Business Spotlight #4: Meet our Posties

We have had some great posties over the years delivering our post and parcels here in Rhossili and we always miss them when they move on. We hope our current posties stay with us as long as they can!

Catherine (Cathy) is one of our lovely posties. Did you know she became a postie because she wanted a career change? She used to drive buses and was fed up with sitting down all day! Cathy says the best part of delivering to Rhossili is meeting the villagers! A dog lover herself (she has a Whippet) she also has 2 cats (Mickey and Mouse). Here she is with Dylan, her favourite dog in Rhossili. 

And here is Mike, our postie with his favourite dog in Rhossili, also Dylan. [Correction: Mike has clarified that Dylan of course is the new kid on the block and obviously his favourite dog has always been Mabli – Ed.]

Did you know that Mike used to be a lorry driver before he discovered the joys of being a postman.  He loves delivering post to his customers in Rhossili and he says it’s the people who really make his job fun.  If he wasn’t a postman now he would be driving heavy plant and JCBs, like he used to do as a child growing up in Egypt!

Cathy tells us that her day starts around 6-6.30am after driving her van to the Sorting Office to sort out all our mail. That takes around two hours and then it’s out delivering. They have to clock in and go back to the depot to clock off at the end of each day. Cathy also explained about the uniform they wear and that part of the training involves the ‘posties’ code of practice (Mail Integrity Code of Practice).  Essentially this is about minimising ‘the potential for postal packets to be subject to loss, theft, damage or interference.’

Mike said more on the clocking in and out. The posties carry a satellite tracker which monitors every stop they make and how long they spend at that stop – you can see both Cathy and Mike holding one in the photos above. If they spend too long at a place, they may be called in to explain the delay. Mike said, “If I don’t stop to chat with you one morning, it’s nothing personal, I just need to catch up!” He sees many of his customers as friends and feels that posties have a valuable community role to play beyond mail and parcel delivery. This came to the fore during the pandemic, helping out people who were vulnerable or even just having a (socially distanced) chat with someone where he might have been the only person to speak to them that day.

Thanks to Cathy and Mike for sharing their stories and allowing us to post them on the Hwb.

Do you want to tell Hwb viewers about your work, whether it’s a service, a business or ‘just what you do’? Please get in touch by email (rhossilihwb.cymru@gmail.com) or contact Maggie or Isobel directly and we can chat about how best to cast a spotlight on it.