Van idling

[Splappy_McSplap]

Van idling, what about manager idling?

Sometimes through in the MC there are 4 managers standing with their arms crossed for every member of staff sorting anything.

[guardianangel]

Van idling, what about manager idling?

Sometimes through in the MC there are 4 managers standing with their arms crossed for every member of staff sorting anything.

Time to have a cull in managers ,not that would save a fortune.

[chrisj]

A quick stop to empty the box is how a van got taken in my office... It was not just to empty the box though, some leave the engine running to go into firms or companies or shoos to deliver or pick up; it is a waste of fuel and risky.

Furthermore, leaving the engine running and a handbrake failure or even a failure to engage the handbrake will cause problems and might lead to a sack.

Idling is also idling in a lot of cases... Talking to a customer is not an excuse - just switch off; I do that with my car nowadays.

Being called into the office over idling is not something to get her up about; unless your manager is an ass... We get told about speeding too... Why I will not do a Collection on SA - it can result in speeding to meet ridiculous times and traffic.

On the plus side, our manager remarked that incidents of speeding is now so much less and we are all going rather slowly in vans - because of SISO...

[ANDREW CROCOMBE]

Idling was an old fashioned thing when we had parcel drivers - i see it now when you get into a van and the seatbelt is left in - obviously we know why. Be careful, dont give management anything to hang you with. This is probably another figures game,van idling, you cant be working you lazy swines

[TopperGas]

Why don't RM simply purchase ICE vans with stop start systems which actually work then idling, wouldn't be an issue?

[SpacePhoenix]

Van idling, what about manager idling?

Sometimes through in the MC there are 4 managers standing with their arms crossed for every member of staff sorting anything.

Time to have a cull in managers ,not that would save a fortune.

I believe that in many industries line managers have been made into "Team Leaders" who do the exact same work as those they're in charge of, they only get some sort of leadership allowance on top of the normal pay. I'm surprised that RM haven't done so, as there must be a good saving to be achieved.

[LouBarlow]

Why don't RM simply purchase ICE vans with stop start systems which actually work then idling, wouldn't be an issue?

Our vans have had this for years now, but the feature is often turned off by default. It still doesn’t escape the fact, that even with this system in place, you are leaving the key in the van and it is unsecured. I’m not going to defend any post person who is conduct coded for leaving a van running while delivering. It is as bad as a corner cutting exercise as any. Why do it?

[POSTMAN]

4 Alan Brown: Back to the PDA and monitoring or not monitoring, it was
explained to me that a van sitting idling for a certain amount of time
would automatically result in a chat from management. Is that normal
practice?

Ricky McAulay: It is information that comes from telemetry systems. It is
not coming from PDAs. It is pretty commonplace in commercial vehicles to
have telemetry systems, and we do encourage drivers not to idle. It is not
great for the planet; it pollutes the planet. If they are parked for a
prolonged period, we encourage them to turn their engine off. Again,
those would be inquiries about what created the idling time and to get the
engine switched off where we can.

Q245 Alan Brown: I accept the argument about emissions, but it would be
acceptable for guys to take a break with the engine idling so that they
can capture heat, particularly those with health conditions, for example.

Ricky McAulay: Definitely. If that was the explanation—that they were on
a break and the temperature was very cool and they put the heating on—
that would be very reasonable.

Q246 Alan Brown: You would not expect follow-up chats after that.

Ricky McAulay: I would not, no.

[DaveF14]

I got told off for van idling few years back. (3rd highest in Scotland apparently) Im on a rural duty covering around 70 miles and for the next week, I stopped the van every stop, 250 plus times. Following week, van breakdown. Few months later told off again, back to stopping the van, and guess what, within 2 days, van breakdown. Ive had this van 8 years now, broken down 5-6 times in the last 3 years, all with a recovery time of over 2 hours minimum. The van is a wreck with over 160,000 on the clock. I aint stop starting for anyone now.

Dont get me started on the fuel consumption pish. One colleague gets to take van home with a round trip of 30 miles a day, 6 times a week. A few others get tot take them home also. I would say resulting in a round about 500 miles a week with no contribution on diesel or servicing costs. With a small office of around 20 deliveries, thats a fair about of added diesel getting wasted.

Van idling is a pointless argument unless its in a built up area and its a security issue. Rural when your no more than 5 metres or so from the van, idle away.

[LouBarlow]

Van idling is a pointless argument unless it’s in a built up area and it’s a security issue. Rural when your no more than 5 metres or so from the van, idle away.

I agree with that, but your Trimble will not flag this up as idling. As to your other point re the van breaking down, that isn’t your problem or worry.

[guardianangel]

I got told off for van idling few years back. (3rd highest in Scotland apparently) Im on a rural duty covering around 70 miles and for the next week, I stopped the van every stop, 250 plus times. Following week, van breakdown. Few months later told off again, back to stopping the van, and guess what, within 2 days, van breakdown. Ive had this van 8 years now, broken down 5-6 times in the last 3 years, all with a recovery time of over 2 hours minimum. The van is a wreck with over 160,000 on the clock. I aint stop starting for anyone now.

Dont get me started on the fuel consumption pish. One colleague gets to take van home with a round trip of 30 miles a day, 6 times a week. A few others get tot take them home also. I would say resulting in a round about 500 miles a week with no contribution on diesel or servicing costs. With a small office of around 20 deliveries, thats a fair about of added diesel getting wasted.

Van idling is a pointless argument unless its in a built up area and its a security issue. Rural when your no more than 5 metres or so from the van, idle away.

All van taking home should stop its costing ROYAL MAIL a fortune in fuel effecting profits.

[Kenfandango]

We've had a ban on van retention since January, which has messed up a few people.
The only reason I leave vans idling is if I'm in one of the wretched electric mercedes vans doing LATs, for some reason each stop/start costs 2 miles of battery life, but leaving it running costs almost nothing (and the range is pretty weak in them)

[ddtc]

All van taking home should stop its costing ROYAL MAIL a fortune in fuel effecting profits.

Everytime they bring up cost savings I always say to stop vans being taken home. But never happens as the people who take the vans moan.

[TopperGas]

I got told off for van idling few years back. (3rd highest in Scotland apparently) Im on a rural duty covering around 70 miles and for the next week, I stopped the van every stop, 250 plus times. Following week, van breakdown. Few months later told off again, back to stopping the van, and guess what, within 2 days, van breakdown. Ive had this van 8 years now, broken down 5-6 times in the last 3 years, all with a recovery time of over 2 hours minimum. The van is a wreck with over 160,000 on the clock. I aint stop starting for anyone now.

Dont get me started on the fuel consumption pish. One colleague gets to take van home with a round trip of 30 miles a day, 6 times a week. A few others get tot take them home also. I would say resulting in a round about 500 miles a week with no contribution on diesel or servicing costs. With a small office of around 20 deliveries, thats a fair about of added diesel getting wasted.

Van idling is a pointless argument unless its in a built up area and its a security issue. Rural when your no more than 5 metres or so from the van, idle away.

All van taking home should stop its costing ROYAL MAIL a fortune in fuel effecting profits.

We've been told RM have now banned it apart from those living within a couple of miles of the office, limited retention benefits our DO as otherwise they'd have to be parked on the street outside the DO overnight/over the weekend.