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Royal Mail Technology and News taken from recent editions of the Courier.
A programme to refurbish 138 IMP’s is taking place this year and should conclude in late October. This should improve reliability and reduce rejected mail, which has to go for hand sorting. This project will cost £55million. (Dec 2007)
Three hundred and fifty walk sequencing machines which sort 9000 items an hour are due to go in at 250 locations. This programme was due to start in June 2008 at two offices with 24 more being installed in September and October and they will be national by January 2009. (Mar 2008)
Another piece of technology is the Packet Sorting Conveyor (PSC). These machines will replace the manual packet system, primary and secondary sorting. The last stage is manual sorting into bags. They are already in place at 10 centres and the system was due for trial this summer in Northern Ireland. Last Christmas 120 million items were ordered online. (Mar 2008)
The Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre will handle all UK international mail both coming into and leaving the UK. Some 6 million items will be handled daily, 480,000 items per hour. The site covers approximately 100,000 square metres. (Feb 2008)
Philately will get you somewhere…..
A passion for stamps can make you more successful later in life it seems according to a survey. Nearly 50% of adult philatelists earn over £30k, about £7k above the average salary. Of those surveyed 74% went to university compared to an average of 20%, 90% collected as children. Our hobby develops skills of persistence, attention to detail and patience. (Feb 2008 and National Press)
Valentine’s
One billion Valentine’s cards are sent worldwide honouring two St Valentines. The most valuable card is in the British Postal Museum and Archive, dating from 1790 and valued at £4m.
(Feb 2008)
Health and Safety
It was reported in the national press on 2nd August that the hamlet of Booze in the Yorkshire Dales will no longer have postal deliveries to its 11 homes. The road is deemed to be too narrow and dangerous and the postman is unable to carry the mail on foot. The residents will face a 45 minute journey to the sorting office in Richmond, after declining the offer of free-standing postboxes at the end of the road as they felt it was too far for elderly residents to negotiate. Health and Safety inspections have shown there is a risk to staff and a result the deliveries were suspended.
Inflation issues from Zimbabwe
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Derek Ward passed these two stamps to me in April postmarked 2006 and no doubt the figures are now considerably higher. The right hand is for $450,000 (Zimbabwe dollars) and the right hand for $500,000. We are used to seeing WWII inflation issues from Germany and so on and perhaps these are worth collecting too as I guess they go out of use very quickly.
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The stamp to the left is a Smiler using one pf the Greetings Stamps and the dog to the left is saying ‘Hello’. This does bring a smile to your face!
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