THE RUNAWAY BUS CAME OVER THE HILL AND IT BLEW...

Because of the storms last week, post and other deliveries have been seriously delayed. No commercial planes were flying passengers, nor to distribute post to outlying areas, or, to heavily populated ones either. Just imagine the bulky back-up of Christmas and business mail that resulted. Some long distance passenger buses tried to maintain a limited service when the trains could not. The bus drivers were brave, and the buses that battled with the weather, were extraordinarily late in their arrivals. They did, however, arrive. Passengers had some hair-raising tales to tell. It is just possible that a mail van limped through the stormy trail as well, though one of those, by no means, would have dented a sizeable backlog very much.

Trickles of mail arrived here at home by Friday evening. Apart from one letter, everything else was local. Is it possible that the bosses had allowed the local sorting office to do their own local sorting rather than bag everything up to travel hundreds of miles South, only to return North again I still have difficulty mentally sorting out the economics of that exercise. 

At about 4.30pm, Monday 12th December 2011, a wadge of mail landed on the mat, mostly Christmas mail. No packages or parcels have arrived. Don't get me wrong, I am not expecting tons of presents, I am however, expecting our usual arrivals of mail order, which haven't shown up. It is this current pattern of deliveries that leads me to believe that there is quite a backlog of mail somewhere in the system, much of it caused by extreme weather conditions. Now, we are waiting for the next severe weather experience that is forecast, which, is bound to have a further impact on mail and courier services.

From past experiences, especially that of last Winter here, I am sure the individuals who work for most of the delivery services will do their level bests to meet the extra demands of Christmas and get their post and parcels to businesses and households. 

I cannot speak highly enough of the local postal services and the efforts they made in the severe Winter of 2010/2011 with the most difficult of weather conditions - blizzards, ice and deep snow underfoot.