Shorts-wearing postie beats snow in his Landrover to complete Christmas deliveries in Brixington

NATIONALLY the Royal Mail might have been getting some flack over late deliveries, but Exmouth postmen are going the extra mile for their customers.

Take Rupert Pitts for example.

Having lost his van to a colleague delivering packets full-time and reverting back to a bicycle for his round, Rupert, 38, has been using his own 4 x 4 Landrover in the snow to get the mail to the 470 houses in the Brixington area.

Not only that, but he does all his deliveries wearing shorts “regulation Royal Mail navy ones”.

“Despite the conditions, Rupert has kept the deliveries coming to Brixington with a smile.....in his shorts! You really couldn’t hope for a better postman,” said Dave Rogers of Brixington Lane, who said his postie even helped a Tesco delivery driver take his wife Alison’s shopping to their house when the lorry couldn’t make it up the road.

“He’s a top man,” said Dave, who works for the Ambulance Service. “He delivers in this weather in his shorts, so he is clearly deranged,” he joked. “No matter what the weather, even in snow, Rupert has a smile on his face and keeps the mail coming through.”

Rupert, who lives in Lestock Close, Littleham, has been a postman for nearly seven years, first part-time in Exeter, then in Ottery St Mary for two years before transferring to Exmouth.

Asked why he wears shorts in the snow, he said: “It’s laziness, I can’t be bothered to iron my trousers. I just walk faster in this weather.

“I don’t need to do any other exercise with this job. My round takes three-and-a-half hours and five-and-a-half in the snow.”

He said he and his 40 colleagues had been working flat out to get the Christmas mail delivered.

Dave said the private road where his house is was “thick with ice” and he had only managed once to get his car out before Christmas.