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Job description: Postman / Woman
As a Postman/Woman, you'll play a vital role in the nation's morning routine to keep postal communications going.
Sorting and delivering are your main responsibilities, which includes sorting letters and small packets in a district sorting office, then delivering them to the hundreds of addresses on your round.
Collecting to deliver, you may also be responsible for picking up mail from post boxes, post offices and work places within your area.
Like some Postmen/Women, you could be working in central sorting offices, dealing with mail coming in and going out across the country. You'd sort the post into mailbags, which are then loaded onto vans and transported to district offices or, depending on the destination, a road freight depot, rail station or airport.
Deliveries can be made on foot, bicycle, or in a car or van. Every so often you may need to collect a signature for special or recorded packages.
Hours/Environment
In a full-time role, you would typically work as a Postman/Woman for 41.5 hours a week. There are two shifts. The first would begin around 5am or 6am and you'd be organising and delivering the mail. If you were on the later shift, you'd start around 1pm to 2pm and be collecting and sorting mail.
Saturday mornings are normally required and, occasionally, Sunday shifts are needed. For extra work, variety or other, night-shift, part-time and seasonal work is widely available.
Most of your work would be outdoors, at all times of the year and in all weathers. However, when sorting the incoming and outgoing mail, you'll be indoors. In a main sorting office, this could include working with noisy machinery.
You'd be provided with a standard uniform and there are subsidised meals.
Skills and interests
To be a good a Postman/Woman, you must be:
- fit and active - the job can involve a lot of walking in all kinds of weather
- reliable, honest and trustworthy
- literate and numerate
- able to undertake clerical tasks such as re-directing mail
- able to use a keyboard
- confident in dealing with the public
- a good communicator
Entry
There are no formal entry requirements if you wish to become a Postman/Woman. To be selected you'd usually go through a test and interview.
The test may require you to demonstrate the ability to read addresses properly or check for errors amongst a list of names and addresses. You may also have to pass a medical examination.
Recruitment for the job of Postman/Woman is usually from the age of 18. However, in some parts of the country there are opportunities for 16 and 17 year olds to start employment as Postal Cadets. Employers may want applicants for Postal Cadet positions to have GCSEs/S grades in English and mathematics.
For driving duties, you'll need a clean current driving licence.
Training
Most of your training would be on the job. It's likely this would begin with several days of induction at head office and then you'd be moved to your nearest district office, where you'll work under supervision with experienced members of staff.
There may also be short external courses in addition to the supervised training. As a cadet, you could attend college on a day release basis for qualifications including the NVQ/SVQ levels 1 and 2 in Mail Operations. Opportunities for cadet posts are very limited, so check with your local delivery office.
Opportunities
Chances for you to become a Postman/Woman exist throughout the country and recruitment is normally done through the local sorting office. The large mail centres that sort and distribute mail can also employ hundreds of people.
Once a Postman/Woman you can be promoted to higher posts, such as supervisor and manager with experience.
If you fancy a change, there are opportunities to move into similar areas of the business such as parcel deliveries, courier work, post office counter work, or customer care and administration within district or main offices.
Annual Income
Starting as a Postal Cadets at 16 you can earn near £10,000, which would rise to £12,500 at the age of 17.
Aged 18 and upwards as postal staff you'd be earning around £15,000 as a starting rate, which would rise to a salary of £17,000 a year. Unsocial hours and driving duties would provide additional pay.
As a supervisor or manager, you'd be paid on a different scale.
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