Which part of the new delivery model is supposed to reduce fatigue?

[Barnacle]

I find it hard to believe that with the make up of the mail today anyone could come close to 16kg unless they had a stupid amount of heavy parcels in their bag.

In the days of sky mags and heavy mail a rough guesstimate of 16kg was around 6 bundles of mail.

On my roughly 30 min loops I mostly have one bundle, two if it's double mail so usually there isn't any mail at all in the bag, I wouldn't put heavy parcels in there, that's what the van is for. I've genuinely not seen anyone with anything that even looks overweight for years and it was common back in the day.

Just an opinion.

I might have that wrong, starting to think that 11kg was the max weight for a bag?

[Woody Guthrie]

The actual guidance at the time was 16kg first bag then 11kg for subsequent bags, the reason we don't really follow that process now including weighing bags is simply because nobody should really be stupid enough to overload a bag when there's a big red four wheeled mobile drop box that should never be that far away.

[ted_e_bear]

The actual guidance at the time was 16kg first bag then 11kg for subsequent bags, the reason we don't really follow that process now including weighing bags is simply because nobody should really be stupid enough to overload a bag when there's a big red four wheeled mobile drop box that should never be that far away.

Unbelievably there's plenty that are stupid enough to do massive loops despite having a van, absolutely no reason whatsoever for carrying a heavy bag since van share started.

[Mr Rush]

It was on my mind yesterday (for reasons of shifting five days worth of stuff) that if we go back to the callrates of the wonder years then where the hell are the packets going to go?

Fifteen years ago I had a bundle in hand and two in the bag alongside maybe three small packets on a bad day. Now I have as many packets in my first bag as I used to have for the whole duty. We already practice alternate day service so I can testify that the loops have to be broken down even when the previous day's packets were cleared. Either that or I have to offload almost all the packets - surely anathema for a parcel company. This cannot be introduced without some form of alteration to existing duties.

[Barnacle]

It was on my mind yesterday (for reasons of shifting five days worth of stuff) that if we go back to the callrates of the wonder years then where the hell are the packets going to go?

Fifteen years ago I had a bundle in hand and two in the bag alongside maybe three small packets on a bad day. Now I have as many packets in my first bag as I used to have for the whole duty. We already practice alternate day service so I can testify that the loops have to be broken down even when the previous day's packets were cleared. Either that or I have to offload almost all the packets - surely anathema for a parcel company. This cannot be introduced without some form of alteration to existing duties.

They are supposed to be making the walks achievable. Then they are going to condense four down to three - back to being unachievable - then by a miracle we will be able to deliver to a higher call rate of 93% plus, across a longer delivery span, every day, and the office will be cleared and there will be cheering across the land.

It’s obvs not working like that because barely any info is coming out.

[Mickeybrowneyes]

In fairness I think the trials have barely got started to really give accurate feedback yet.
I don't think the model they are creating is not a one size fits all model.
The success of the trials in different areas will be dependent on things like parcel traffic for the area and distances between delivery points.
Areas where the parcel/packet traffic is high because of population density one person will struggle covering a CDV delivering just premiums and 1st class. There is evidence to back this up because people struggle now in these areas without the 1st class.
These areas have less distances between delivery points and many are downstairs letterboxes so when it comes to completing rounds with belated mail in a CDV it may become more achievable than in quieter areas resulting in less fatigue than in some areas.
In more suburban/rural areas you may have the opposite problem.
Some areas will definitely need extra parcel drives Wednesday onwards for in to be successful in my opinion.
No real evidence to back this up just from my experience working in both a semi-rural office and an extremely densely populated office.
There may end up being models that make the savings the company are after but are tweaked locally to incorporate the data for that particular office.
That would be the sensible approach and no doubt what these trails are designed to find out.

[Barnacle]

In fairness I think the trials have barely got started to really give accurate feedback yet.
I don't think the model they are creating is not a one size fits all model.
The success of the trials in different areas will be dependent on things like parcel traffic for the area and distances between delivery points.
Areas where the parcel/packet traffic is high because of population density one person will struggle covering a CDV delivering just premiums and 1st class. There is evidence to back this up because people struggle now in these areas without the 1st class.
These areas have less distances between delivery points and many are downstairs letterboxes so when it comes to completing rounds with belated mail in a CDV it may become more achievable than in quieter areas resulting in less fatigue than in some areas.
In more suburban/rural areas you may have the opposite problem.
Some areas will definitely need extra parcel drives Wednesday onwards for in to be successful in my opinion.
No real evidence to back this up just from my experience working in both a semi-rural office and an extremely densely populated office.
There may end up being models that make the savings the company are after but are tweaked locally to incorporate the data for that particular office.
That would be the sensible approach and no doubt what these trails are designed to find out.

The pilot has been running since 24th February. 6 offices of various sizes are now live. They already know if the assumptions they made are correct. That’s why they are in a shambles trying to organise the rest if the pilot offices.

The major tenet of the pilots was to save £350m. That’s not happening and so when the new boss takes over, they won’t be able to look busy with this brilliant new method.

[Mickeybrowneyes]

Six isn't really a massive study and some of them must of started very recently, it is going to take a few weeks until people get used the new way of working as well.
I'm sure allot of the trial offices are waiting until after Easter now, but I may be wrong.
I do see flaws in the modelling though but too early to say whether the trails have failed or not.

[Playmail]

Xmas will be the true test of this new way

[Neverwasadoor]

My very basic view is, if you have rounds struggling or failing now how is extra mail for said rounds going to be feasible.
Putting rounds back in isn’t going to give them the savings they desire.
Also it will be interesting to see in the pilots (Scotland) how a round last done on Thursday with next letter delivery due on Easter Monday will work.

[Mickeybrowneyes]

The savings will come from the less bums on seats you will need in offices with only 2nd class/downstream access going out every other day.
A quarter of the office will be surplus to requirements.
In reality some more people will be needed on any given day for quality to remain but they will still make massive savings even putting 'some' hours back in.

[SpacePhoenix]

The savings will come from the less bums on seats you will need in offices with only 2nd class/downstream access going out every other day.
A quarter of the office will be surplus to requirements.
In reality some more people will be needed on any given day for quality to remain but they will still make massive savings even putting 'some' hours back in.

On the non-2C days if you're not delivering any 2C, or DSA (don't know about what they're going to class mail form abroad as) for manual letters, mech letters and flats there's hardly going to be anything left.

[Mickeybrowneyes]

I'm not sure how it's being processed of where the belated mail is being stored to be honest.

[SpacePhoenix]

I'm not sure how it's being processed of where the belated mail is being stored to be honest.

We know that the outward MCs are sending the 2C in separate trays from the 1C but that's all we've been told. We've not heard anything about how it's going to work in the inward MCs. If it wasn't for this forum I wouldn't have known that we'll be getting a realignment.

[Mr Rush]

Also it will be interesting to see in the pilots (Scotland) how a round last done on Thursday with next letter delivery due on Easter Monday will work.

We work Good Friday, but your point stands. There's the two bank holidays coming up next month.

THU: A+B
FRI: C+D
SAT: no service
MON: A+B pre-empted by bank holiday.
TUE: C+D
WED: A+B now have a four day backlog, perhaps a partial failure.
THU: C+D
FRI: A+B now have a six day backlog on the back half of the duty.