LTB 572/14 Water Bottles for Liquid Refreshment

Letter to Branches

No. 572/2014 Ref: 600 Date:12th September 2014

To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague

Water Bottles for Liquid Refreshment and Hydration on Delivery

Branches will be aware of the work being undertaken by the various Strands within the Integrated Delivery Programme (IDP). As such the Safety, Customer Service and Quality Strand have had discussions regarding liquid refreshment for OPG’s whilst out on Delivery, particularly during spells of hot weather, this has also been subject to discussions by the Health and Safety department on the severe weather standards and sun safety review.

Those discussions have identified that there is a process in place for Water Bottles to be supplied by Royal Mail which was disclosed as part of a recent Q&A session around procedures for Hot Weather:

Q – Can I order a Water Bottle to take out with me on Delivery?

A – Water Bottles are not a uniform order item; however they are available to order as a cycle spare so can still be ordered. They are available direct from Pashley cycles via their SAP catalogue. Your requisitioner should be able to go in to the SRM system and put in Water Bottles and they will come up.

As a consequence of identifying this process we would encourage all CWU Representatives to raise and discuss with their DOM’s the ordering and issuing of water bottles to make sure that this item is offered to all frontline delivery OPG’s and the appropriate orders are put in place.

Any problems with the ordering of these items should be raised with the Outdoor department so that the matter can be raised with Royal Mail in future IDP Strand discussions.

Furthermore detailed advice for Outdoor Workers on Sun Safety and precautions to adopt when working in hot weather to avoid sun burn, sun stroke, dehydration and heat stroke has been issued by the Health and Safety department in LTB 281/14.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 600 Email address: hnutley@cwu.org or mstewart@cwu.org
Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson Dave Joyce
CWU Assistant Secretary – Outdoor National health,safety and environment Officer