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 “pride” will do you no good.Mine was dragged outa me 12-18 months ago & I no longer miss it.
Unless you need the money I would tell them to stuff the overtime, but each to their own.
The madness no longer bothers me either or the micro management, it’s all quite mad.
As is most of this well written & apologies quite funny in a mad way info of your day!!
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.
If only the union were propelled back to the Victorian era we might have won something. I take aim at the leadership and the membership equally there. It's the Middle Ages we're headed for, but instead of being ruled by those who own horses it's laptops.
"Our most advanced technologies are being used by the overclass and their professional-managerial class underlings in a manner that is deliberately alienating, invades our privacy, and reduces every aspect of human existence to a commodity."
We’re on day 2 of delivery 2.0 and our office is on the verge of a walk out
There are 16 loops in total (8 each) so that’s 1 hour 20min wasted per day dead walking (40min each)
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 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
So working well then? This is where RM's planners are just hopeless morons, who seem to know better than the posties who deliver in that area!
Every single revision in the 17 years I have been with RM has been a complete mess. Why? Because they never come to the posties to plan things. They are not interested in practical experience because we are all just lazy posties sleeping in our vans and sitting in McDonald's as far as they are concerned.
Then when the revision turns out to be a complete mess once again it's a huge surprise.
Not one postie should be working as much as a minute over their time to fix the mess these idiots are regularly making.
A revision should be easily done if they get the posties involved and especially the reserves who have done a few of the walks. They will know which duties are light and which could have a bit taken off, what loops you could switch onto what duties. Instead what you get is a miss match with duties sprawling all over town and criss crossing each other. If the planners get involved prepare to be sent zig zagging and dead walking.
A revision should be easily done if they get the posties involved and especially the reserves who have done a few of the walks. They will know which duties are light and which could have a bit taken off, what loops you could switch onto what duties. Instead what you get is a miss match with duties sprawling all over town and criss crossing each other. If the planners get involved prepare to be sent zig zagging and dead walking.
That’s what SHOULD happen. The reserves know all the walks. Which means they will never be asked.
’You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.’
It doesn't matter whether postie's get involved or not, they already know how many duties they want to take out beforehand. If you help them, then you will be the scapegoat when it goes wrong.
The faults we have discovered so far are that the AI planned route has not taken in to account the terrain
So are these duties based on some new version of Pegasus ? I thought delivery 2.0 was all about changing the office layout not increasing the size of the duties but then why am i not surprised
I love computers and what they can do for us, however I known their limitations. You can't throw something as complex as postal deliveries into a computer and expect it to throw out anything that is coherent in real world practice. This is where RM go wrong time and again.
Revisions fail because top brass work on the 'letters are down' game. Yes they are but the top brass seem to think that the amount we deliver is massively less than it actually is. 4 years on from our last balls up revision we're having another one on the assumption that we now deliver 60% letters less than we actually do it really is best to just let them get on with it, work ot if you want or finish on time,the rest is in the managers court
I love computers and what they can do for us, however I known their limitations. You can't throw something as complex as postal deliveries into a computer and expect it to throw out anything that is coherent in real world practice. This is where RM go wrong time and again.
Garbage in, garbage out.
I don't know how with every revision it get ballsed up. Does all the documentation from the last one go on a bonfire after it goes live? If so, step one would be documenting all the existing frames and mapping their routes before taking a chainsaw to them. Mainly so I don't walk into the office to find addresses missing, phantom addresses, A class roads zig-zagged, and dead walking where there was no dead walking before.
I don't know how with every revision it get ballsed up. Does all the documentation from the last one go on a bonfire after it goes live? If so, step one would be documenting all the existing frames and mapping their routes before taking a chainsaw to them. Mainly so I don't walk into the office to find addresses missing, phantom addresses, A class roads zig-zagged, and dead walking where there was no dead walking before.
