Delivery 2.0

[postslippete]

Nothing to do with RM being a stable or profitable business. This low share price has been manipulated over a period of time to encourage a takeover bid. Who stands to gain most from it? Who was in a position to manipulate the share price to an all time low thus enabling them to buy thousands & thousands of pounds worth these shares?
This has been a long game the Board of Directors have played and unfortunately there will be one set of people who will win out of this & another who will lose!

Hit nail on head. Fear and greed moves the markets. Markets were spooked when we went on strike with rumours of us going bust. IDS shares became massively undervalued and that allowed big investors like Kretinsky an opportunity to gobble up more shares. All the papers reported a failing business model and financial losses due to falling mail volumes.

[postslippete]

All these theories have led me to one conclusion, i really need to retire from this. Somehow privatisation and "modern business" have managed to make a workforce verging on victorian labour standards..... worse than that is peoples ability to accept such standards as the norm.
Somewhere along the way in the last 20yrs "big business" have been allowed to run roughshod over workers and government have just let them.
It used to be making a profit was good enough, not anymore, now its bigger and better profits or its not good enough.
As RM have proved they are quite prepared to tell whatever porkie is needed to get their way.
Not sure what the solution is but it must end, once they have finished with the little people at the bottom they will just work their way up until only the top man is left.
I don't know if labour will do anything about it, if only Darren Jones was in charge, but then again they are all politicians and usually do what suits them/fills their pockets most.

We live in a country where very rich people pay a lot of money to people who tell us that they want to tax us and the reality is that we are losing our assets to the rich and the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes. The rich spend a tonne of money on media campaigns to spread these lies that there is no money and yet we have gone from 15 billionaires in 1990 to 177 billionaires this year as the rich have got richer and the poor have got much poorer. It's the same in most western countries in Europe and the US where the very wealthy elite own most of the assets, land, businesses, government bonds, stock market etc.

And for Labour, gone is any trace of them being left wing or socialist. Their manifesto is complete dogsh*t. Where is the promise that those who have the most money pay their fair share of taxes? All I've heard from Rachel Reeves is that there is not a huge amount of money so unfortunately I see the Labour Party carrying on as a watered down Tory party. Interest rates are at the highest level for 16 years which means people are paying more to borrow money for mortgages and loans. It's all well and good Reeves suggesting that we need to unlock private sector investment but the private sector hasn't saved any f*cking money since it's all been sold off. It's all in the hands of rich people - people like Kretinksy who wants to own our company as well as British companies like Sainsbury's, Footlocker, West Ham United and expensive homes in the UK. Like you said, politicians do what suits them and fills their pockets the most.

[LouBarlow]

Maybe we should give the government more than 4 days before questioning their results?

[Smoothbackground]

Then they removed the size guide for parcels and refused to allow double ups, and so the parcels we are taking on our longer walks is increasing while those given to DPR drivers is decreasing. We have now been informed that we will be asked to take our oversize again.

It’s an absolute farce.

If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused.

Also, what evidence do you have that parcel volumes for DPR drivers are falling? Where I am it is the complete opposite. My own daily average for the last eight weeks is 140 delivery points, usually something like 175 items. This is an average - Sundays are much quieter and more spread out than this number, whereas Weds, Thurs and Fri will be maybe 160 delivery points, perhaps as many as 200 items. This type of volume is becoming the norm. Having done this, we then come back and do it all over again in the afternoon, this time with the LATs!

[Barnacle]

Then they removed the size guide for parcels and refused to allow double ups, and so the parcels we are taking on our longer walks is increasing while those given to DPR drivers is decreasing. We have now been informed that we will be asked to take our oversize again.

It’s an absolute farce.

If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused.

Also, what evidence do you have that parcel volumes for DPR drivers are falling? Where I am it is the complete opposite. My own daily average for the last eight weeks is 140 delivery points, usually something like 175 items. This is an average - Sundays are much quieter and more spread out than this number, whereas Weds, Thurs and Fri will be maybe 160 delivery points, perhaps as many as 200 items. This type of volume is becoming the norm. Having done this, we then come back and do it all over again in the afternoon, this time with the LATs!

On this occasion I am referring to the happenings at my office which is in the top ten in terms of size. There is a shift away from DPR taking parcels.

Double up rejection is an inefficiency of the DPR set up. We shouldn’t be visiting the same customer several times in a day. That’s irritating to them. On a Sunday tracked flats are delivered by DPR so why are they so precious during the week? And no I am not talking about small packets being rejected. It’s an extra inefficiency in an inefficient system.

On a general note, parcels haven’t increased in volume across the entire system. We’re back to prepandemic levels. You personally might be seeing a rise but that is not the overall picture.

