2nd class stamps.

You have a pretty good point. It doesn’t make any sense really.

2nd class stamp means its a chance for the posty to take it home open it nick the birthday card with the tenner innit,and repost it 2 days later....

RM accused of prioritising parcels in any case so 2nd class as good as the first class rip-off?

I'm starting a new job as a Postie on Monday, so I'll let you know

It's not what I wanted to do, but I've been out of work for a while now, and I thought well at least it's better than walking the streets

First class means 95% should be delivered next day. Trust me, they are not.
Second class means 85% within 3 days. Posties rounds have been increased to a point where they cant complete most days. Therefore mail is returned to the office, and is attempted again the next day. They are told by managers to make sure all parcels are delivered, especially tracked items.So they tend to do these first, and then deliver the letters during what time there is left.The only way to guarantee next day delivery is by Special Delivery.

Exactly.
Parcels are stamped 24hr tracked or even 48hr tracked?

letters carry no such 'instruction'

as soon as a tracked item, 24 or 48 hits the delivery office it is scanned and the recipient receives a message saying it will be delivered that day within a 4 hour window. Thats why managers tell the posties to make sure the parcels get delivered.

The Posties have had their daily workload increased to save money as less staff is now required. Unfortunately, the postie doesnt have enough duty time to deliver all of the parcels, and all of the letters.

Royal Mail were recently fined £5 million by the regulator for failing to meet delivery standards. That's peanuts to Royal Mail. Royal Mail blamed strike action for the delays. Posties didnt go on strike for a single day in 2023. The last strike action was for 2 days before Xmas 2022

Folk that live out in the stix are just grateful to receive their mail at some juncture.
No point putting a first class stamp on theirs as posties will deliver to them next day if they happen to return to blighty with mail items.

City dwellers on the other hand

My understanding - which may be years out of date - is that where post requires manual sorting (because it is not business post that has had the sorting data pre-printed on the envelope, or not printed addresses with postcodes that can be cleanly read by OCR machines) the remaining items that require manually sorting by real humans are queued so that the 1st class post is prioritised.

I very much doubt that if by the stage items require 'manual sorting', having not been sorted by automated means are prioritised.
At that stage it would be every letter for itself.
You have people out there that will address a letter to 'Mary who lives above the post office in bromsgrove, next door to the fish shop-
she'll put a first class stamp on it though

Pat is the expert on all things Postman!

Semi rural here, completely random as to when it's delivered
Been 2 or 3 deliveries a week, random days, instead of daily for a while now
The postie tells me it's cos of work overload
So 1st or 2nd makes no real difference


By coincidence, new set of stamps celebrating Spice Girls issued today

Royal Mail is kaput