USO Pilots- Any Positives?

[Barnacle]

Drop the bundled up mail round my house and I'll deliver to my own estate. Then I won't even need to see a manager ever again. Oh the peace.

How will they be able to micromanage your every working moment if you are managing your workload all by yourself??

At least everything got delivered!!! Back in the day If you left one letter in the frame they’d have you in the office and threaten you with the conduct code

I remember being told I was going on a stage 1 as a nectar card statement (the small square purple ones) had been found squeezed right at the back of the frame.

As for van drivers etc dropping posties off, I used to do that and it actually worked quite well although back then you might have 20 parcels to do. I can’t help but feel a 3 seater van, with you dropping off 2 walkers and covering any non letterbox sized parcels would work so much better. Rounds wouldn’t feel so unachievable for the walkers because they wouldn’t be knocking on every 10th house with a parcel. The driver wouldn’t be faffing about with 1st class letters, only parcels, and you could follow an exact set route so RM can give accurate delivery times. Local agreements with the 3 either sticking on their specific role (driver or walker) or swapping every week. People stay in the same area (local knowledge). Reduced number of vans required. Less messing about having to sort 1st class separately on IPS or however it’s intended. If a walker is done first, they help the parcel driver, and vice versa.

That makes total sense. Faffing about with 1st class letters is going to take up more time than they’ve calculated.

[SpacePhoenix]

Faffing about with 1st class letters is going to take up more time than they’ve calculated.

Don't think it will. For the mech they'll probably just have the DTS defer all 2C for any walks where they have a non-2C day. Outward MCs now sort 1C and 2C flats and manual letters in separate frames, box them up separately but put the trays together on the same yorks as the 1C. They'll just get the inward MCs to sort the 2C flats and manual letters separately. Don't know if they plan on holding it in the MC or sending it to the DOs to be held there.

Still not yet heard anything about what RM plan to do if the CSS batches get blown out over capacity with 2 days worth of 2C. They've basically got two choices depending on if there's a cut-off time for running batches in the morning. We've had two examples now of what happens when a batch gets run when it shouldn't, it corrupts the DTS data for everyone and then the DTS has to be turned off and everything run and sent out to DOs, whether it be 1C or 2C.

1) Roll the excess over to the next day but that might just make the next days batches get even more blown out.
2) Send the excess out as manual

Are the non-2C days going to be the same for all walks in a DO?

We've also not heard anything official about what happens when any 2C hits the time limit with the DTS. Currently when any 2C hits the time limit it gets released automatically, along with any other 2C for the same DPs.

[kazardaimenu]

The first class will be a faff if you are hitting streets you don’t have parcels for with just one or two letters. And you know they will be a top floor flat or pedestrian street right in the middle.

[Barnacle]

Faffing about with 1st class letters is going to take up more time than they’ve calculated.

Are the non-2C days going to be the same for all walks in a DO?

No, half of walks in an office will start on week 2.

[SpacePhoenix]

Faffing about with 1st class letters is going to take up more time than they’ve calculated.

Are the non-2C days going to be the same for all walks in a DO?

No, half of walks in an office will start on week 2.

Wonder if RM will move the walks about between batches to have all walks on a batch having the same non-2C days

[claretandblue]

Faffing about with 1st class letters is going to take up more time than they’ve calculated.

Don't think it will. For the mech they'll probably just have the DTS defer all 2C for any walks where they have a non-2C day. Outward MCs now sort 1C and 2C flats and manual letters in separate frames, box them up separately but put the trays together on the same yorks as the 1C. They'll just get the inward MCs to sort the 2C flats and manual letters separately. Don't know if they plan on holding it in the MC or sending it to the DOs to be held there.

Still not yet heard anything about what RM plan to do if the CSS batches get blown out over capacity with 2 days worth of 2C. They've basically got two choices depending on if there's a cut-off time for running batches in the morning. We've had two examples now of what happens when a batch gets run when it shouldn't, it corrupts the DTS data for everyone and then the DTS has to be turned off and everything run and sent out to DOs, whether it be 1C or 2C.

1) Roll the excess over to the next day but that might just make the next days batches get even more blown out.
2) Send the excess out as manual

Are the non-2C days going to be the same for all walks in a DO?

