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Coms choosing your duty

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toonshola
Posts: 884
Joined: 29 Jul 2011, 16:31
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by toonshola »

norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:41
hero22 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:24
We are a trial office and thats the way we have been working. They expect d2ds completed in two
Days one week and 3 days the next. Along with either double or triple mail and the guts of 200 parcels most days.

The only reason its being cleared is because overtime was no issue so in essence to achieve a clear office more money was being spent on overtime than ever before but now since January there is a complete ot ban and it just gathers up day after day.

Try and see the logic behind some of the decisions made by Royal Mail management and it’s impossible. How some of these managers even find their way into work in the morning is surprising.
Who wants to do that kind of overtime everyday.

So if singleton rurals are just staying as they are - taking everything everyday.... then that's the job to have?

Van-sharing with that new way of working will be absolute hell.
Van sharing is hell anyway. Whenever there is a repick just look at what all the most senior people pick, non of them pick to be paired with another postie because it’s the stupidest most inefficient and stressful way to do this job.

You can tell who has singleton duties in our office as they are all care free whistling and happy in the morning, then glance at the rest of us mugs on a van share trying to get it sorted before a part timer who’s never done it appears and you have to babysit them the whole shift. But you’re right it will be even worse under the new USO.
hero22
Posts: 574
Joined: 21 Mar 2016, 19:48
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by hero22 »

norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:41
hero22 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:24
We are a trial office and thats the way we have been working. They expect d2ds completed in two
Days one week and 3 days the next. Along with either double or triple mail and the guts of 200 parcels most days.

The only reason its being cleared is because overtime was no issue so in essence to achieve a clear office more money was being spent on overtime than ever before but now since January there is a complete ot ban and it just gathers up day after day.

Try and see the logic behind some of the decisions made by Royal Mail management and it’s impossible. How some of these managers even find their way into work in the morning is surprising.
Who wants to do that kind of overtime everyday.

So if singleton rurals are just staying as they are - taking everything everyday.... then that's the job to have?

Van-sharing with that new way of working will be absolute hell.

Some are happy with the extra hours, some just work to time. The rurals had been left as normal but now do half their mail , all parcels and 1st class then do the other half the next day again with parcels and all 1st class.
norris9
Posts: 2605
Joined: 27 Feb 2019, 17:32
Gender: Female

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by norris9 »

hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 11:15
norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:41
hero22 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:24
We are a trial office and thats the way we have been working. They expect d2ds completed in two
Days one week and 3 days the next. Along with either double or triple mail and the guts of 200 parcels most days.

The only reason its being cleared is because overtime was no issue so in essence to achieve a clear office more money was being spent on overtime than ever before but now since January there is a complete ot ban and it just gathers up day after day.

Try and see the logic behind some of the decisions made by Royal Mail management and it’s impossible. How some of these managers even find their way into work in the morning is surprising.
Who wants to do that kind of overtime everyday.

So if singleton rurals are just staying as they are - taking everything everyday.... then that's the job to have?

Van-sharing with that new way of working will be absolute hell.

Some are happy with the extra hours, some just work to time. The rurals had been left as normal but now do half their mail , all parcels and 1st class then do the other half the next day again with parcels and all 1st class.
Are the rural posties not working on 2 duties, alternating from duty A to duty B from day to day? surely you don't mean they only have to do half their 2nd class mail per day on 1 duty across the whole week?

If X postie does 3 days' mail Monday, 2 rounds of parcels + 1st class on Tuesday, 2 days' mail for the rest of the week... then surely that's unfair if a singleton rural just does half their duty everyday.

Workloads should be balanced as fairly as possible within reason.
Mr Rush
Posts: 2996
Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 14:27
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by Mr Rush »

norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 21:08
So isn't that...
Monday Blue = 3 days' mail. (Last went out Thurs)
Tuesday Yellow = 3 days' mail. (Last went out Fri)
Wednesday Blue = 2 days' mail.
Thursday Yellow = 2 days' mail.
Friday Blue = 2 days' mail.
Throw public holidays into the mix. Using England's Good Friday off as an example of a holiday not falling at the start or end of our working week:

Wednesday Blue = 2 day's mail.
Thursday Yellow = 2 day's mail.
Friday Blue - no delivery.
Monday Yellow = 3 day's mail.
Tuesday Blue = 4 day's mail.
The machine stops.
SMS1969
Posts: 969
Joined: 28 Jun 2021, 11:36
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by SMS1969 »