It doesn't help that the mail sequencing hasn't been updated in years and years. This showed up badly in the bench merging trials from months ago now. With the flexibility that a frame (RM2000) gives you if the coded is off it really doesn't matter. You just fire in the coded and if (when) it jumps to another road on the frame you as a human just take one or two steps left or right or pivot and carry on. When that random chunk stops you return to the place you originally left off and carry on.
No one seems bothered about the coded being off as it really doesn't matter when you have a human prepping the frame. Once you don't have a frame - like bench merging - or you are pulling how the sequence is run into a planning tool... the problems will start. And that's just the initial problems.
No one is bothered about correcting the data (who's going to spend an hour at the end of shift discussing how the coded is off? What needs to be corrected so it's "perfect"? Nope. Pouch off - bug*er off) and I suspect that faulty data is causing problems to start with. From there it only gets worst because I bet the planners don't weight the Z axis in to their tools (height) - like it's better for the walker to be dropped at the top of a hill and zig-zag or back-to-back the mail down the steep hill than to hump light mail but a shed load of packets up a hill and dead walk it back down.
It's all these little things we do when prepping and pulling the mail out that make our lives easier and it doesn't easily scale when the planners are sat at their keyboards.
I don't know how with every revision it get ballsed up. Does all the documentation from the last one go on a bonfire after it goes live? If so, step one would be documenting all the existing frames and mapping their routes before taking a chainsaw to them. Mainly so I don't walk into the office to find addresses missing, phantom addresses, A class roads zig-zagged, and dead walking where there was no dead walking before.
It doesn't help that the mail sequencing hasn't been updated in years and years. This showed up badly in the bench merging trials from months ago now. With the flexibility that a frame (RM2000) gives you if the coded is off it really doesn't matter. You just fire in the coded and if (when) it jumps to another road on the frame you as a human just take one or two steps left or right or pivot and carry on. When that random chunk stops you return to the place you originally left off and carry on.
No one seems bothered about the coded being off as it really doesn't matter when you have a human prepping the frame. Once you don't have a frame - like bench merging - or you are pulling how the sequence is run into a planning tool... the problems will start. And that's just the initial problems.
No one is bothered about correcting the data (who's going to spend an hour at the end of shift discussing how the coded is off? What needs to be corrected so it's "perfect"? Nope. Pouch off - bug*er off) and I suspect that faulty data is causing problems to start with. From there it only gets worst because I bet the planners don't weight the Z axis in to their tools (height) - like it's better for the walker to be dropped at the top of a hill and zig-zag or back-to-back the mail down the steep hill than to hump light mail but a shed load of packets up a hill and dead walk it back down.
It's all these little things we do when prepping and pulling the mail out that make our lives easier and it doesn't easily scale when the planners are sat at their keyboards.
The higher ups might need to pull their finger out and ensure that all DOs make sure that their Route Planner (formerly known as A+) data is up to date
The higher ups might need to pull their finger out and ensure that all DOs make sure that their Route Planner (formerly known as A+) data is up to date
I totally agree. I think trying to get a postie on delivery to sit in the DO at the end of the shift and correct the coded today is like herding cats - they just will not want to do it and it would be impossible. However, if there is every going to be a chance of them doing it, it has to be implemented from higher up that it is a priority and must be checked.
I totally agree. I think trying to get a postie on delivery to sit in the DO at the end of the shift and correct the coded today is like herding cats - they just will not want to do it and it would be impossible. However, if there is every going to be a chance of them doing it, it has to be implemented from higher up that it is a priority and must be checked.
The number of times I've covered duties and the regular postie has said pull this bit out before that house, do that one as you're delivering these two as the gate is nearer this side etc. etc.
But saying that it's mainly minor tweaks which would be easy to amend on the database but would need a lot of frame labels to be reprinted, laminated and cut to size and that's far too much effort for many managers.
it really is best to just let them get on with it, work ot if you want or finish on time,the rest is in the managers court