Australia Post contract drivers are rallying outside a Melbourne delivery centre over the sacking of a colleague.

The Communication Workers Union alleges Bill Damen was fired on Friday after he tried to secure the minimum award wage and his superannuation and other entitlements from his employer Dee Vee.

Union spokesman Chris Spindler says 50 drivers are holding a protest outside the Airport West delivery centre ahead of a Federal Court hearing today, where Mr Damen will seek an injunction against his dismissal.

“We just want to see a little bit of justice done,” he said.

Read more: Colleagues protest sacking of Australia Post driver – Yahoo!7 News.

A WYCOMBE resident who received several letters addressed to a home in Australia says her postman should not get the blame.

Birmingham grandad Roy Froggatt slammed Royal Mail last week – saying mail sent to his daughter Down Under had repeatedly ended up in High Wycombe.

Read more: Don’t blame postie for ‘wrong continent’ mail blunder, says Dawn (From Bucks Free Press).

Paul Galpin, managing director of UK third party logistics solutions provider P2P Mailing, says change is necessary if the Universal Postal Service is to be protected, despite an outcry over Royal Mail’s postal rate increases.

Commentary about Royal Mail’s price rises has been wide and varied this summer, but much attention has been given to fears that mailing could become too expensive for vulnerable members of society and companies that rely on the postal channel to conduct their business.

Read more: Protecting the Universal Postal Service | Post & Parcel.

A Royal Mail driver was reading a manual which he had spread out over the steering wheel while on a motorway, a court heard.

Iain Copland was concentrating so hard on the instruction manual that he failed to notice an ambulance overtaking him.

Perth Sheriff Court heard how Copland swerved onto the hard shoulder before veering back onto the M90 motorway.

He admitted driving carelessly and reading at the wheel.

Copland, 45, of Innest Street, Inverness, admitted driving carelessly on the M90 between Inverkeithing and Perth on January 10 by reading a manual and veering across the white lines into the hard shoulder.

Read more: Royal Mail driver was reading manual on steering wheel while on motorway | Dundee & Tayside | News | STV.

The Royal Mail Pension Plan has appointed a new chair, as it reinvents itself as a smaller entity ahead of the state-run postal operator’s part-privatisation.

Joanna Matthews will succeed Jane Newell, who last week announced that she would step down in September after nearly eight years with the plan. Unlike Newell, Matthews will not become chair of the Royal Mail’s direct contribution fund, which has about £50m of savings so far. Royal Mail said that an appointment to this position would be made separately.

Matthews has been a trustee of the RMPP since 2006, and has prior experience of chairing pension plans, currently chairing the Electricity Supply Pension Scheme, the Siemens Pension Scheme and the Mirror Group Pension Scheme. The ESPS, the largest of those schemes, oversees £26bn in assets. Matthews also acts as an independent trustee of the BOC Pension Scheme and the Blackwell Pension Fund.

Read more: Royal Mail appoints new pensions chair.

Laws dating back two decades are being reviewed by authorities on the Isle of Man with a view to giving its Post Office more commercial freedom.

The authorities want to give the postal services operator more freedom, including the possibility of offering delivery services away from the island.

And like many other postal services operators, Isle of Man Post is aiming to expand its commercial base to replace business lost by the general trend for falling mail volumes.

Read more: Isle of Man seeks views on Post Office reform | Parcel2Go.

Wednesday, 29 August 2012 04:52:28 AM

Police were forced to deploy capsicum spray to arrest a knife-wielding robbery suspect in the Blue Mountains yesterday afternoon.

About 5pm, (Tuesday 29 August), staff at the post office on Macquarie Road in Springwood were threatened with a knife during an attempted robbery.

One of the staff members tackled the armed man and he ran from the scene empty-handed.

Police from Blue Mountains Local Area Command were called and a search of the area got underway.

A short time later, staff from CityRail alerted police that a man matching the description was standing on one of the platforms of Springwood Railway Station.

Police went to the area and approached the man, who then produced a knife.

The officers ensured other commuters were clear of the area.

The man refused to put down his knife and police were forced to deploy OC spray to subdue him.

He was arrested and taken to Springwood Police Station.

