… if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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ratherbeintobago
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Joined: 5 Dec 2010, 6:31pm

… if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by ratherbeintobago »

As above - given that other organisations are trialling (e)bikes for delivery, has RM reconsidered the phasing out of Mailstars anywhere?
backnotes
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Joined: 16 Jan 2011, 8:36am

Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by backnotes »

I thought they mostly stopped a while back around 2010 and some became Elephant Bikes….

https://www.cycleofgood.com/elephant-bike/

Click on the “Heritage” link.

Our postie saw mine in the drive and had a nostalgic ride on it. He also showed me the scuff on the telegraph pole at handlebar height from having bikes leaned against it. I also got the NOS Carradice panniers to go with it.

They used to deliver letters, but now it is mostly brown cardboard boxes in electric trolleys…..


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ratherbeintobago
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Joined: 5 Dec 2010, 6:31pm

Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by ratherbeintobago »

Yes, they stopped a while ago (officially).

Mailstars would make great local delivery bikes. I wonder if anyone is using them?
rogerzilla
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Joined: 9 Jun 2008, 8:06pm

Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by rogerzilla »

A few escaped to private buyers but I think most went to Africa.
sizbut
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Joined: 2 Oct 2018, 11:56pm

Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by sizbut »

As per the first reply, you can get them.I bought mine last year and condition was excellent. So search for Elephant Bike (Cycle of Good).

Also found an army surplus site that still had the original Royal Mail bike bags that sling over the rack (though I'm in the process of adding some Ortlieb hooks).
Carlton green
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by Carlton green »

ratherbeintobago wrote: 14 May 2022, 3:34pm Yes, they stopped a while ago (officially).

Mailstars would make great local delivery bikes. I wonder if anyone is using them?
To an extent that was the problem in that they didn’t make great delivery vehicles. They were good for telegrams and letters but not up to the job for packages, packages making an increasing percentage of RM deliveries. Cycle courier companies also employ cyclists whereas RM employ Postmen and Postwomen, the two overlap but aren’t the same. What RM really needed to do was adopt a larger capacity type of cargo bike and look at staff changes required to support those delivery rounds which were suitable for cycle based delivery. However such cargo bikes are heavy, expensive and not necessarily easy for staff to use in their particular job.

RM will have thought it out and opted for what they felt was the most pragmatic solution for them and their business. Delivery bikes, or rather cargo bikes, really come into their own on point to point courier parcel and package delivery in congested areas, that’s not really core to RM’s business hence they reverted to other means that better matched their changing needs. If you want to run a business delivering packets and parcels then a mail star isn’t that flexible in capacity and a two wheel big box bike is what’s really needed: simply throw it all in the cavernous box and the goods are constantly (safely) in sight of the rider whilst they wiz along.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
rogerzilla
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by rogerzilla »

RM were engaged in a spat with posties over the wearing of h*lm*ts at the time, too. Posties wouldn't wear them and successfully challenged it on H&S grounds, because no risk assessment showed they were of benefit. The CTC got involved.

So RM notoriously responded by branding them and making them part of the uniform rules. Fail to wear the full uniform, and you get a disciplinary.

Posties still refused to wear them en masse.

RM then took the bikes away. The coincidence is uncanny.
Carlton green
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Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm

Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by Carlton green »

rogerzilla wrote: 15 May 2022, 6:58am RM were engaged in a spat with posties over the wearing of h*lm*ts at the time, too. Posties wouldn't wear them and successfully challenged it on H&S grounds, because no risk assessment showed they were of benefit. The CTC got involved.

So RM notoriously responded by branding them and making them part of the uniform rules. Fail to wear the full uniform, and you get a disciplinary.

Posties still refused to wear them en masse.

RM then took the bikes away. The coincidence is uncanny.
I wouldn’t doubt that that was one factor in the decision making process. Industrial injury happens (compensation can be rather expensive) and maybe RM decided that they were just too exposed to claims - bikes became more trouble to them than what it was worth.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
PH
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by PH »

rogerzilla wrote: 15 May 2022, 6:58am RM then took the bikes away. The coincidence is uncanny.
I'm not sure that was much of a contributory factor. The bikes went as part of a much larger reorganisation, somewhat botched in typical one size fits all corporate style. It involves the closing of many sorting offices (30%?) and the end of the traditional postie's round, the original plan was intended to be fully implemented by now, it doesn't seem to be going well.
thirdcrank
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by thirdcrank »

Presumably, the Royal Mail cargo bikes were only used in some areas. I don't ever remember seeing them around here. I do remember some junior messengers using bikes - without a large carrying capacity - to deliver telegrams, in the days when telegrams existed.

At the time of the reorganisation described by PH, we had letter deliveries entirely on foot. In the reorganisation before that one, a network of mail delivery boxes (I don't know the right name) was installed on each walk(?) and the post to be delivered was dropped off by a van to be picked up and delivered. I think before that, the post delivery person collected it from the sub Post Office, which made it a trek. At the time of the reorganisation described by PH, it was (nearly?) all switched to van-based delivery. Our postman could not drive and - approaching retirement - had no reason to learn. He was teamed up with a different driver each day to share rounds and he hated it. eg He felt obliged to almost run round so he wasn't delaying his partner for the day. He took retirement at the first opportunity. We now usually have a regular van-driving post person who's excellent, but on her days off when somebody may or may not cover it's often poor.
ratherbeintobago
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by ratherbeintobago »

thirdcrank wrote: 15 May 2022, 11:50am Presumably, the Royal Mail cargo bikes were only used in some areas. I don't ever remember seeing them around here. I do remember some junior messengers using bikes - without a large carrying capacity - to deliver telegrams, in the days when telegrams existed.
Location dependent. Mossley Hill delivery office was at the end of our road when we were in Liverpool and there were always Mailstars out and about.
rogerzilla
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by rogerzilla »

The rot set in when they gave Postman Pat a van, rather than a bike.
ratherbeintobago
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by ratherbeintobago »

I’d not want to pedal a Mailstar round the Dales - probably weighs the same as a van, and that’s without the black & white cat.
PH
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Re: … if Royal Mail are still using Mailstars?

Post by PH »

ratherbeintobago wrote: 14 May 2022, 3:34pm Mailstars would make great local delivery bikes. I wonder if anyone is using them?
I considered using one for deliveroo, the reconditioned ones are cheap enough not to worry about and though the gearing could be better they'd be mostly OK for that use, the only thing that stopped me was the weight, not for riding, but I would have had to carry it up and down a flight of steps every day.
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