We've also not heard anything official about what happens when any 2C hits the time limit with the DTS. Currently when any 2C hits the time limit it gets released automatically, along with any other 2C for the same DPs.

He means delivering the first class letters.

[jessicarabbit]

Martin has specifically said they like this model of slowing 2c etc because it has no upstream impacts. Mail centres will do nothing different other than possibly keep 1c manual in separate trays. All the deciding what goes when will happen at DOs. When there is spare staff around they will need work for them to do so known heavy rounds may get extra deliveries to keep on top of things. They will need to have a certain element of spare staff the first few years as it beds in. We will go back to the old days of sick reserves and being given the nod to take the next week off as the sick reserve needs something to do.

[funkflex55]

I don't think RM will plan in any spare staff at all. They'll let what they need to go on VR and then continue to run it on their favourite do your best basis. It'll soon fail because RM still believe that the problems at offices are caused by lazy pasties. When in fact they're caused by unachievable workloads and bad management. These things combined with putting more work on less posties and it'll be a right s**t show.

As for positives...I can't think of any.

[SpacePhoenix]

Martin has specifically said they like this model of slowing 2c etc because it has no upstream impacts. Mail centres will do nothing different other than possibly keep 1c manual in separate trays. All the deciding what goes when will happen at DOs. When there is spare staff around they will need work for them to do so known heavy rounds may get extra deliveries to keep on top of things. They will need to have a certain element of spare staff the first few years as it beds in. We will go back to the old days of sick reserves and being given the nod to take the next week off as the sick reserve needs something to do.

They'll need to record somewhere for each walk which days will be non-2C days so the CSS machines know if all the 2C for a walk needs to be deferred that day.

[jessicarabbit]

No you don't. You'll just send it as normal and we will either prep it or leave it at the frame that's not going out

[Pidleypoo]

Yup, pretty obvious answer to be fair.

Maybe mopeds and side cars is the route they should go down. Probably be a cheaper alternative.

Or here's a better idea, maybe RM should allocate 6-8 posties to an old Sherpa van and let them use grey boxes to replenish their bags to deliver around their walks. The Sherpa drivers could even drop off the bags and deliver the larger packets as their duty!

Not sure if anyone’s told you yet but they had this idea about 15 years ago and it was called starburst.

[SpacePhoenix]

No you don't. You'll just send it as normal and we will either prep it or leave it at the frame that's not going out

It's going to be done by the machines. There's talk of us getting another CSS machine, if we were to be carrying on as we currently do, there'd be no need for an extra CSS machine.

[Mr Rush]

Yup, pretty obvious answer to be fair.

Maybe mopeds and side cars is the route they should go down. Probably be a cheaper alternative.

Or here's a better idea, maybe RM should allocate 6-8 posties to an old Sherpa van and let them use grey boxes to replenish their bags to deliver around their walks. The Sherpa drivers could even drop off the bags and deliver the larger packets as their duty!

If you want the company to listen you'll have to drop some keywords in there like 'AI', 'drones' (not us), and 'synergy'.

Not sure if anyone’s told you yet but they had this idea about 15 years ago and it was called starburst.

No, P&L is a trimmed-down Starbursting. That was floated, and in some places implemented, around the time of Single Delivery. It's P&L but with even more people in the van to wait on at the end of each loop.

[Acca Dacca]

Yup, pretty obvious answer to be fair.

Maybe mopeds and side cars is the route they should go down. Probably be a cheaper alternative.

Or here's a better idea, maybe RM should allocate 6-8 posties to an old Sherpa van and let them use grey boxes to replenish their bags to deliver around their walks. The Sherpa drivers could even drop off the bags and deliver the larger packets as their duty!

Not sure if anyone’s told you yet but they had this idea about 15 years ago and it was called starburst.

i think he knows that...

[jessicarabbit]

Notwithstanding the above principles and subject to the outcome of the pilots, we believe that taking everything into account, the Optimised Delivery Model potentially has several potential benefits as set out below:
More Saturdays off and significantly better overall attendance patterns
The model can enable part timers to move to full time
The model can provide genuine options to reduce fatigue on delivery
The model has no impact upstream in Mail Centres