Eagle eyes

Unpaid mail and particularly, parcel account fraud, is a significant problem for Royal Mail, costing us millions of pounds every year.

We want to ensure that every piece of mail sent through our network is paid for, and have devised a two-year strategy to barcode our parcel products, so that we can scan those items and bill on those scans.

There are a number of ways to minimise revenue loss – simply by following our standard operating procedures.

Last week, we looked at the importance of politely refusing Printed Postage Impression (PPI) mail without posting documentation – because without paperwork, we can’t be sure that mail has been paid for. 

Scanning the barcode on all posting documentation is also crucial when it comes to putting paid to unpaid mail - it provides Royal Mail with the required information so we can bill the customer for all the mail we handle. But what about paperwork that doesn’t reflect the posting?

Why is scanning important?

‘Scanning everything is really important – because if posting documents aren’t scanned, we can’t be sure that the mail has been paid for,’ said Nick Lovell, a collections driver from Cardiff Mail Centre. 

‘So, if the customer gives me three pages or so of paperwork, I’ll be sure to scan the barcode on every page.’

Colleagues have worked hard to drive up scanning compliance at Cardiff Mail Centre, as part of a 12-week initiative. Sales Acceptance Scanning has improved by 16% since focusing on this performance measure at Cardiff, and continues to improve, which shows the efforts of all involved.

‘Sometimes we do have issues with scanning – for example, if the barcode is too small,’ said Nick. ‘But the PDA gives an option to accept the mail from the customer and take it to revenue protection (RP) to be checked, so that’s not a big problem.’

Suspicious mail - the customer has paperwork. But what if the paperwork says six parcels and there are more to be collected?

So, what about suspicious mail that doesn’t appear to match the paperwork? Should it be politely refused?

‘If it looks like there’s more mail than the customer has put on their sales order, I will take the mail, but I’ll often phone my manager to let her know about it,’ said Nick. ‘She’ll liaise with RP and they can then check that mail.

‘To save time and make sure the mail is paid for, just use the PDA to manually Red X the mail yourself, hand it to RP and they will check the mail and follow up with the customer. You can also use the PDA to call the security helpdesk about anything suspicious. And there’s the Speak Up helpline too.’

Collections colleagues’ trained eagle eyes are a vital first line of defence in stopping unpaid mail from getting into our network.

‘You can usually gauge if there is more mail in the posting than on the posting documentation,’ said Nick. ‘I’m always on the lookout for things that are out of the ordinary.’

To report anything suspicious call:

• Group Compliance on 0207 449 8302 or email group.compliance@royalmail.com  
• Group Security on 0207 239 6655 or email securityhelpdesk@royalmail.com 
• Speak Up on 0800 090 3154 or the online web-based service by clicking here.