Royal Mail to restrict postage of water based paints

[Chibi]

Please may I prevail upon members to sign and share this petition.
Royal Mail have decided that posting waterbased paints is a safety issue


http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitio...e-restrictions-on-shipping-water-based-paints

Apparently the reason offered is that the paints may damage other mail.
Well I guess if you jump up and down on parcels and hit them with mallets! lol

Seriously, while I always advocate patronising the LFGS, it is not always possible and for people in this hobby or others that use water based paints, who have poor mobility, a postal service is essential for getting materials.
Please take a few moments to sign and share
Thank you

 

[Gra30]

All signed and forwarded, Royal Mail is really killing this hobby.

 

[Chibi]

Cheer Gra!

 

[Babelfish]

Apparently the reason offered is that the paints may damage other mail.

Hmmmmm ...... I recall some years ago when schools in the UK started to make pupils wear clip-on ties instead of real ones. The reason given for this measure was that there was a danger that some schoolkid somewhere may get their proper 'tie-up' tie caught, and be accidentally strangled.

This despite the fact that there had NEVER been a single recorded case of that happening ANYWHERE.

This sounds like more of the same kind of nonsense.

Unfortunately in the UK over the past 25 years or so, a whole "health & safety" and "risk assessment" industry has grown up employing large numbers of petty-minded jobsworths being paid to sit in back offices and dream up incredible and usually highly imaginitive ways in which the most innocuous of everyday items and situations might pose a danger to someone ... somewhere ... somehow.

Much of this goes hand in glove with the "compensation culture" and "ambulance chasing", which started off in the States but is now also firmly established on these shores and is a lucrative gravy train for armies of "no win, no fee" lawyers.

In today's world, **** never just happens - it's always "someone's fault". So remember folks: "Where there's blame, there's a claim!!" ....... KERRRR-CHING!!!

- Steve

 

[Chibi]

It is now Colin or a film
Tom Cruise starring in Moronity Report II: The Postman Knocks Twice (with the same order)
Does it also mean that the retailer will have to split up colour sets, like the ones Vallejo do?

 

[billyturnip]

The plus side being we might start seeing proper shops on the high street selling stuff that Royal Mail refuses to deliver..... errmm and paying for it accordingly.

Roger.

 

[Chibi]

That would be cool Roger
Sadly I doubt it.

I am really lucky in living close to shop that sells Vallejo Game paints
Otherwise I would have to rely on online stores as I can't easily travel to Sheffield, the nearest town with a LFGS
There must be plenty in such a position

 

[billyturnip]

Actually I was quite surprised to discover that Boyes in Northallerton stock Vallejo Model colour paints. It might be worth a look if anyone has a shop in their area.

http://www.boyes.co.uk/

Roger.

 

[elgreco]

We've just tweeted to them to ask how we are supposed to mail out boxed sets of 8/16 colours each (as produced by Vallejo and Scale75) ....
Celine

 

[Tecumsea]

Just use Hermes or some other alternative postal service? Perhaps we should all do that for everything !? I see they posted good profits yesterday and the share price has increased by 60% since issue a month ago.

Keith

 

[DEL]

Unfortunately in the UK over the past 25 years or so, a whole "health & safety" and "risk assessment" industry has grown up employing large numbers of petty-minded jobsworths being paid to sit in back offices and dream up incredible and usually highly imaginitive ways in which the most innocuous of everyday items and situations might pose a danger to someone ... somewhere ... somehow.

- Steve

This has got a familiar ring to it Steve. A few years back I was part of a Scottish Local Authority working group charged with refreshing the procedural guidelines for outdoor activities involving young people.
We managed to take a 64 page document and turned it into a 296 page document that could be used as a full training / reference / planning manual.
Actually what we ended up with was a set of useable guidelines that when used as intended covered most of the risks that any normal and some abnormal situations might encounter.
The problem lies in that a lot of the current activity leaders completed their courses at a time when they were actively discouraged to take considered risks.
Part of my job was to approve activities ranging from Hillwalking and climbing through Sea Angling to trips to Tanzania. Over the years I knocked back hundreds of trips but always because of planning failure, there is nothing restrictive about risk assessment it's simply sound common sense to plan for the safety and security of people in your 'care' . If someone is offering canoeing for children then I want to physically examine their qualifications and experience, in other words don't tell me , show me.
Two members of the 6 person team were ex army and if anything they made the most valuable contribution to the end result along with consultation with a range of parents who brought sound and practical suggestions to the process.
Bottom line is you can't indemnify for stupidity and a lack of care.

I'm with Keith on this, if RM can't deliver the goods then use somebody who can.

 

[Colin_Fraser]

I still say the risk profile for delivering 4 bottles of paint is not inherently different than 8 if the risk is paint leaking. Unless of course the risk is all of the bottles being stomped by a rogue elephant in the sorting centre and they are concerned about paint volume or nasty colours being mixed. Therefore it is an arbitrary stupid rule.

Colin

 

[DEL]

I still say the risk profile for delivering 4 bottles of paint is not inherently different than 8 if the risk is paint leaking. Unless of course the risk is all of the bottles being stomped by a rogue elephant in the sorting centre and they are concerned about paint volume or nasty colours being mixed. Therefore it is an arbitrary stupid rule.

Colin

You've cracked it Colin, the H&S issue is at the very heart of this .... the real concern is spillage leaking and randomly mixing into colours that clash with Royal Mail red.
My own regular postman is deeply concerned about the risk of assault on his artistic sensibilities.

 

[polyphemus]

Would that be a rogue elephant in Royal Mail uniform?

Geoff

 

[Tecumsea]

Ni Geoff, they only employ them at the sorting off to stamp on the parcels

 

[JonP]

This is a ridiculous piece of decision making by RM; I cannot see any logic behind it.
It would seem that RM is shipping more of it's packages by air but there isn't an issue with airfreighting water based paints as they don't have a UN number for restricted items.
Bizarrely they have just announced they are scrapping mail trains;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-183761/End-line-mail-train.html

 

[Chibi]

"Unless of course the risk is all of the bottles being stomped by a rogue elephant in the sorting centre "

I think it all depends whether it is a first or second class stomp

 

[DEL]

"Unless of course the risk is all of the bottles being stomped by a rogue elephant in the sorting centre "

I think it all depends whether it is a first or second class stomp

 

[Colin_Fraser]

"Unless of course the risk is all of the bottles being stomped by a rogue elephant in the sorting centre "

I think it all depends whether it is a first or second class stomp

Very droll. And nice English accent there. Kudos!

Colin

 

[Redcap]

So water based paint "may damage other parcels" eh?......I suggest your more likely to have a parcel "accidentally" damaged by being used as the football for the mail depot's night shift soccer game . To think they people significant sums of money to think this crap up in order to justify their job and very existence within the company. The way the P.O. are going what with a virtual doubling of fees to post stuff recently, I suspect they won't even have a parcel division before much longer.
Gary