More willful blindness

A post office. Location - inner west.

The letter posting box out the front has been this way for weeks. It's not like this is out in the sticks with no Australia Post employees around. At least two of them walk in and out of that door 20 feet away several times per day - yet they fail to notice this. Or they notice it, and don't bother to report it.

On top of that, a contractor arrives once a day to empty this letter box. He parks right in front of it and sees it from this angle. He fails to see it, or report it.

Everyone thinks it is somebody else's problem.

I was scrolling through some old posts tonight and came across a photo of the Post Office in Concord that I took back in January showing graffiti on the front wall.

I never bothered to report that to Australia Post - until today.

Australia Post staff have been walking in and out of that Post Office for nearly 6 months since I took that photo, and none of them appear to have bothered to notice or report the graffiti.

So much for civic pride, and pride in their organisation.

Mixed bag from the RTA and Australia Post

I had feedback this week from the RTA and Australia Post on some items that I had reported to them.  The RTA took care of one of them in two weeks and the other in 3 months.  Two weeks is a good result, whilst 3 months is stretching the friendship.

The responses state that the RTA had their contractors remove the graffiti at each site, which might explain the long delay.  If they have to log the job into the RTA system, then arrange for the contractor to provide a quote, then issue a purchase order for the job etc etc, that can result in some pretty serious delays in getting approval to do the work.  Paperwork rarely moves quickly through any government agency.

Perhaps what they need to do is to pre-purchase a block of hours from the contractor.  That allows the local RTA manager to get the work done without having to go through all the usual purchasing system rigmarole.  Let's say the RTA buys 100 hours of time from a painting contractor in advance.  When graffiti is reported, the contractor visits the site and gives an idea of how long they think it will take to paint it over.  They might get approval over the phone on the spot for a small job, allowing it to be done immediately.  

For a bigger job (say something requiring 10 hours or more of labour), the contractor might have to provide their estimate in writing, but they can get the approval back much faster, allowing a very quick turnaround.

As for Australia Post, I have reported a number of vandalised letter boxes around the place via the AusPost website.  I got a response last night saying that they could not process my reports until I gave them my home address.

Firstly, they already have my home address, because I have reported these things before.

Secondly, on the AusPost web form, providing your address is not mandatory.

Thirdly, why on earth do they need my address before they can go about cleaning something that their staff visit every single day?  Surely, if they doubt my report, they can simply ask the postie who has that route to provide some feedback?

Bureaucracy will be the death of us all.

Does nothing offend Australia Post?

Australia Post seems to have woken up somewhat over the last 6 months and is now making a much better effort to clean their red post boxes and green distribution boxes.  However, they still have a long way to go.  A number of post offices in our area have had graffiti scrawled over them for months, and nothing has been done about it - the post office in Majors Bay Road, Concord is a case in point.  

Here is a more extreme example of offensive graffiti on an Australia Post asset.  This has been here for some time, but I only got around to reporting it today.  

Bear in mind that an Australia Post staff member or contractor would park right in front of this box once a day to deposit sachels of mail for delivery, and another staff member would stop here once a day to pick up those sachels before heading out to deliver the mail.  I'm a reasonable person - if I worked for Australia Post and I saw this on "my" box, I'd like to think I'd do something about it - like report it, and hassle my manager occasionally if nothing was done about it.

Somewhere inside Australia Post, something is seriously broken if stuff like this is allowed to hang around for weeks before being removed - and it is only removed if a member of the public reports it.

As an aside, I usually take a photo of the nearest cross street to remind me of the location when I spot things like this.  Here is my memory jogger:

And here is the response that I got from the Australia Post website.  For some reason, their system doesn't immediately send out a confirmation email like most others.  There are quite a few more boxes like this that need cleaning, but I'll wait and see how Australia Post respond before bothering to report them.

Your request relating to Street Posting Boxes, has been received and a customer service representative will endeavour to respond to you within 2 working days.

This is an automated response.

Your Enquiry – please clean the graffit from the green post box on the corner of nullawarra ave and wilga st in concord. it is offensive - one tag says "always bring cash c*&nts"..

