Delivering to the Front
The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) became a Defence Agency in 1999, but can trace it origins back to the Royal Post in 1461 when the First Post system between the King and his Armies was set up. In 1962 MoD centralised its mail distribution systems at Mill Hill in North London, where the BFPO’s present headquarters is located. Today the service is more popular than ever with over 4,000 tonnes of mail being handled every 12 months. Brigadier Peter Maggs was appointed Chief Executive in January 2003 and last year his appointment was extended to see through the move of the headquarters and London based sorting facilities to Northolt during 2007.
BFPO Delivers
Why do the Armed Forces require their own postal system?
The military refers to the three components of fighting power: the physical, the conceptual, and the moral. It is BFPO’s role to support all three components, but with particular emphasis on the moral component, the maintenance of morale of Defence personnel, which plays a vital part in our ability to mount and sustain operations. From experience we know that clothing, catering and post play a vital role in keeping morale high and in recent years the DLO has concentrated on significantly improving the support we give to all our troops in these areas. As Chief Executive of the British Forces Post Office, one of my responsibilities is to make sure that families and Defence personnel can stay in contact with each other, enabling personnel to focus on job while maintaining contact with home. Using whatever technologies are available in ways that are efficient, effective, secure and which offer value for money for both users and taxpayers.
You mentioned ways and technologies, how does military post differ from civilian post?
In many ways they are alike, but in others they are very different. For a start the range of threats a British “civilian postie” is likely to face on a daily basis, go from an unfriendly pet to a very rare letter bomb. By comparison, in some parts of the world we face AK47s and roadside devices. Again, in the UK most mail is addressed to fixed addresses, but we have Defence personnel moving across the globe regularly using both fixed and temporary location. We handle a reasonable quantity of mail – in 2005 over 4,000 tonnes – the Royal Mail handles many many times that amount.
We now have a formal contract with the Royal Mail Group, which ensures that there is an efficient and effective relationship between the two organisations. For example, Royal Mail is the interface with family and friends who post letters and parcels to Defence personnel, this mail is consolidated in a number of Royal Mail distribution centres in London, from which BFPO collects several times a day. We are then responsible for handling the mail between Great Britain and the rest of the world, using a combination of civilian and military transport. We also distribute most of the Official Mail around the UK and the Rest of the World.
A lot of people thought that with the advent of the internet and mobile phones, there would be less need for a dedicated military postal service, but your experience tends to suggest otherwise.
It could be argued that we’re busier than ever. The internet is great, provided you have access to a terminal, but that’s not always possible. The same applies to mobiles, where a network has to be present. One also has to remember that neither of these means of communicating is particularly secure if used in default mode. This is one of the reasons we introduced the e-bluey system, which we feel offers the best of both worlds.
Users describe e-bluey as mail with go-faster stripes, how exactly does it work?
Basically it’s a hybrid system, very simple in concept, but very clever in operation. If you’re a relative of a serviceman or woman, you can use any internet-connected machine to log-on to the e-bluey web site, type up your letter and send it to a named serviceman or woman operating almost anywhere in the world. At the receiving end we have a ruggedised laptop computer connected to the internet via a satellite system which we use to download the messages. These are then transferred to a printer/folder, which produces the sealed eblueys, these are then delivered to the person at the far end. The system is confidential from sender to recipient.
The first ‘operational’ test of e-bluey was during initial deployment to Afghanistan in 2001 and the system proved to be rugged, dependable and effective. The real trial ‘under fire’, however, came at the commencement of the war with Iraq in 2003 when BFPO was tasked with delivering over a quarter of a million letters per month to and from Defence personnel deployed in the Gulf area. To meet this demand, families and friends were encouraged to use the e-bluey service, which worked exceptionally well, and ensured that it has now become a permanent element of the Forces’ Operational Welfare Package.
It sounds quick
It can be very quick. We know of examples of a message being typed up in the UK and hand delivered in Afghanistan an hour later. It has also been provided on board some ships, in places as remote as the Falklands and Nepal, almost anywhere in the world, where there is a BFPO presence.
How many countries do you now cover?
At last count, the BFPO delivers to 32 countries and we also handle some diplomatic and highly classified material as well. We employ a team of security vetted couriers who, in addition to their routine tasks in the UK and around the world, are ready to jump on a plane to hand deliver protectively marked material, when the contents are too sensitive to send by conventional means.
We spoke about how the e-bluey system meets the need to send messages to an operational theatre, but how about mail coming back.
Not too different, many of our temporary camps and ships and permanent bases have dedicated terminals setup for personal communications. Service personnel log in to these and send a message, which is then printed here at the BFPO Headquarters at Mill Hill, and delivered to the recipient via the Royal Mail. For people who don’t have access to a terminal, or prefer conventional means of corresponding, i.e. pen and paper, we use blueys, basically a traditional aerogramme, for two way communications, which are still pretty quick and of course people can still send conventional letters and packets.
Packets tend to cause more confusion than anything else, how do you define a packet?
We define a packet as a small parcel up to two kilos in weight, which should be approximately shoebox sized. We do not send large parcels to military personnel engaged on operations, for fairly obvious reasons. Can you imagine the work that would be involved if we tried to deliver a mountain bike to someone stationed in Afghanistan and the impact that might have on delivery of vital military equipment! The two kilo limit is a sensible compromise, which lets families and friends send small personal items, but which avoids clogging up the military supply chain. Also we only charge the equivalent of first class UK rate, as MoD covers the international cost of delivering from the UK to the final point, making packets very good value for money, as most are sent via air mail.
And at Christmas?
At Christmas we book a lot more air capacity. For the last few years MoD has operated a free packet system at Christmas on an ad-hoc basis, but the Secretary of State announced in November 05 that this would now become MoD policy. For the 2005 Christmas period we handled over 12,000 mailbags, approximately two-thirds of which, over 60 tonnes went to Iraq and the Gulf.
The BFPO is going through a period of change, what does the future hold.
In many ways the BFPO has just had one of its best years since its formation. Towards the end of 2005 we won an award at the Annual UK Mail Conference, in the technology category, for the e-bluey system where the judges were looking for solutions that provided an improved service to the widest possible audience.
Looking ahead, our time at Mill Hill is drawing to a close and we are awaiting confirmation from Defence Estates that we can proceed to the preferred bidder stage of letting the contract for our new facility at RAF Northolt. We have got a very good workforce here, but realistically it will be impractical for most of them to make the move, as it would involve far too much travelling. Together with my senior managers, I need to make sure that my existing staff can get the best possible help in finding replacement jobs, while recruiting new staff who appreciate the vital importance of the job they will do. At the same time we will be commissioning modern sorting equipment and organising ourselves to ensure the entire relocation is as seamless as possible.
No small task.
No small task and there is bound to be the occasional hiccup on the way. But we’ve spent time planning this and I’m sure that those people who depend on us, the soldiers, sailors and air personnel stationed right across the world, and their friends and family back home, know that their needs are always foremost in our minds and we will do everything in our power to ensure they get the service they deserve.
For further information Brian Sheehan,
DLO Press Office 01225 468819
