Ten postal workers from different delivery offices, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, told the BBC that “take the mail for ride” is a common phrase in their workplace.
One worker said: “Say we have a senior manager coming in from outside the delivery office, any mail that has been left would get hidden by the line managers.
“It gets put into a york (a trolley) and taken somewhere, and brought back to you the next day.”
He explained that when someone raises the fact that they have too many parcels to deliver to be able to take out the post as well, “they’ll quite often just say ‘take the mail for a ride'”.
“If someone comes in from the outside it looks like you’ve cleared the round, when in actual fact you’ll be bringing it straight back when you finish.”
“It’s embarrassing and deceitful,” he adds.
A postal worker in Wales said: “It just means that our boss can say that all rounds went out the door, knowing full well they are not going to be delivered.”
Another worker said taking the mail for a ride meant “if inspections were carried out at the delivery office the first class mail would not be in the frame.
“This meant the round could be classed as complete… to manipulate the delivery success of the office.”
A fourth worker said: “They are just trying to cover themselves, it means that posties are having to take the first class out on a daily basis even knowing that they are just going to bring it back.”