Post no vandals

This post office in Concord has had graffiti out the front of it for months.  Australia Post staff walk past it every day on their way to work, and nothing has been done about it.

Same with this post box.  It gets emptied every day, yet the graffiti on it is never cleaned off.

The Australia Post vision states in part:

Our enthusiastic, professional people will build a progressive commercial corporation through a commitment to high levels of customer satisfaction.

As a progressive commercial corporation, Australia Post will make the best use of its assets and earn profits so that it can sustain and develop its business.

Surely a "progressive" corporation would take the view that taking care of its public assets would be a good thing to do - corporate social responsibility and all that.

Then again, I've never met anyone that took the slightest bit of notice of a corporate vision statement.

A tale of seven letters

Over the last month or so, I have recieved 5 responses from a variety of government bodies.  The purpose of this post is to compare and contrast the different responses, and the actions of the various bodies.

I'll start with the good - the RTA.  The RTA keeps it short and simple.  I logged a short request via their website, and got this response a few weeks later via email.  Postage costs of zero, minimal time spent in writing to them, and minimal time and expense for the RTA to respond - as a taxpayer, I like that.  The outcome was also good - the RTA (or their contractors) usually do a good job of painting over graffiti.  They don't always get all of it (missing out a few small bits here and there), but they take care of the great bulk of it.  The difference between before and after is marked.

Ref: GE08/5731

Dear 

I refer to your e-mail regarding the graffiti on the pedestrian bridge over the City West Link,Charles Street, Lillyfield.

The graffiti has now been removed.

Thank you for bringing this matter to the attention of the RTA.

Kind regards

RTA Customer Services

The next response is from Sydney Water.  This was quite unexpected, and it made me smile - letters like this make me feel like I am doing something worthwhile.  I take my hat off to Sydney Water for being so honest and forthright - many government agencies would be tempted to fudge the facts and send back a mealy-mouthed response, but Sydney Water has done the right thing, and my respect for them has gone up enormously.  They've recognised that they had a problem, and they're working on fixing it.  As much as it's nice to get an apology, I care much more that they are looking into their system and seeking to improve it.

Then we have RailCorp.  This letter is just bad.  Consider the following responses:

RailCorp takes the problem of graffiti on the rail corridor seriously and will urgently attend to an incident if it compromises safety or common decency.

That's a lovely motherhood statement, but it has no bearing on the bridge in question.  Safety or common decency is not compromised in this case, so they don't have to do anything about it.  It says nothing about when this bridge will be cleaned - if ever.  

Then there is the next paragraph:

RailCorp shares the responsibility for their maintenance with other stakeholders such as local councils and the RTA.  External bridge walls and roadside surfaces are cleaned by these organisations due to the need to close roads and section off these areas whereas RailCorp attends to areas within the corridor itself.

I know that.  I was a party to the negotiations between RTA and RAC (as it was back then) to divide up responsibility between the two bodies for bridge maintenance.  I had a small part in helping to write the policy on the rail side.  

However, note that all the graffiti in question that I have been writing about is on the bridge itself - it's on the area that is a RailCorp responsibility.  Talking about other stakeholders such as the RTA and local councils simply fudges the issue.  They have no bearing on this case.  It is an exercise in blame shifting or responsibility shifting, and I'm afraid I have written enough of this nonsense in the past to see right through it.  It sounds good, but it means nothing.

As the rail corridor needs to be closed for safety reasons during cleaning, these areas are usually cleaned at the same time as trackwork closedowns.

That much is true.  I have done plenty of work alongside running rail lines in the past to know all about that.  I've done the trackside awareness safety course.  I've worked with the maintenance people who go out and work on the track.  I've worked with the bridge engineers who do the bridge inspections, and even the engineers who wrote the bridge inspection checklists.  I setup the document management system that was used for the writing of a new generation of infrastructure management documentation.

As for closedowns, a project was setup to roll out Primavera as the project management software for planning and running these closedowns.  I know about that, because I built the servers for the pilot and installed Primavera on them and worked with the project team to get it up and running.  In my reply, I asked for the date of the next closedown on this stretch of track, and an assurance that cleaning the bridge was part of the work package.  

