LTB 076/25 – Transfer of Post Office Limited Collection Work from Parcelforce to Royal Mail – National Deployment

[POSTMAN]

https://www.cwu.org/ltb/ltb-076-25-tran ... eployment/

LTB 076/25 – Transfer of Post Office Limited Collection Work from Parcelforce to Royal Mail – National Deployment
No. 076/25

16th April 2025

For the Immediate Attention of All:

Postal Branches

Regional Organisers

Divisional Representatives

Parcelforce Unit Representatives

Area Delivery Representatives

Area Distribution Representatives

Area Processing Representatives

Dear Colleagues,

Transfer of Post Office Limited Collection Work from Parcelforce to Royal Mail – National Deployment

Branches will recall that during 2024 trials took place on the concept of utilising, the synergies between Royal Mail and Parcelforce in relation to collection activity (LTB 147/24 refers(In next post)). The initial trial took place in the Stoke area to ascertain if Royal Mail could perform Parcelforce collections, consolidate the items at the Collection Hub or Outward Mail Centre and repatriate the traffic into the Parcelforce Network to meet service.

This activity was viewed as a success and a further trial took place in the PFW Exeter Depot area later in the year. This was a far more complex trial as the geography covered by the depot spanned two Mail Centre catchment areas. That trial was again successful from a Royal Mail perspective and showed that the model could work.

Royal Mail & PFW have since been modelling what a national deployment could look like, and discussions have been taking place with both departments to review options. While it is noted PFW would like to move all collection work from PFW to Royal Mail in areas where the traffic can onward connect through the network, they have agreed to adopt a phased approach addressing POL Collections first, followed by a review of Ad-Hoc and the Scheduled Collections.

As part of an organised project known as First Mile Integration (FMI) and supported by dedicated collection planning support, RM Plant catchment areas will migrate over to the full collection of all available PFW items from POL. Some interim exemptions will remain where current connectivity does not allow for the PFW items to meet the cut off times, these will be reviewed to understand the potential changes which may be required.

All PFW items collected from POL will be returned to the RM Collection Hub or passed to the RM Outward Mail Centre depending on the workplan. These will then be conveyed to the Parcelforce LD to then enter the PFW outward network ready for dispatch. Where sufficient volume allows, direct runs between RM Outward Mail Centres to the PFW National Processing Centres (e.g. Coventry Hub) will be considered.

This activity will be monitored through the Table of Success National Working Group in PFW and the Collections Joint Working Group in Royal Mail.

We have secured with Parcelforce commitments that all workloads will be balanced to ensure that the time saved by removing collections is fully utilised with delivery traffic. The expectation is that the traffic will migrate from External resource and PFW have agreed that all headcount reduction will come from External resource.

A National launch call with the business took place today with the Parcelforce Regional Organisers and Royal Mail Divisional Representatives to ensure they are fully aware of the change and are able to cascade the information down to the impacted Parcelforce Depot and Delivery Offices.

Attached to this LTB for your information are the SOP’s and SSOW for this activity along with the slides used on the launch call. These will be used to ensure that the criteria is fully understood and deployed consistently, ensuring that connectivity and quality of service is maintained.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: jrodrigues@cwu.org or Tony Bouch, Assistant Secretary, email: Pharacz@cwu.org quoting reference LTB 076/25.

Yours sincerely,

Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary

Mick Kavanagh
A/Assistant Secretary

See the link for a few attachments

[POSTMAN]

Added LTB 147/24 as we don't seem to have it on here...

https://www.cwu.org/ltb/ltb-147-24-term ... toke-area/

LTB 147/24 – Terms of Reference – Collections Proof of Concept Trial Transfer of Collections Work from PFW to Royal Mail in the Stoke Area
No. 147/24

30th April 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Terms of Reference – Collections Proof of Concept Trial Transfer of Collections Work from PFW to Royal Mail in the Stoke Area

Branches will be aware that Section 5 of the Business Transformation, Recovery and Growth agreement (BRT&G) included commitments in relation to Section 5 – Establishing an Optimised Single Parcel Network for Larger Parcels.

Collections is an area with the potential to further test the “once over the ground” principle, as both PFW and RM cover the same geography and, in some cases, the same locations when collecting customer parcels. This Collections trial will further support the assessment of the potential for a Single Parcel Network.

