LTB 678/17 – Royal Mail Peugeot Expert Vans Security Standards – Door Locking System – Theft of Mail Bags and Packets from Rear Doors: URGENT ATTENTION
No. 678/2017
15 December 2017
Our Ref: V4/17
Royal Mail Peugeot Expert Vans Security Standards – Door Locking System – Theft of Mail Bags and Packets from Rear Doors: URGENT ATTENTION
To: All Branches
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier this week the CWU/HQ, Health, Safety and Environment Department received reports regarding a series of thefts from insecure Peugeot Expert collection vans in Hull.
A serious security risk was identified with the central door locking system, whereby the rear and side load space doors remained open whilst the vans were being operated, making the vans vulnerable to opportunistic thefts.
Royal Mail Fleet Services subsequently confirmed that some of the new 66 and 67 Registration plate, Peugeot Expert vans had been delivered to Royal Mail without the load area and cab locking system configured to the Royal Mail Fleet specification and therefore this can leave the load area vulnerable to theft and robbery.
The load area and cab locking should operate independently but due to an oversight by the manufacturers, the selective area locking option was not undertaken, meaning both the load area and cab doors will open together leaving the load area unlocked after the cab open button on the key had been pressed.
Other Peugeot vans, namely the Partner and Doblo along with older Experts are unaffected.
This identified error, by the manufacturers however, meant that a number of these vehicles entered service with the locking system set in the wrong configuration and as a result, three of these vehicles, in separate incidents, were victim to motorcycle riding robbers in Hull earlier this week, when the unlocked back doors of the targeted vans were simply opened and mailbags and parcels then snatched before the thieves made off on motorcycles.
As soon as the Royal Mail Fleet Engineering team were made aware of the locking system configuration setting problem, Technical Services Bulletin (TSB) 26/17 dated December 2017 was issued to all RM Fleet Workshops informing them of the problem with the new Peugeot Expert Vans (66/67 Registration), requesting action to check and reset, if required, the central locking system configuration at the next workshop visit. This TSB has also subsequently been distributed and shared with the Fleet Business Partners (FBPs) in order to direct attention to the relevant offices that have the affected vehicles and so concentrate the approach to urgently checking the vans involved.
The FBPs are presently contacting all offices in their own areas to share the TSB information and locking reset instruction, this way speeding up the check and reset, reducing further theft risks and avoiding unnecessary workshop visits and vehicle downtime during the busiest time of the year.
The easy, simple reset process of the locking/unlocking mechanism which is detailed in the attached TSB 26/17 only takes a matter of seconds to complete and will remove the risk of any further thefts of this nature, especially as these attempted thefts from vehicles increases in the run up to Christmas . The resetting can be completed by holding down the correct button on the key fob (see attached TSB 26/17).
Royal Mail Fleet have confirmed that they have 1,142 Peugeot Expert vehicles possibly affected but have assured CWU/HQ that they have the fix in place and are taking the necessary urgent action to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible .
Would all ASRs, ADR’s and Unit Reps check the vehicle key fobs on any Peugeot Expert vans, 66 and 67 Plate Registration, which are in service on local Royal Mail fleets in their areas and at their offices to confirm the van’s locking/unlocking works correctly and if not get them reset, as required in the TSB, so the fobs only performs partial vehicle door unlocking/locking – cab or rear load space doors separately and NOT full unlocking of all doors at once!
Thanks very much for your help and assistance.
Yours sincerely
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer