LTB 167/18 - GET OUT THE VOTE

[Celgar]

If Royal Mail start using these PDAs to start measuring posties performance and for any other means that discredit the postie in any way then I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see many of them being dropped and/or lost.

RM would probably just start conduct coding people if there was a surge of PDAs getting lost or broken

Most PDAs have already lost their straps and stylus pens and quite a few of them already now have cracked screens. I guess when the postie has their hands full with a bundle of mail in one hand, the packet they haven't got rid of in the other plus the pen to write on the P739 card quite often means a bit of juggling around with the equipment. The new PDA straps didn't last 5 minutes. Maybe the business should just provide PDA holsters like they did with the old ones.

The straps can be affixed and spare stylus pens are usually available along with spare batteries. Holsters are available for the new style PDAs and can be ordered by your DOM if you ask them. With the old PDAs it was possible in DO to be able to replace the screens with new ones. I'm not sure if this is possible to do with the new ones. I'm not defending the new PDAs though as they are completely not user-friendly and the old design worked much better.

[Celgar]

plus the pen to write on the P739 card quite often means a bit of juggling around with the equipment

That's why RM should look at getting everything barcoded. A small portable printer could be used to print out the P739s (something on the lines of what railway guards use)

I won't be surprised if nearly everything isn't barcoded in the end in RM. I have noticed a lot more of the 2D barcodes are refusing to be zapped this week. Its a real pain typing them out so everything having a 2D barcode wouldn't be much fun.

[crimson king]

plus the pen to write on the P739 card quite often means a bit of juggling around with the equipment

That's why RM should look at getting everything barcoded. A small portable printer could be used to print out the P739s (something on the lines of what railway guards use)

Can you imagine that though, on a soaking wet day like today in the middle of the winter, when it's blowing a hooley and you have to refill the paper or change the ink?

[Sugar]

an independent appointed person in the same way as Lord Sawyer was introduced in the 1990s will visit offices around the uk to speak with employees over their concerns and also see if the full terms of the agreement is being deployed.

Living in cloud cuckoo land if you ever think some independent appointed person will ever visit offices were B&H is rife. Lets face it the company has been playing this down since park and loop came in you only have to look at the way they've manoeuvred around it in every have your say survey, never giving true figures or not giving any at all. The only way to address it is if all bonuses were pulled from all levels of management and 90% of those in DO's got the boot because their people skills are practically none existent and are just glorified posties with a chip on their shoulder and a sense of power and self importance.

[SpacePhoenix]

change the ink

Why would a thermal printer need a change of ink?

[BELIAL]

an independent appointed person in the same way as Lord Sawyer was introduced in the 1990s will visit offices around the uk to speak with employees over their concerns and also see if the full terms of the agreement is being deployed.

Living in cloud cuckoo land if you ever think some independent appointed person will ever visit offices were B&H is rife. Lets face it the company has been playing this down since park and loop came in you only have to look at the way they've manoeuvred around it in every have your say survey, never giving true figures or not giving any at all. The only way to address it is if all bonuses were pulled from all levels of management and 90% of those in DO's got the boot because their people skills are practically none existent and are just glorified posties with a chip on their shoulder and a sense of power and self importance.

So true it made me smile ,weve got Harold lloyd crossed with Frank Spencer meets Miss Jean Brody crossed with Hienrich Himmler who can't tell her bountifull arse from her elbow.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Look I have seen the PDA observations and it record your stem time travelling back to the unit , it also has the detail of whether you was static long enough to have your meal relief. The 30 mins was recorded at the office boundary as the GPS works whilst turned off..

So it won't record

Parking the van
Emptying the van and placing it in the Callers Office.
Returning the PDA to the locker.
Doing the kill offs or refusals.
Placing D2Ds into the frame for the next day.

Basically, it only records where you are, or rather where the PDA is, it can't and doesn't record secondary tasks when the PDA is not on your person.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

if the agreement comes in than an independent appointed person in the same way as Lord Sawyer was introduced in the 1990s

Then the Hooper report in 2010, is this going to a decade cyclical thing.

[yellowbelly]

plus the pen to write on the P739 card quite often means a bit of juggling around with the equipment

That's why RM should look at getting everything barcoded. A small portable printer could be used to print out the P739s (something on the lines of what railway guards use)

Can you imagine that though, on a soaking wet day like today in the middle of the winter, when it's blowing a hooley and you have to refill the paper or change the ink?

Gone a bit off thread but......

So the portable printer would have to be integrated into the PDA (how big?) - if the printer functionality fails but the
PDA functionality still works would RM be happy to pay for fix/replace or would manager say you have to work with the PDA and revert to 739.

Or a separate printer which would have to talk to the PDA by Bluetooth or physical cable? How many pockets/hands do we have to carry this kit?
A couple of points of failure there - cable/Bluetooth connection. Even then the paper could get jammed in the printer and then you
have to revert to 739.

Why would a thermal printer need a change of ink?

Or try posting a slip of thermal paper through a letterbox if its got wet and what will it look like the other side when
it's been mangled by the draught excluder and the dog? Ever seen a shop till receipt when it gets wet? It would have
to be thermal card but then how many could be stored in the printer (rather than a roll of paper?)

Good idea in theory, but at the moment it could create more problems than it solves...

[k979aaa]

With ideas like this I feel like digging a trench somewhere between Paris and Belgium and wasting four more years on top of the 30 years I have wasted already!

[Sugar]

an independent appointed person in the same way as Lord Sawyer was introduced in the 1990s will visit offices around the uk to speak with employees over their concerns and also see if the full terms of the agreement is being deployed.

Living in cloud cuckoo land if you ever think some independent appointed person will ever visit offices were B&H is rife. Lets face it the company has been playing this down since park and loop came in you only have to look at the way they've manoeuvred around it in every have your say survey, never giving true figures or not giving any at all. The only way to address it is if all bonuses were pulled from all levels of management and 90% of those in DO's got the boot because their people skills are practically none existent and are just glorified posties with a chip on their shoulder and a sense of power and self importance.

So true it made me smile ,weve got Harold lloyd crossed with Frank Spencer meets Miss Jean Brody crossed with Hienrich Himmler who can't tell her bountifull arse from her elbow.

Most of them can't tell their elbows from their arses and would fail to get any form of management position outside of RM. First time anything doesn't go how "the computer says" or "the forecast was wrong" its like a scene out of Dad's Army with shouts of "don't panic don't panic".....

Look I have seen the PDA observations and it record your stem time travelling back to the unit , it also has the detail of whether you was static long enough to have your meal relief. The 30 mins was recorded at the office boundary as the GPS works whilst turned off..

So it won't record

Parking the van
Emptying the van and placing it in the Callers Office.
Returning the PDA to the locker.
Doing the kill offs or refusals.
Placing D2Ds into the frame for the next day.

Basically, it only records where you are, or rather where the PDA is, it can't and doesn't record secondary tasks when the PDA is not on your person.

Simple answer.... Don't log off the PDA till you're just about to leave the building after signing out.