There he transfers the mail to another van which takes it on the 30-mile drive to Truro mail centre, where it arrives at 6.12pm. He makes 18 more box collections before returning to Penzance. The strangest item he has ever delivered was a boomerang. "I like the feeling of independence when you go out," Page tells me as he empties the next postbox on his round. And to answer the all-important question: if I post my letter first-class today, will it arrive tomorrow? So what better way to gain an insight into the workings of the institution than to follow a letter on this longest postal journey, certainly one of the most complicated in the UK? To see, beyond the exigencies of regulation and the mechanics of public sympathy, what it is actually like to work in one of Britain's last and most embattled public services. The journey from Land's End to John O'Groats in many ways represents what we cherish most about the Royal Mail, and what the company insists we will most miss should the regulator continue to erode its monopoly: delivery across the furthest reaches of our island, within 24 hours, for 26p. And, already suffering the worst industrial relations seen in the UK in recent times, last month Consignia announced up to 15,000 job cuts as part of a three-year rescue package. Consignia, the company that runs the Royal Mail, is losing £1.5m every day, while performance has plummeted - complaints are approaching two million a year, and in the nine months up to the end of last year, some 300 million first-class letters arrived late. The serious walkers are wearing shorts and people are cooling down by tucking into proper Cornish ice cream.ĭangerous dogs notwithstanding, a postman's lot is not a happy one. The postbox at Land's End enjoys a thoroughly unromantic location between a pasty seller, a bustling souvenir shop and a kiosk offering historic farm tours. Given that canine assaults make up the biggest cause of sick leave among Royal Mail employees, this may be regarded as an early good omen for my letter, which at 4.05pm is beginning its 874-mile journey to John O'Groats at the bottom of his collection sack. Phil Page, the Land's End postman, has never been bitten by a dog.
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