I doubt I will get a direct response - in all my letters to RailCorp, I have asked simple and direct questions, and never had a proper answer to any of them.  The RailCorp letter writers are very good at obscuring the issues and avoiding the questions whilst appearing to give an answer of substance.

For some unfathomable reason, someone at RailCorp just doesn't want to remove the graffiti from this bridge.  It might be an issue of cost, or the difficulty and complexity of arranging a closedown to do the work, or that they have higher priority things to do.  It might also be that due to the lack of rail traffic on this line, they are treating it as a "dead" line and don't want to spend a cent on it if they can help it.  Whatever the reason, RailCorp are not being honest and upfront about their reasons.

The fourth letter is from Australia Post.  I find this letter slightly disturbing - the implication is that if I continue to ask for graffiti to be removed from post-boxes, they'll start removing them because they are too expensive to clean.  You might read that as a veiled threat to shut up and stop contacting them, or I'll be responsible for the removal of the postal service from some areas.

As far as I am concerned, if a post-box is not used, they are free to take it out.  No sense in retaining uneconomic assets if they are not required. With a network of 14,000 post-boxes, I'd think they'd be removing hundreds each year (and also installing hundreds in new suburbs as they spring up).  

That said, I can't see how cleaning them can be so unbelievably expensive that it would warrant their removal on economic grounds.  I can buy 1 litre of metho from my local supermarket for under $4.  Having cleaned graffiti off a few signs in our area, I estimate that a 1 litre bottle should be enough to clean 100 post-box sides (if it was vandalised on four sides, one bottle would do 25 post-boxes etc).  That works out at under 4 cents per side.  You could throw in the cost of a rag if need be.  The labour cost is not that high, given that I have found that I can remove a large tag from a street sign in about 10 seconds.  

If they are using diamond encrusted rags with gold-infused metho, I could understand that it might cost a few dollars to clean up a post-box.  Otherwise, I find this talk of the "significant cost" in cleaning post-boxes to be insulting.  If the management of Australia Post can't find a cheap way to clean graffiti from post-boxes, then maybe we need to replace some managers with more competent managers.

This letter also says that Australia Post will "continue to undertake both scheduled and ad hoc cleaning of our facilities", but I have seen no evidence to date that Australia Post has a system in place to ensure that scheduled cleaning is undertaken.  
The fifth letter is from Ashfield Council.  I like this letter.  The GM has acknowledged that they have a problem, that they want to do something about it and that they are striving to do better in future.  I've noticed that since my first letter, the response of Ashfield Council has improved, so this letter is not a lot of fluff and hot air - it is the genuine article.

RailCorp and Australia Post could learn a lot from Ashfield Council, the RTA and Sydney Water, which is why I have posted all the responses here.  Clearly, some organisations are better led, and their staff more committed, than others.

That's five letters - where are the other two?

I have written to Telstra on a number of occasions, and never had a response from anyone.  I've also written to Energy Australia a few times, and whilst the first few letters generated a response, I've heard nothing from them in months.  I guess they think that if they ignore me, I'll forget about them and go away.

Unfortunately for Energy Australia, since they are a government corporation, they are responsible to a Minister - and I'll be writing to that Minister today to ask them to chase up a response on my behalf.  

Some letter boxes are being cleaned

Back on 11 August, I blogged about this post-box - how it once had graffiti, had been cleaned, and then it had been hit again.

When I went past today, it was clean again.

Whilst I can appreciate that Australia Post has a huge number of post-boxes (14,000 or so), I doubt that at this moment, every single one of them in every corner of Australia has been vandalised.  I bet if you went to some suburbs, not a single one would be touched, whilst around here, most of them have been hit.  Australia Post probably has a problem in some locations - if they did a bit of data mining and mapped the problem areas, they might find that they are few and far between, and that a small number of post-boxes account for the majority of the graffiti (the old 80:20 rule).

That said, given that Australia Post staff visit their post-boxes every working day, I am at a loss as to why they are unable to target the "problem" post-boxes with an aggressive campaign of cleaning them.  

