Make sure you give your postie a 'thumbs-up'

Royal Mail is asking customers to show their appreciation for their postie by giving them a ‘thumbs up’ from two metres

Royal Mail has announced changes to the way deliveries will be carried out with its latest social distancing initiative amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Royal Mail is asking customers to show their appreciation for their postie by giving them a ‘thumbs up’ from two metres – just over the height of a postbox – as part of an enhanced social distancing drive.

The gesture also allows customers to show their appreciation to postal workers as they go about their rounds during the pandemic, continuing to provide a crucial service to the nation.

The initiative is a simple way for the public to say thanks and stay connected to their local postmen and women, while respecting the Government’s new social distancing rules.

Giving a thumbs up is also a handy reminder not to reach out to try and take parcels direct from postmen and women to ensure ‘contact free’ delivery. 

The postal service has now introduced contact free delivery and where an item won’t fit through a customer’s letterbox, the postman or woman will place it at the customer’s door, knock, and step aside to a safe distance while they retrieve the delivery.

Further measures include temporarily not handing over hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures. 

Royal Mail has changed its standard ways of working to ensure that, wherever possible, colleagues stay two metres apart.

It has also implemented a new rule so that only one person is in a Royal Mail delivery vehicle at any one time.

Postmen and postwomen are at the heart of the communities in which they work.

With the country observing Government advice to stay home, for many people their local postman or woman may be one of the few friendly faces they see each day. 

The move comes as postmen and women have been inundated with thank you messages and pictures from children and customers across the UK.

Royal Mail’s number one priority is keeping its people and customers safe and has already introduced a package of measures to protect both its colleagues and its customers.

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