Can VR tame the beasts?

The Guardian newspaper featured a story about our annual dog awareness campaign.

West London postman Charlie Morris was joined on his round by Guardian journalist Rhik Samadder, who tested our new virtual reality training technology, helping colleagues gain an insight into the hazards they could face on delivery.

‘This one will bite the letters and head butt the door,’ smiles Charlie, a postal worker I am shadowing on his rounds. He slides a catalogue halfway inside the letterbox of a green door, and it is instantly snatched by jaws unseen.

I am fascinated by the business of being a cheeky postal worker. It is an alternative career I always wondered about. Now I am actually on a round, I can’t stop asking Charlie questions. What’s the most annoying thing to deliver? (The Harrods catalogue: too thick.) What do his regulars say to him every day? (One of them says: ‘Morning Postman Pat, where’s your black and white cat?’).

Meeting dogs is one of the top five reasons I like to imagine being a postal worker. Isn’t the eternal rivalry between pooch and postie cute? Somehow very British? ‘This Dennis the Menace idea, that a dog hanging off the seat of your pants is an occupational hazard – I have a problem with that,’ says Shaun Davis, global safety director at Royal Mail. ‘It’s like saying: “If you don’t want to get held up by a bank robber, don’t work in a bank.”’

It turns out that dog attacks are one of the top five threats to postal staff. Fingers and thumbs have been bitten off, even a nose. Injuries to calves, buttocks and testicles are common. In 2017, there were more than six attacks a day. It’s a countrywide problem: last year, Sheffield saw the highest number of incidents, this year it was Taunton. As Davis describes the life-changing injuries that mean some postal staff are unable to return to their routes, and require much mental health support afterwards, I realise that I have been naive.

Charlie is exactly what I like to imagine postal workers are like: an unnaturally fast mover, nipping over walls, trying to beat his personal best time for the round. ‘The “young and invincible” mindset is one of our challenges,’ acknowledges Davis. It is why the company has developed a new virtual reality experience, to teach its frontline employees AVOID strategies.

I have a go myself later, at Royal Mail’s head office, in a swivel chair with a VR headset on. It’s fun – you get to follow a new postal worker, Mel, on her round, looking for signs of dogs and advising her what to do. Royal Mail’s dog-awareness campaign has been a success. It’s not anti-dog; it simply advocates for responsible dog ownership, and the public have responded. Simple tips – such as securing excitable dogs in other rooms at delivery hour, and fitting letterbox cages or external post boxes, have halved the 5,000 annual dog attacks of just five years ago.’

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Photo via The Guardian.