Fed up postie goes viral with plea to “get behind postal workers” as Royal Mail announces continued delays to service

A POSTIE has gone viral after hitting back at criticism over delays to Royal Mail’s service, urging people to “get behind their postal workers”.

Luke Elgar, 28, shared a video on Twitter yesterday explaining the impact coronavirus has had and pleading with the public to be more understanding.

His video comes as Royal Mail today revealed it is facing “exceptionally high” volumes and struggling to meet delivery schedules.

In the clip, the postie from Southend in Essex, says: “I wanted to take a minute to respond to some of the criticism being fired at postal workers from not just the right wing media but MPs from all parties.

“You might have noticed that there are some delays going on around the country, but I think it’s a given with a pandemic and with so many self isolating and trying to stay safe in these difficult circumstances.

“We have obviously got higher numbers of people self isolating and off but you know we are pushing on.

“I would appreciate some support for postal workers at the moment rather than just slating the delays because it is difficult.

“We are trying to get on while staying safe and going above our normal working hours to get as much delivered as possible.

He finishes: “So please get behind your postal worker, send out a message of support and share this so people realise you are behind the posties.”

A frustrated Luke shared the video online with the caption: “I’m a postie on the frontline at the minute. It’s hard. Please share this video.”

Since sharing the video, it has been viewed over 380,000 times and shared extensively across Twitter.

Twitter users have shown their support for the postal workers, leaving comments of thanks and well wishes.

@peaky4indy replied: “Thanks Luke, I’m also a postie and I don’t think people realise how close to burnout we all are.

“It’s been relentless since March and Christmas was off the scale. We’re all exhausted but we keep on going.”

@Slipstream60 said: “Solidarity with you and all postal workers.”

@danpom commented: “I bet you must get so much abuse and I am sorry for you. I know it’s not your fault and I know it’s not my postman’s fault.

“I have two games that I should have got for Christmas but they still haven’t come. I am not whinging or moaning because they will eventually come.

“We salute you.”

Royal Mail today provided a service update on their site, saying: “Every single parcel and letter is important to us.

“Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resources, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

“This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe.

“In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Speaking today, Luke said: “It seems there has been a blind ignorance to the impact of the pandemic on the workload and on the safety of postal workers.

“It’s no coincidence that the delays are worse in areas worse impacted by Covid figures. We are just asking for patience and understanding.

“I never expected the video to reach thousands of people like it has but the response from the public to it will be a great moral boost to posties up and down the country.”