CURRENTLY TRIALLING DM26 HCT’s

[SpacePhoenix]

Wider review....which will be given a new review date. Then at that date it will be given a further deadline for review ad infinitum until all the 40hr get pissed off and quit.

Union is a joke.

In other news we've been told there will be NO HCT duties once DM26 is implemented. which doesn't fair well for the guy thats got a OHT thing to say he can't work in vans.
He's been told he'll need a review by OHT

How far away is your local MC? His only hope is if the local MC has capacity for a DDA case, though that could still end up being night shift.

[TopperGas]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

Agreed the only option agreed was that those on 40 hrs could reduce their hours to 37 with the resulting loss of 3 hrs pay.

Although how RM works probably somebody will post sooner or later they are either being allowed to leave work 30 mins or so early each day, or have to sit in the DO for that length of time when they get back.

Taken from The CWU website:
“ I am a new entrant full-time worker, will my hours/pay go down?

No. Royal Mail has agreed to end the practice of hiring full-time workers on 40 hours per week. From 1/6/26, all full-time new starters joining Royal Mail after this date will be on 37 hours a week. Those employed before the 1st of June 2026 will still be on their existing hours. This is an important step towards equalising terms for new entrants.

If you are a new entrant (joined after Dec 2022) and on a full-time contract at 38/39/40 hours, our aim as part of the wider review is to reduce your hours to 37 hours, with no loss of pay.

For part-time new entrants, you will have an opportunity to increase your hours in the near future. Royal Mail has agreed to bring the average hours for part-time new entrants from 31 hours to 35 hours. ”

If that aim was ever achieved we'd have a 3 tier workforce, legacy contracts on 37 hours with their old rate of pay, new contracts on 37 hours but paid for working 40 hours each week, and new, new contracts paid for 37 hours work each week.

[lillywhite]

This is at odds with what we were told,area managers came in and said if HCTs work for you,crack on.

[Shaugi]

Wider review....which will be given a new review date. Then at that date it will be given a further deadline for review ad infinitum until all the 40hr get pissed off and quit.

Union is a joke.

In other news we've been told there will be NO HCT duties once DM26 is implemented. which doesn't fair well for the guy thats got a OHT thing to say he can't work in vans.
He's been told he'll need a review by OHT

How far away is your local MC? His only hope is if the local MC has capacity for a DDA case, though that could still end up being night shift.

About an hour away.

Apparently he's bene told he can still use HCT and be replenished. Which will kick s**t off with the others that don't want to give up their trolley.
My HCT duty is going to be a shared van with the one it butts up against....suits me, I get on with the guy on that one, we usually finish delivery about the same time and go have our 30min break. we work at roughly the same speed so a shared van would work fine.
Catch is we're both early 70s on the seniority list and the office has 10 pods....so we're probably far enough down the list to not get a shot at keeping our duties.

[Barnacle]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

Agreed the only option agreed was that those on 40 hrs could reduce their hours to 37 with the resulting loss of 3 hrs pay.

Although how RM works probably somebody will post sooner or later they are either being allowed to leave work 30 mins or so early each day, or have to sit in the DO for that length of time when they get back.

Taken from The CWU website:
“ I am a new entrant full-time worker, will my hours/pay go down?

No. Royal Mail has agreed to end the practice of hiring full-time workers on 40 hours per week. From 1/6/26, all full-time new starters joining Royal Mail after this date will be on 37 hours a week. Those employed before the 1st of June 2026 will still be on their existing hours. This is an important step towards equalising terms for new entrants.

If you are a new entrant (joined after Dec 2022) and on a full-time contract at 38/39/40 hours, our aim as part of the wider review is to reduce your hours to 37 hours, with no loss of pay.

For part-time new entrants, you will have an opportunity to increase your hours in the near future. Royal Mail has agreed to bring the average hours for part-time new entrants from 31 hours to 35 hours. ”

If that aim was ever achieved we'd have a 3 tier workforce, legacy contracts on 37 hours with their old rate of pay, new contracts on 37 hours but paid for working 40 hours each week, and new, new contracts paid for 37 hours work each week.

The confusion (people thinking they were going to be dropped down from 40hrs to 37 or 35hrs), might com from it being discussed by the leadership as a possibility as part of equalisation discussions next year.

When legacy dropped down from 40 (or was it 43hrs?), to 39 and then 37, they lost no pay. The aim at the time was to drop everyone down to 35 and shorten the number of days worked.

The leadership have suggested the possibility of doing the same thing with New Contracts on 40hrs - dropping down to 37hrs with no loss of pay.

[postslippete]

HCT's are meant to be doing 50/50.

They take everything for half of their duty and the other half only tracked and 1st class.

Then it is up to management how the remainder of your delivery time is spent. Some offices are dividing another HCT duty up and dividing it between the other HCT duties. For example dividing it between three HCT duties so you each take a third.

Others are scrapping HCT's all together and making them van shares.

Others are giving them tracked and 1st from duties that are nearby their duties as relief.

The only thing that is concrete is that if you are still on a HCT you should only be doing 50/50. With later finish times and not having to walk up every garden path it gives you more time to do more workload.

We haven't started DM26 officially yet but at the moment HCTs are delivering everything. And they present RM with a problem:

1. They could make 2 HCTs into a van share but there is a shortage of vans

2. The HCT routes can't really be divided up or given Tracked and 1c from other duties either because of the distance travelled to these areas. The HCT duties have had calls added on with the imposed revision but they are still achievable.


