New Posting Peg Trial (Revised Version) Within Royal Mail
Dear Colleagues,
Branches and members may recall LTB 005/25, issued on 15thJanuary, which reported on a new prototype Posting Peg that had been developed and was being trialled at the Derby, Swindon, Chippenham, Dore and Rye Delivery units.
Whilst taking longer than planned, the trial has now concluded. Although there was some positive response to the new design of the Posting Peg, the overall feedback from this trial was clear that it could be further improved, particularly, by making it smaller and slimmer.
Accordingly, a revised design has now been developed to reflect this feedback and a diagram of this new Posting Peg, compared to the former prototype, is attached.
The trial will commence w/c 1st September and is planned to run for approximately four weeks. Each participating unit will be issued 20 of the newly designed Posting Pegs to be tested in the live operational environment. These units are:
- Ary (KA);
- Ashford (TN);
- Boole & Seaforth (L);
- Bury (BL);
- Plymouth (PL).
As a means of further information on this new trial, please find attached a SHE Huddle briefing due to be issued at each of the trial sites.
In advance of this activity being launched in each unit, a remote meeting call has been held to outline the details and aims of the trial, which has involved the relevant unit COMs, SHE advisors, and CWU ASRs.
On completion of the trial, feedback will be sought directly from those involved via a QR code, with the feedback then being reviewed by the RM / CWU National Joint Dog Awareness Working Group in terms of the next steps.
From the CWU perspective, this new trial of a revised version of the Posting Peg is welcomed, as based on the latest figures shared by Royal Mail, circa 403 dog bite incidents through the letterbox were reported last year, which is an increase on the year before. Accordingly, I have no hesitation in encouraging our Safety and IR Reps, alongside members in the listed units, to fully support and engage in the trial and equally provide feedback.
Finally, in setting out the above, it is relevant to remind Branches that letterbox bites are reportable as an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act (Section 3), which followed the Court of Appeal decision in 2022 whereby postal workers do have applied access rights at letterboxes and as such, are protected by the Act. Sadly, there remains some confusion in this regard and over trespassing laws, with even some Police Officers offering wrong advice on this issue, if hands / fingers accidentally enter the letterbox aperture. The full details of the Court of Appeal ruling were set out in LTB 220/22.
Further updates in terms of this trial output will be issued in due course. In the meantime, any enquiries to the content of this LTB should be directed to the Outdoor Department, email address: Pharacz@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Bouch
Assistant Secretary
LTB 184-25 – New Posting Peg Trial – Revised Version
Diagram New Posting Peg Trial – Revised Version
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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