We are Royal Mail

Suresh Patel, known as SK, is both postman and collection supervisor at Sutton Coldfield delivery office.

‘I come in at 6am and start my delivery job by sorting all the mail out,’ he says. ‘At 6.30am, I get all the drivers together who are due on collections that particular day and ensure they’re all in and ready to do their afternoon collections.

‘Then I go out delivering, come back and start at 3.15pm as collection supervisor. That involves looking after all the drivers – around 24 in total - and making sure all collections are made to time, any missed visits are recovered and the mail is ready for processing. If we’re struggling on a collection that needs covering, I go out and do the driving myself. I finish around 6.30pm – it’s a long day but I enjoy it.’

Suresh started at Royal Mail in Twickenham 22 years ago. He says that online shopping has changed the delivery job dramatically, with more and more large parcels that don’t fit into pouches and have to be delivered by van. ‘Technology has also vastly changed and improved in my time here, especially with the new PDAs.’

Suresh enjoys getting the job done and going home happy. He puts success down to good relationships with customers and colleagues, and hard work. ‘My customers know me well. In the morning, they see me going along listening to my music and we have a chat.

‘We have banter and a laugh in the office as well, but when it comes to working, we all put in 100%. I rely on my collection team to do their job properly – customers call to complain if we’ve missed a collection - but I always try to be flexible and help people out.’

Suresh is part of We Are Royal Mail, our campaign to showcase the different people and roles that make up our unique operation. See more profiles here.