By Julian Loevenich
The post-chaos hit Berlin particularly hard!
According to Deutsche Post, individual districts of the capital have been classified as so-called hotspots in recent months. Means: There were staff shortages of up to 30 percent at individual delivery bases on a daily basis!
It was not entirely our fault: in the first half of 2022, Swiss Post had reduced its staff by 5 percent nationwide. Means: Contracts were not extended. Then summer came. The permanent staff took vacation. “And we didn’t find students who normally work during the holidays as we thought we would,” admits Thomas Schneider, the company’s operations manager. In addition, the unexpectedly high Corona summer failures.
“I have to serve 1,500 to 2,000 households by bike every day,” says a BZ deliverer (symbolic photo). Photo: AP Photo/Joerg Sarbach
Too much for the mail! Letters piled up for weeks. Also because emergency concepts were started too late, such as deliveries only every other day.
A deliverer from Berlin gives BZ an insight into the status of a delivery base. The shipments from weeks are piling up, colleagues can’t keep up with clearing the traffic jam because they also have to deliver the newly arrived mail. “Wagons with letters were simply pushed into the basement,” says the deliverer.
And: “Many didn’t drop out because of Corona, but because they are mentally at their limit.” The stress is enormous, Corona is only an excuse. Operations manager Schneider responds to the accusation: “Corona is not advanced. There were several reasons for the delivery problems.”
A Post spokesman for Berlin said the situation had stabilized. Be prepared for the winter.
An assessment that the deliverer does not share. “I don’t believe in it 1000 percent.” He has been there for 20 years – and is looking for another job.
