Dorset Echo goes out and about with the Royal Mail

This festive season, the Echo has been out and about with the people who keep Dorset going all year long.

Today, we spend the day with the Royal Mail.

IN A bright orange jacket, pushing a red trolley around town, Dave Ralph doesn’t quite fit the image of Father Christmas – but they do share a similar job description.

Dave has worked as a postman for Royal Mail for around 16 years, and has been delivering the Christmas post to all the businesses and residents living in Weymouth town centre for the past five.

While delivering around town, he is almost as recognisable as Father Christmas, with every other passer-by saying hello or jibing him about the latest performance of his football team – Tottenham Hotspur.

“Too many people know me. That’s the problem,” he said.

“I give them all a lot of stick but I get given it as well, I’m a big Spurs supporter, so when they lose it’s shocking.”

Dave goes out every day, rain or shine, and makes about four trips on his round around the town.

“After a few years of it, you learn how to dress.

“I had a dodgy ticker a few years ago and have lost a lung, so I know what to wear to keep my body warm.”

As well as delivering Christmas cards, Dave gets a fair few back from the people he visits.

“Funnily enough, I find this time of year okay.

“Christmas is good for me because when you do a regular delivery, people get to know you.”

Although he loves his job, he says there are a few downsides.

“Dogs can be a problem, but not in town so much.

“I did once get robbed – we had the old canvas trolleys that aren’t secure like these, and someone dived in, took all my specials and got away with about 20,000 Euros I think.

“I think my least favourite thing can be the weather in some cases.

“When it’s cold and the wind blows.

“Oh and icy pavements – I hate it.

“The good thing about it is that although you work as a team first thing in the morning, when you come out of the office you’re on your own, and it gives it variation,” he added.

“It’s a good team. Because I’m one of the eldest down here, I always make out I’m miserable; they love it, they just wind me up.”

Over Christmas, Royal Mail workers have Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, but are not able to take any holiday.

“We don’t really have a break over Christmas; some people go away but we can’t because there’s a three-week period where we can’t take holiday.

“But you get used to it, you adapt to the fact you can’t have a holiday.

“It would only be disappointing if you wanted to go to Lapland or something.” Dave also shares something in common with a particularly famous postman.

“I’ve had kids call me Postman Pat before.

“I used to have a cat called Jess as well, believe it or not.”

OVER the Christmas period, the Royal Mail employs an additional 19,000 seasonal workers to make sure everybody gets their cards and parcels.

However, these employees do not get sent to local delivery offices – so postmen in Weymouth start from 4am to ensure the extra workload gets delivered.

In recent years, the biggest change for the postmen is the type of post they deliver.

You won’t catch a postman delivering mail on a bike now and that is because the majority of post now consists of parcels.

David Andrews, the manager of Weymouth Delivery Office, said Royal Mail has been on top of the Christmas post because they begin planning for it at Easter.

He said: “The increase in parcels is the main problem we face.

“If customers aren’t at home we have to then deliver to their neighbours or put it in a safe place. That can take time to do but they are prepared for that because they know it’s going to be increasing at Christmas.

“We now have a process now called ‘First Time Delivery’ so if we knock on the door and you’re not there we will knock at the neighbours either side and try to leave it with your next door neighbour. We have also got a system where you can identify a safe place and leave it there.”