Another crop of vandalised post-boxes

Three more vandalised post-boxes, spotted today.

This one is not vandalised, but have a look at the notice that Australia Post have stuck to it.  If someone from Australia Post has the time to drive out and stick these notices onto it, why don't they have time to come out and remove the graffiti?

Plus some graffiti out the front of this post office, which I guess the staff have to walk past every day on their way to work.

Does Australia Post give a damn?

I fired off a snarky letter to Australia Post yesterday (don't you love the irony of having to pay for a stamp - giving money to the company that is the problem - to complain about their actions), and I felt that I should back it up with some evidence.

So, here goes.

A two for one!

These were all spotted in the course of one hour today.  There are 14,000 post-boxes scattered across this wide brown land - how many others are in a disgraceful state like these?

Australia Post - not delivering as usual

I forgot to put up this letter from Denis Pattison, Australia Post Corporate Services, which I received in late August.

I used to write letters like this for a living in the early 1990's.  There is an art form to appearing to say something whilst saying nothing at all, and committing to doing even less.

Here is my gripe with Australia Post (and I have repeated this gripe again and again and again).  I should not have to call 13 13 18 to report graffiti on a post-box.  

Why?

Because they are visited once a day by an Australia Post driver ("transport clearance staff" in AusPost parlance).  The "transport clearance staff" should be able to notice graffiti on the post-box that they are clearing, and report it to the appropriate unit within Australia Post for action. The transport clearance staff have to take the mail back to a sorting place (or "hub" as they seem to call it), so they should have an opportunity to report it at the hub when they do their drop-off.  

I'm even more dumb-founded when I see a vandalised post-box outside a post office.  The staff working in the post office have access to a phone, fax and computer - what is stopping them from reporting graffiti on the post-boxes right under their noses?

Here's an analogy for you - I do not rely on my neighbour telling me when to mow my lawn.  I walk into our backyard everyday, have a look at the grass, and make a decision as to whether to cut it or not.  Why therefore should Australia Post rely on feedback from customers to tell them that their post-boxes are vandalised?

Here's one I saw today.  This was cleaned up back in August, and a new set of tags has appeared since.  I'd guess that this post-box has been visited 20 or 30 times since the new graffiti was applied.  Why, why, oh why has the transport clearance staffer tasked with clearing this post-box not reported it?  What is wrong with Australia Post's culture, management, systems and policies that prevents transport clearance staff from immediately reporting vandalism?

I bought a book of stamps last week and found that the cost of a stamp had gone up from 50 cents to 55 cents.  Maybe some of that increase can be spent on improving communications between front line staff and management.

I am thinking of doing a test tomorrow - seeing how long it takes me to remove this graffiti with a rag and a bottle of metho.  I'm betting less than 10 seconds.

Australia Post - no followup whatsoever

Australia Post cleaned this letterbox in Strathfield a month or so ago.  It has since been hit again.  Well, that's life.

What frustrates me though is that an Australia Post employee or contractor visits this letterbox every working day.  Since they have to drive a vehicle to it, they can't be legally blind (although I watched an Australia Post van being backed repeatedly into a road sign last week, so maybe some of their drivers do have eyesight problems).

I wrote to the Chairman of Australia Post about this very issue.  How can they have someone visit these letterboxes and view this graffiti 5 or 6 times a week, every week - and yet fail to do anything about cleaning this mess off?  What is their problem?  What the hell is their management thinking?

Letter box, Burns Bay Rd

From Australia Post

Another vandalised letterbox outside another post office

Here we have yet another vandalised letterbox outside another post office.  That's three that I have spotted in the last few weeks.

I am still at a loss as to how the staff working in this post office could fail to see the graffiti on the letterbox right outside their front door.  Letterboxes are painted in a nice, glossy red paint that seems to be fairly easy to clean.  Is it really that hard to keep something like a bottle of metho and a rag in the back of the post office and to walk outside and clean the letterbox when it gets hit?

