Can't be long before the courier providers add a 'Your parcel is out for delivery, it has just arrived in your nearest cycling infrastructure' text to the process. Our live blog has, in recent times, told the story of the ongoing issue in Edinburgh of Amazon vans — sorry, Amazon-branded vans blocking the Scottish capital's bike lanes... (the company was very quick to point out the van below is not driven by an Amazon employee, so it would be wrong to attribute them to Amazon)...
On Friday there was an unwanted sequel too...
> The sequel nobody asked for — bike lane Amazon van is back
Well, the blogging prompted road.cc reader Daniel to get in touch with his own case of delivery parking pain where he rides in Doncaster, this time at the hands of the Royal Mail...
Interestingly, Daniel contacted the council's civil enforcement officer and was told:
Unfortunately we are unable to issue to the postal service as they are exempt. When we started in 2005 this came about as it's classed as interfering with His Majesty's Mail. Sounds silly but that is what we were instructed. I would suggest you contact the postal service to complain.
We are aware of the issues in this area and endeavour to have a presence here as much as possible.
"I noticed it cycling to work," Daniel told us. "They've just installed the lanes in the city centre as part of a huge active travel scheme.
"Never expected a senior enforcement manager at a city council to essentially say a royal mail van is allowed to park anywhere they want including over cycle lanes next to double yellow lines, be there it is — written permission!"
Daniel got in touch with Royal Mail... who apologised and said the issue had been raised with the relevant manager who will "stop this happening again"...
I'm sorry one of our vans was recently parked in a way that caused you concern. The safety of the public and our employees is something we take very seriously, so thank you for making us aware of this.
From the details you've provided I've been able to identify where the vehicle is based and report the issue to the manager. The manager will take the relevant steps to stop this happening again.
All our drivers receive ongoing training and monitoring, and incidents of bad driving/parking are rare. I'm very sorry you've had to report this to us and I hope this issue is now resolved.