - for 
the region to respond to a 'changing mailbag'. 
She added: "As we deliver fewer letters but more packets and parcels than we 
did in the past, we need to remove bicycles from our operations. They are being 
replaced with vans and trolleys that enable us to take the weight off staff's 
backs and therefore deliver mail more securely and safely. In addition, this 
move, as supported by the union, will help reduce cycling accidents involving 
our staff."
Bikes have been ridden by postmen for more than a century, but locally only 
Eccles, Failsworth, Stretford and Droylsden still use them.
Postal historian Dave Harrop, who runs the Manchester Postal Museum in Heaton 
Mersey, Stockport, said: "Bikes came in in the Victorian era and really took 
off in the First World War and right through the 50s and 60s - but since the 
80s they have been used less as you can't carry parcels on a bike in the same 
way. The weight of mail these days means you are limited to what can carry and 
you've got health and safety to consider too.
"It was just inevitable that bikes were going to go."
Depending on the area, post will now only be delivered on foot using a 
specially designed trolley, or by van, after the national Communication Workers 
Union signed an agreement. 
But a local CWU insider said the move had baffled some workers. He said: "They 
just couldn't get their heads round it. It's common sense to use your bike 
rather than push a trolley. Some workers say it shaves 30 minutes off their 
deliveries. We feel managers are blinkered."
Bikes are expected to have been phased out in Greater Manchester by next April.
[guide.chat] Postmans to be banned from riding bikes

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