Mr Rush wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 19:23
norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 21:08
So isn't that...
Monday Blue = 3 days' mail. (Last went out Thurs)
Tuesday Yellow = 3 days' mail. (Last went out Fri)
Wednesday Blue = 2 days' mail.
Thursday Yellow = 2 days' mail.
Friday Blue = 2 days' mail.
Throw public holidays into the mix. Using England's Good Friday off as an example of a holiday not falling at the start or end of our working week:

Wednesday Blue = 2 day's mail.
Thursday Yellow = 2 day's mail.
Friday Blue - no delivery.
Monday Yellow = 3 day's mail.
Tuesday Blue = 4 day's mail.
Then when you bring back some of the 4 day’s mail it goes to 6 days on Thursday. :crazy:
hero22
Posts: 574
Joined: 21 Mar 2016, 19:48
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by hero22 »

norris9 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 15:22
hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 11:15
norris9 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:41
hero22 wrote:
04 Feb 2026, 22:24
We are a trial office and thats the way we have been working. They expect d2ds completed in two
Days one week and 3 days the next. Along with either double or triple mail and the guts of 200 parcels most days.

The only reason its being cleared is because overtime was no issue so in essence to achieve a clear office more money was being spent on overtime than ever before but now since January there is a complete ot ban and it just gathers up day after day.

Try and see the logic behind some of the decisions made by Royal Mail management and it’s impossible. How some of these managers even find their way into work in the morning is surprising.
Who wants to do that kind of overtime everyday.

So if singleton rurals are just staying as they are - taking everything everyday.... then that's the job to have?

Van-sharing with that new way of working will be absolute hell.

Some are happy with the extra hours, some just work to time. The rurals had been left as normal but now do half their mail , all parcels and 1st class then do the other half the next day again with parcels and all 1st class.
Are the rural posties not working on 2 duties, alternating from duty A to duty B from day to day? surely you don't mean they only have to do half their 2nd class mail per day on 1 duty across the whole week?

If X postie does 3 days' mail Monday, 2 rounds of parcels + 1st class on Tuesday, 2 days' mail for the rest of the week... then surely that's unfair if a singleton rural just does half their duty everyday.

Workloads should be balanced as fairly as possible within reason.
No rurals are left alone all week on their duties, doing as i said, all parcels and 1st class evey day along with half their duty 1 day and swapping the next day. Apart from Saturday when only 1st class and parcels go out along with a lapsed duty.

Town staff are slaughtered daily.
ted_e_bear
Posts: 3910
Joined: 03 Sep 2012, 19:37
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by ted_e_bear »

hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 22:13
No rurals are left alone all week on their duties, doing as i said, all parcels and 1st class evey day along with half their duty 1 day and swapping the next day. Apart from Saturday when only 1st class and parcels go out along with a lapsed duty.

Town staff are slaughtered daily.
[/quote]

So the rurals are actually doing less work than previously? Or are their duties that massive that it's the only way to "complete" them ?
Chelseablue
Posts: 2135
Joined: 19 Aug 2013, 14:33
Gender: Female

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by Chelseablue »

ted_e_bear wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 06:28
hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 22:13
No rurals are left alone all week on their duties, doing as i said, all parcels and 1st class evey day along with half their duty 1 day and swapping the next day. Apart from Saturday when only 1st class and parcels go out along with a lapsed duty.

Town staff are slaughtered daily.
.

So the rurals are actually doing less work than previously? Or are their duties that massive that it's the only way to "complete" them ?
[/quote]. So everyone else will be slaughtered while rurals just do as they are !! . That wont go down well
norris9
Posts: 2605
Joined: 27 Feb 2019, 17:32
Gender: Female

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by norris9 »

Chelseablue wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 10:56
ted_e_bear wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 06:28
hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 22:13
No rurals are left alone all week on their duties, doing as i said, all parcels and 1st class evey day along with half their duty 1 day and swapping the next day. Apart from Saturday when only 1st class and parcels go out along with a lapsed duty.

Town staff are slaughtered daily.
.

So the rurals are actually doing less work than previously? Or are their duties that massive that it's the only way to "complete" them ?