Police have charged the man with attempted robbery while armed with an offensive weapon.

He has been refused bail and will appear at Penrith Local Court later today.

From the US Postal Service:

Louisiana: As Hurricane Isaac approaches the Gulf Coast, Louisiana District is requesting mailers to divert drop shipment mail for the following facilities listed:

All drop shipments mail destined to New Orleans LA P&DC 700 ZIP Codes: 700-701, 703-704 will be accepted at Shreveport LA P&DC 710 until further notice.

All drop shipments mail destined to Baton Rouge LA P&DC 707 ZIP Codes: 705-708 will be accepted at Lafayette LA P&DC 705 until further notice.

For more updates visit usps.com: Mail Service Updates.

From USPS News Link:

USPS is set to launch its plan to keep nearly 13,000 of the nation’s smallest Post Offices open with modified hours.

First announced in May, the strategy for low-activity Post Offices in rural areas will match hours of operation with customer use and is expected to save USPS up to $500 million upon completion.

Under the plan, each district will begin notifying communities where Post Offices are affected by operating hour changes. Notifications will start after Labor Day, with public meetings to take place in early October. Initially, USPS will focus attention on changes at 4,500 Post Offices that currently do not have Postmasters.

Under the plan, which was reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission, each resident of affected communities will receive a letter describing the proposed changes, along with a survey. to complete. The letter also will invite residents to a public meeting to discuss the new hours of operation.

Residents will have two weeks to complete the survey, and USPS will have an additional 14 days to compile the data. Meeting notices will be posted at each affected Post Office, which also will have surveys available for residents.

Notices affecting the remaining Post Offices on the list of 13,000 retail facilities will be scheduled over a 2-year period. Conversions to the new hours of operation for each affected Post Office could take effect within 60 days of the date residents are notified.

NEWARK, N.J. – A U.S. Postal Service employee and her boyfriend were charged today in connection with a scheme to allegedly intercept cocaine-laden packages mailed from Puerto Rico to New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Christina Nunez, 30, of Lyndhurst, N.J., a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in Secaucus, N.J., was charged by Complaint with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine, and mail theft. She was arrested August 24, 2012. Her boyfriend, Luis A. Vega, 36, of Lyndhurst, was also arrested and charged by Complaint with conspiring with Nunez to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine.

Vega made his initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark federal court. Nunez is expected to make her initial appearance before Judge Dickson tomorrow.

According to the Complaint:

Since December 2010, Nunez has been receiving packages of cocaine that were mailed from Puerto Rico to delivery addresses along her mail route. Nunez intercepted the packages, scanned them as delivered despite never delivering the packages to their actual delivery addresses, and ultimately transported the cocaine to co-conspirators in Camden, N.J.

During the investigation, law enforcement seized more than two kilograms of cocaine. On Feb. 1, 2011, inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service seized 1,569 grams of cocaine from an express mail package that was supposed to be delivered by Nunez. After this seizure, the drug trafficking organization ceased sending packages until December 2011, when once again, packages sent from Puerto Rico were mailed to addresses assigned to Nunez’s mail route.

Another suspicious package was sent from Dorado, Puerto Rico, on August 22, 2012. Once the package arrived in Kearny, N.J., law enforcement noted that the delivery address on the package would be assigned to Nunez’s mail route. The package was later determined to contain approximately 600 grams of cocaine. The cocaine was seized and replaced with a substance similar in appearance to the original contents of the package. The package was placed back into circulation for delivery. On August 24, 2012, Nunez failed to deliver the package to its delivery address. At the end of her shift, Nunez returned to her residence in Lyndhurst, N.J., with the package, and she and Vega were arrested.

In addition to intercepting the cocaine-filled packages on her mail route, both Nunez and Vega received packages of narcotics at her residence and Vega’s former residence. It is estimated that Nunez, Vega and their co-conspirators have distributed more than 18 kilograms of cocaine between October 2010 and August 24, 2012.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited postal inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Phillip Bartlett; U.S. Postal Service-Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Rafael Medina; and special agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian Crowell, with the investigation leading to the arrests.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary E. Toscano of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division in Newark, N.J.

Read more: USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office – District of New Jersey.