RM have dedicated collection drivers often covering the same ground as PFW C&D drivers and, in the case of POL sites, visiting the same locations. The attached TOR for a trial in the Parcelforce Stoke Depot catchment area is being undertaken to test the ability of moving some PFW collections to RM collection drivers and to further test the principle of “once over the ground” in a collections scenario. The PFW-collected items will be returned to the RM Collection Hub, then get collected by PFW drivers in the area to deliver the traffic to Stoke LD, ensuring they enter the PFW outward network ready for dispatch.

The trial will test:

• Ability of RM Collection Drivers to cover PFW collections, including vehicle capacity, cubic volume / size of parcels;

• Test RM collection capacity, synergy and absorption potential;

• Productivity opportunity for PFW C&D drivers – creating delivery-only routes by removing collections and ‘must return’ time to meet posted network trailers;

• QofS / connectivity to get PFW-collected items into the PFW network via RM collection hubs to the LD – to consider all available options (e.g. via MCs, direct to PFW hub);

• RM Collections QofS;

• Parcel visibility i.e. PDA scan events;

• Customer feedback.

The trial will take place in Stoke LD and will include the surrounding RM Collection Hubs over a 3-week period from 29th April 2024.

Both departments have been informed that wider comms were incorrectly issued in some areas not covered by the trial. For the avoidance of doubt, the agreed activity only applies to the Stoke area and all current collection arrangements in other areas are unaffected by the trial activity.

Additionally, in relation to Section 5 of the BRT&G Agreement, the departments advise we have agreed to ‘pause’ the ongoing trial outlined in the Joint Statement Between Royal Mail Group and the CWU Covering the Deployment of Parcelforce Rural Parcels Volumes into Royal Mail.

The Trial activity will be jointly reviewed before any further expansions are agreed.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: sbanbury@cwu.org quoting reference 054.13 or Mark Baulch, Assistant Secretary, email address: Pharacz@cwu.org quoting reference 580.

Yours sincerely,

Davie Robertson

Assistant Secretary

Mark Baulch

Assistant Secretary

[Deadly]

There's going to be a huge problem with collection vans becoming full before the collection route is completed. Better get that order in for a few thousand Sprinters.

[neviboss]

Nice of DOM to let us know about this, need a sackbarrow as well!

[geordieboy123]

So that I’m clear on this is it the case that we posties will have the Parcelforce collections as well as our normal collections ?

[menditsa]

So that I’m clear on this is it the case that we posties will have the Parcelforce collections as well as our normal collections ?

No, this is in relation to dedicated RM collection drivers not posties covering walks.

[Moose67]

Going to be slot of postman/women suffering with bad backs as the tracked stuff is getting heavier and heavier let alone parcels whoever agreed need to have their head examined

[geordieboy123]

So that I’m clear on this is it the case that we posties will have the Parcelforce collections as well as our normal collections ?

No, this is in relation to dedicated RM collection drivers not posties covering walks.

I’ve had it confirmed by two Parcelforce drivers that they have been informed that we OPG’s on delivery will be doing their collections from customers homes and the dedicated RM collection drivers will take them from POL later in the day, both drivers told me that our Fiat vans are just not suitable for the job.

[menditsa]

So that I’m clear on this is it the case that we posties will have the Parcelforce collections as well as our normal collections ?

No, this is in relation to dedicated RM collection drivers not posties covering walks.

I’ve had it confirmed by two Parcelforce drivers that they have been informed that we OPG’s on delivery will be doing their collections from customers homes and the dedicated RM collection drivers will take them from POL later in the day, both drivers told me that our Fiat vans are just not suitable for the job.

Well all I can say is not one postie out delivering mail and tracked's has had any collections for Parcelforce.
Dedicated collections drivers on the other hand have been swamped and cant handle the size and weight of collections that are causing delays with their regular RM collections.

[geordieboy123]

Oh that’s interesting but who then collects from customers homes,is it the dedicated collection team?

[Deadly]

Dedicated collections drivers on the other hand have been swamped and cant handle the size and weight of collections that are causing delays with their regular RM collections.

It's as if management weren't told this would happen

Are they collecting everything that Parcelforce would have done before from Post Offices?

[Idk]

When this was last trialled the posties would go to customer houses, see it was a home gym or treadmill to collect ,inform customer it wouldn't fit in RM van, inform Dom of situation, Dom would inform pf, then pf would contact customer to arrange a recollection and send a pf van, customer would get pissed at delay and then use someone else.

[Deadly]

Now that this has been running for a while, are Parcelforce getting called to collect any parcels that Royal Mail are refusing due to size/lack of van space?