From Australia Post

If this was a McDonalds, how long do you think the manager would allow graffiti to remain out the front of the store?  I bet it would be the first job for the day - someone would be sent out the front to protect and restore the image of the restaurant.  Why can't Australia Post develop the same sort of ethic?

Australia Post - too busy to report graffiti?

This postie is presumably waiting for a truck to turn up from the mail sorting depot with some bags of mail for him to deliver.  You can't blame him for sitting back and relaxing while he waits for someone else to do their job and get the mail to him.

I suppose this happens from time to time - things get a bit hectic, trucks break down, traffic problems, people calling in sick - all the problems that plague all business operations.  However, next time Australia Post tries to tell me that their posties are too busy to report graffiti, I'll remember this photo.

Australia Post - taking notice?

This photo shows the following things:

• A post office
• A red mailbox
• A green mail delivery box
• A postman loading up his saddlebags from the green mail delivery box

From Australia Post

Notice something about the green box?

Yes, it has graffiti on it.

I can understand Australia Post having a graffiti problem.  They have an awful lot of letterboxes and post offices.

However, what I can't understand is how any graffiti on an Australia Post asset can go unreported for more than 24 hours.  At least one person must work in the post office in this picture 5 days a week, and they would walk straight past these two boxes out the front.  A postal contractor visits the red mailbox once a day to collect the mail and transfer it to a sorting centre.  A postie (like the one on the scooter) visits several times to collect mail from the green box for delivery to local homes and businesses.  A van from the sorting centre would also visit once a day to deposit saddlebags into the green box for collection and onward delivery by the posties.

With all those employees visiting sites like this, how can they all fail to notice any graffiti and report it?  That's what I would like to know.  Because if they are all blind, I will start addressing my envelopes using braille.  

A partly cleaned mailbox

Mailbox in Haberfield that is still showing some signs of having been defaced at some point.

From Australia Post

Edwin St mailbox

The photo below is geocoded, to make it easy to find where the mailbox is located in Drummoyne.

From Australia Post

Tackling graffiti is like painting the Harbour Bridge

There is a famous saying about the Sydney Harbour Bridge that as soon as the painting crews have worked their way from one end of the bridge to the other, it is time to start again.

Cleaning graffiti is a bit like that. This mailbox was cleaned last week, but already it has been revisited with two tags. This spot is a bad one for graffiti - various RTA assets around it have been heavily tagged, and there is an abandoned power station across the road that is a prime target for vandalism - many of its windows are smashed.

Mailbox at Victoria and Lilyfield Roads

Still, I am hoping that Australia Post is now going to be more systematic about tackling graffiti as it appears. I have been told that as a rule of thumb, you have to clean or paint a site at least six times before the frequency and intensity of graffiti attacks starts to decline. I'll be interested to see how often this mailbox gets attacked once it has been cleaned half a dozen times, and whether the rule has any truth to it.

Letter box awaiting a cleanup

This letter box is just off Victoria Rd in Drummoyne.  I took the photo with Len Vine Autos in the background so that anyone could find where this is located exactly.

An example of disjointedness

The following photos were taken under the southern end of the Gladesville Bridge (the bridge itself is almost completely free of graffiti - almost, but not quite).  These photos demonstrate the current disjointed approach to graffiti removal.

On the far right in the red box is a green Australia Post cabinet.  In the yellow rectangle in the middle is a speedboat on a trailer.  The red box on the left is around an Energy Australia substation.  The red arrow pointing up to the left is indicating a small amount of graffiti on the bridge itself.

Here is substation number 4082, showing several tags.  

Above it is one of the bridge abutments, showing several tags as well as the grey paint which is a sign of graffiti having been painted over previously.

Directly across the road from the substation is an Australia Post cabinet, with numerous tags.

Parked next to all of this is a speed boat, which someone has "decorated" with a yellow stripe.

The point of all this is that the bridge is looked after by the RTA, the substation by Energy Australia and the cabinet by Australia Post, and none of their efforts are co-ordinated.  This site will never be completely cleaned because if one company cleans their asset, by the time the other two companies clean theirs, the first asset will be vandalised again.