[Smoothbackground]

Then they removed the size guide for parcels and refused to allow double ups, and so the parcels we are taking on our longer walks is increasing while those given to DPR drivers is decreasing. We have now been informed that we will be asked to take our oversize again.

It’s an absolute farce.

If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused.

Also, what evidence do you have that parcel volumes for DPR drivers are falling? Where I am it is the complete opposite. My own daily average for the last eight weeks is 140 delivery points, usually something like 175 items. This is an average - Sundays are much quieter and more spread out than this number, whereas Weds, Thurs and Fri will be maybe 160 delivery points, perhaps as many as 200 items. This type of volume is becoming the norm. Having done this, we then come back and do it all over again in the afternoon, this time with the LATs!

On this occasion I am referring to the happenings at my office which is in the top ten in terms of size. There is a shift away from DPR taking parcels.

Double up rejection is an inefficiency of the DPR set up. We shouldn’t be visiting the same customer several times in a day. That’s irritating to them. On a Sunday tracked flats are delivered by DPR so why are they so precious during the week? And no I am not talking about small packets being rejected. It’s an extra inefficiency in an inefficient system.

On a general note, parcels haven’t increased in volume across the entire system. We’re back to prepandemic levels. You personally might be seeing a rise but that is not the overall picture.

You make some valid points. Inefficiency seems to be a RM speciality, no doubt about it. We don’t make the rules unfortunately, we just follow them. As I see it, the limiting factors here - and the reason for rejecting out-of-scope packets - is: (a) scarce van space being needed for larger boxes and items; and (b) the limited number of DPR duties to cover those larger items.

You may well be right that individual walk parcel volumes are stagnating in certain areas, but DPR route volumes are kept steadily high by just adding more walks’ parcels to the DPR, meaning more ground to be physically covered in order to deliver the daily quota.

[kazardaimenu]

Then they removed the size guide for parcels and refused to allow double ups, and so the parcels we are taking on our longer walks is increasing while those given to DPR drivers is decreasing. We have now been informed that we will be asked to take our oversize again.

It’s an absolute farce.

If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused.

Also, what evidence do you have that parcel volumes for DPR drivers are falling? Where I am it is the complete opposite. My own daily average for the last eight weeks is 140 delivery points, usually something like 175 items. This is an average - Sundays are much quieter and more spread out than this number, whereas Weds, Thurs and Fri will be maybe 160 delivery points, perhaps as many as 200 items. This type of volume is becoming the norm. Having done this, we then come back and do it all over again in the afternoon, this time with the LATs!

Yes I had this last week and it’s meant to be a quiet time of year. What’s going on?!

[scoobydo79]

I’m old enough to remember box frames. Now they really were fun

How did they work?

Instead of wing frame Barnacle it was a kind of pigeon hole set up. You still went in walk sequence ie first box you would through in letters for say Acacia Avenue numbers 1-15.It meant throwing the delivery in then going through it again on the desk to get in order.

I've asked older colleagues this. When it comes to outdoor I guess since you had everything in one bag you could just switch bundles of mail as you changed streets. Presumably if you knew the optimal route you could eliminate lots of dead walking and backtracking, which is exactly why RM2000 was brought in.

Absolutely. When you got familiar with it you could “back to back” . Instead of going up one side and back the other you would zig zag across the road

[Postie45]

"If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused."

It's breaking dumb rules they made, if you have 2 packages taking up same volume as 1 larger package it's still taking up that same amount of space in a posties bag. Having different posties visiting the same addresses twice with different sized packages is a huge inefficiency.

[Acca Dacca]

"If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused."

It's breaking dumb rules they made, if you have 2 packages taking up same volume as 1 larger package it's still taking up that same amount of space in a posties bag. Having different posties visiting the same addresses twice with different sized packages is a huge inefficiency.

Exactly, its shouldnt be ''breaking the rules''

Its still one call, they still cant be posted through the letterbiox and it still cant fit in the pouch together so it makes no difference to the DPR driver - what difference does it make to them? Its no different from one big parcel

[Smoothbackground]

"If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused."

It's breaking dumb rules they made, if you have 2 packages taking up same volume as 1 larger package it's still taking up that same amount of space in a posties bag. Having different posties visiting the same addresses twice with different sized packages is a huge inefficiency.

Exactly, its shouldnt be ''breaking the rules''

Its still one call, they still cant be posted through the letterbiox and it still cant fit in the pouch together so it makes no difference to the DPR driver - what difference does it make to them? Its no different from one big parcel

Personally, I do agree with this, especially as I think all packets and parcels, small and large, should be taken off the walks. We do often cover small tracked where a walk is being lapsed or the postie has double mail etc.

But the rationale is that taking those two packets — that, as you say, will individually fit in a postie’s bag — may mean a very large box (that doesn’t fit in a postie’s bag!) has to be left behind. That very large parcel can’t be unbanded into two.

