We should all be grateful to Alan Skinner of Bickley for drawing our attentions to the early emptying of Royal Mail letter boxes (Letters, April 12).

To do the last collection of the day, prior to the official time stated on the plate is almost a cardinal sin, as any decent postman would readily agree, and there are plenty of them.

I have been belabouring Royal Mail about the problem for years and years.

There is an associated problem; failure to display the day tablet, which is meant to tell us whether or not we have safely caught the last post of the day at that box.

If I miss, say, the noon collection in Petts Wood on a Sunday, because it has been taken early, or there is no day tablet, or a Monday tablet, I have to catch a train to Charing Cross for the 2pm collection in the Strand.

Or, if I have got the car with me, make a 10-mile round trip to Sherman Road, Bromley, for the 12.45pm collection there. The imposition of such a burden is scandalous.

There are a few rogues in the mail service who keep letting down all their commendable colleagues by using cheating ploys, and there are too many middle managers who simply do not manage.

From numerous letters I have gained the names and job titles of four local managers who the chief executive's office has consulted about my complaints.

If things do not get much better perhaps more of your readers should learn of these names so they can demand constant monitoring of these problem areas and put real pressure on the cheats.

Nicholas Flower
Petts Wood