So everyone else will be slaughtered while rurals just do as they are !!. That wont go down well
I don't even see how that would be allowed. It's blatant unfairness. Some posties doing half a duty on single days' mail on a singleton, whilst others do full duties of 3 days' mail in a van-share. WTF.

Van-sharing is going to be an absolute disaster with this new way of working. It won't be worth staying at the company - you'll be stressed daily.

The Union say Royal Mail can't retain new staff, but what about the % of staff that have left on the legacy contracts in the past 3 years, since the different contracts came in..... Half our large office are on the new contracts, so that's 50% of legacy staff gone in 3 years. Royal Mail struggle to retain staff whether on ok pay and terms or less than ok pay and terms.
ted_e_bear
Posts: 3910
Joined: 03 Sep 2012, 19:37
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by ted_e_bear »

norris9 wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 15:15
Chelseablue wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 10:56
ted_e_bear wrote:
06 Feb 2026, 06:28
hero22 wrote:
05 Feb 2026, 22:13
No rurals are left alone all week on their duties, doing as i said, all parcels and 1st class evey day along with half their duty 1 day and swapping the next day. Apart from Saturday when only 1st class and parcels go out along with a lapsed duty.

Town staff are slaughtered daily.
.

So the rurals are actually doing less work than previously? Or are their duties that massive that it's the only way to "complete" them ?

So everyone else will be slaughtered while rurals just do as they are !!. That wont go down well
I don't even see how that would be allowed. It's blatant unfairness. Some posties doing half a duty on single days' mail on a singleton, whilst others do full duties of 3 days' mail in a van-share. WTF.
That's what I thought it's absolutely batshit f***ing crazy, I think the reasoning behind it is some clown above thinks that driving round a rural with only parcels takes no less than doing the whole duty - it absolutely does it makes a massive difference it takes loads less time. :crazy:
hero22
Posts: 574
Joined: 21 Mar 2016, 19:48
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by hero22 »

The rurals are back early a fair amount of the time since we began this last May i think
It was. Some are sent out with stuff the towns have left or sit around the office. To be honest the Towns are made up with a large chunk of new starts who know no different, the rest of us have either lost the will to argue, work to
Time or are happy with the overtime. That was until the maniacs cancelled it all.
MERLIN681901
Posts: 14
Joined: 29 Jun 2007, 22:34

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by MERLIN681901 »

All our rurals were going over until the network changes came in and no one was willing to work past the 16.30 finish time so all duties cut off. We are now a trial office with the rurals doing 50/50.
That means we’re taking out all the parcels and first class for the whole duty and alternating the second class so we’re doing double mail on half the duty every day not just a single days as in the previous comments.Most days are just about manageable but on heavy tracked days we still have to cut off.
And as for the batshit crazy comment you seem to be under the same crazy impression as some managers that driving down a road with only a parcel and no letters somehow makes the distance shorter.
All that happens is you go to a stop one day with the tracked parcel then go back the next day with the second class so no actual time is being saved.
norris9
Posts: 2605
Joined: 27 Feb 2019, 17:32
Gender: Female

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by norris9 »

With the new way of working (if it comes in) the person who is doing the 2 rounds of parcels + 1st class mail should try to take the 2nd class mail for all the houses they are going to with parcels....

At least that's what I think should happen in our office as doing 2 rounds of parcels within time isn't that difficult, especially when you know exactly where you are going, and especially if the parcel volume is sub 100 for the 2 rounds.
SMS1969
Posts: 969
Joined: 28 Jun 2021, 11:36
Gender: Male

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by SMS1969 »

norris9 wrote:
07 Feb 2026, 17:06
With the new way of working (if it comes in) the person who is doing the 2 rounds of parcels + 1st class mail should try to take the 2nd class mail for all the houses they are going to with parcels....

At least that's what I think should happen in our office as doing 2 rounds of parcels within time isn't that difficult, especially when you know exactly where you are going, and especially if the parcel volume is sub 100 for the 2 rounds.
That’s the idea yes, so it makes it slightly easier when it’s treble mail, Monday and Tuesday. Going to miss the lighter days, as it was today. :cry
MERLIN681901
Posts: 14
Joined: 29 Jun 2007, 22:34

Re: Coms choosing your duty

Post by MERLIN681901 »

That would be the sensible idea but unfortunately the second class mail that isn’t due delivery that day isn’t sent to the delivery office but is held at the mail centre due to the DTS algorithm