And where do you sensibly draw the line? Last week we had a postman “doubling up” (though quadrupling up was more appropriate in some cases — think four small, postable Asos bags tightly banded together) and, for good measure, also including the electoral rubbish (that he gets 6p each for!) in his “tidy” bundles!

[Acca Dacca]

"If a “double up” is two smaller parcels/packets elastic-banded together so they equal the size of a DPR format parcel, that is cheating the rules and will be refused."

It's breaking dumb rules they made, if you have 2 packages taking up same volume as 1 larger package it's still taking up that same amount of space in a posties bag. Having different posties visiting the same addresses twice with different sized packages is a huge inefficiency.

Exactly, its shouldnt be ''breaking the rules''

Its still one call, they still cant be posted through the letterbiox and it still cant fit in the pouch together so it makes no difference to the DPR driver - what difference does it make to them? Its no different from one big parcel

But the rationale is that taking those two packets — that, as you say, will individually fit in a postie’s bag — may mean a very large box (that doesn’t fit in a postie’s bag!) has to be left behind. That very large parcel can’t be unbanded into two.

This makes no sense. Individually fitting into the bag is no relevance if there are two or more for the same address and combined they dont fit in the bag. The postie would still need to either deliver just one of them if can fit it into the pouch and then go back and get the other and redeliver to the same address - taking the same time as a big box would - or deliver both or the one that didnt fit seperately after doing the loop - just like they would a big box.

I still see no difference in the DPR driver doing the box or the two parcels that still are too big to both be delivered in the pouch. It takes them the same time to deliver and it takes the postie the same time to go out his way and have to deliver as cant get in their bag.

[A2B]

If we didn't pass the larger parcels off to the drivers we would need bag drops which the drivers would have to do, thankfully common sense is alive and well in our office and the packet allocation works well on the whole

[Jen1]

We’re on day 2 of delivery 2.0 and our office is on the verge of a walk out

The faults we have discovered so far are that the AI planned route has not taken in to account the terrain

So instead of walking downhill we are now walking up some very steep hills (one of which was in the mountain stage in the tour de Yorkshire just so you get the idea of the gradients we’re climbing)

Every loop loops back to the van which means instead of dropping the Walker at the top of the hill and him working his/her way to the van we now both have to dead walk back to the van

The least amount of dead walking I’ve done today was 2 minutes, the most was an 11 min dead walk the average was about 5 min per loop

There are 16 loops in total (8 each) so that’s 1 hour 20min wasted per day dead walking (40min each)

Snickets or cut throughs have not been factored in so more unnecessary walking

It has us zigzagging around a cul de sac and then dead walking back out of it instead of just walking round it

We’ve had the large parcels taken off us and are just doing small packets (anything shoe box size and under) but we still have to drive around the loop afterwards to drop the “small packets” off that we couldn’t fit in our bags because the loops have doubled in size so twice as many packets

So far we’ve only managed to clear 1 side of mail each day 🫤

I overheard the route planner on the phone covering his own ass blaming the attitude of the posties for the absolute s**t show

I worked 4 hours over yesterday and 2 and a half hours over today, I’m not lazy, I have pride in my work, I certainly haven’t taken the piss but no doubt we’ll be blamed for the failure

[Barnacle]

We’re on day 2 of delivery 2.0 and our office is on the verge of a walk out

The faults we have discovered so far are that the AI planned route has not taken in to account the terrain

So instead of walking downhill we are now walking up some very steep hills (one of which was in the mountain stage in the tour de Yorkshire just so you get the idea of the gradients we’re climbing)

Every loop loops back to the van which means instead of dropping the Walker at the top of the hill and him working his/her way to the van we now both have to dead walk back to the van

The least amount of dead walking I’ve done today was 2 minutes, the most was an 11 min dead walk the average was about 5 min per loop

There are 16 loops in total (8 each) so that’s 1 hour 20min wasted per day dead walking (40min each)

Snickets or cut throughs have not been factored in so more unnecessary walking

It has us zigzagging around a cul de sac and then dead walking back out of it instead of just walking round it

We’ve had the large parcels taken off us and are just doing small packets (anything shoe box size and under) but we still have to drive around the loop afterwards to drop the “small packets” off that we couldn’t fit in our bags because the loops have doubled in size so twice as many packets

So far we’ve only managed to clear 1 side of mail each day 🫤

I overheard the route planner on the phone covering his own ass blaming the attitude of the posties for the absolute s**t show

I worked 4 hours over yesterday and 2 and a half hours over today, I’m not lazy, I have pride in my work, I certainly haven’t taken the piss but no doubt we’ll be blamed for the failure

That’s even more horrendous than I thought it would be. They will definitely dismiss any issues reported by posties as being the whines of change hating luddites. What an absolute shambles.