So the only thing that RM can do is to properly revise the duties to ensure that it is possible for them to do the 50/50 model. Without a full revision there won't be any savings from them and it is the same for the singleton van duties in our office.

[guardianangel]

No need to stress as everyone keeps saying do your hours and chill and breath in the fresh air ,let the linos stress,we are all nearly on minimum wage why is everyone worried ,they wont get me to quit ,the more pressure they put on the slower i go ,the workers have the power not a few power money hungry bosses,im just enjoying watching it all unfold and collapse.

[WalkerX]

We're going live in about 2 weeks...so far the office hasn't been told any of the new duty set ups cos the planner is still working on them.

I'm hoping that nobody wants an HCT duty cos I like having mine.

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

Planner *scoffs*. We had two in several times, who just seemed to drink coffee and order out for Greggs. They have n`t done anything, except move some frames.
Some people in an easier pod, get back early and are sent out again to help their colleagues, such are the inequalities of walk loads and area covered.
We had walks taken out, and those walks were carved up and bolted on to existing walks. One has a "bolt on" that is about 2 miles away at least. It`s obvious that these walks should be put back in , not add another third to an already almost impossible walk, THAT is planning, but it goes against RMs "cut the head count" mantra.
Ye shall reap what you sow my friends, ye shall reap.

[WalkerX]

No need to stress as everyone keeps saying do your hours and chill and breath in the fresh air ,let the linos stress,we are all nearly on minimum wage why is everyone worried ,they wont get me to quit ,the more pressure they put on the slower i go ,the workers have the power not a few power money hungry bosses,im just enjoying watching it all unfold and collapse.

[reddevils]

From the looks of lots of posts it looks like DM26 is being rushed in typical Royal Mail style. Revisions should have been done in a uniform style in every office to make this new way of working achievable. They should have been done in the preceding years to meet a specific standard but they failed to do this across the UK.
I understand every office is different but you can't rearrange chairs on the titanic, avoiding the real problem entirely and expect a different outcome.

How management/planners earn these obscene bonuses I do not know!

[SpacePhoenix]

From the looks of lots of posts it looks like DM26 is being rushed in typical Royal Mail style. Revisions should have been done in a uniform style in every office to make this new way of working achievable. They should have been done in the preceding years to meet a specific standard but they failed to do this across the UK.
I understand every office is different but you can't rearrange chairs on the titanic, avoiding the real problem entirely and expect a different outcome.

How management/planners earn these obscene bonuses I do not know!

It seems like the biggest DOs in the area covered by us have been moved over to DM26 for the mech whether they were ready or not. It'll be possible to tell if as I suspect, RM have moved all DOs over to DM26 for the mech.

[Jb1969]

From the looks of lots of posts it looks like DM26 is being rushed in typical Royal Mail style. Revisions should have been done in a uniform style in every office to make this new way of working achievable. They should have been done in the preceding years to meet a specific standard but they failed to do this across the UK.
I understand every office is different but you can't rearrange chairs on the titanic, avoiding the real problem entirely and expect a different outcome.

How management/planners earn these obscene bonuses I do not know!

Absolutely, could not agree more.
Had 20min with a planner few wks ago, even he had the balls to say it’s mad!
Delivery coming back later so the 600s are missing the afternoon collections.
Finals are bulking out because we cannot cope with both.
Getting a 600 in at 4pm ish & then having it turned around for the 6pm finals is hilarious.
Processing are starting to go nuts at why so much mail is arriving back later & then failing.
DM26 is just a cost exercise, stuff quality.

[SpacePhoenix]

From the looks of lots of posts it looks like DM26 is being rushed in typical Royal Mail style. Revisions should have been done in a uniform style in every office to make this new way of working achievable. They should have been done in the preceding years to meet a specific standard but they failed to do this across the UK.
I understand every office is different but you can't rearrange chairs on the titanic, avoiding the real problem entirely and expect a different outcome.

How management/planners earn these obscene bonuses I do not know!

Absolutely, could not agree more.
Had 20min with a planner few wks ago, even he had the balls to say it’s mad!
Delivery coming back later so the 600s are missing the afternoon collections.
Finals are bulking out because we cannot cope with both.
Getting a 600 in at 4pm ish & then having it turned around for the 6pm finals is hilarious.
Processing are starting to go nuts at why so much mail is arriving back later & then failing.
DM26 is just a cost exercise, stuff quality.

Final dispatch times from outward to inward MCs will be made later, with the knock-on affect of dispatch times from inward MCs to DOs being made later.

[reddevils]

"Final dispatch times from outward to inward MCs will be made later, with the knock-on affect of dispatch times from inward MCs to DOs being made later."

When does this go live? There is a recent LTB from the union about duty picking and changing rota shifts/ dispatch times at mail centres. Do all mail centres go live at the same time or is it being deployed in a staggered fashion? What date/s is this happening?

[SpacePhoenix]

"Final dispatch times from outward to inward MCs will be made later, with the knock-on affect of dispatch times from inward MCs to DOs being made later."

When does this go live? There is a recent LTB from the union about duty picking and changing rota shifts/ dispatch times at mail centres. Do all mail centres go live at the same time or is it being deployed in a staggered fashion? What date/s is this happening?

We've not heard anything yet. My guess is that they're monitoring the affects to see how much is failing before they decide what to do. If the mail is arriving at the outward MC later and a lot is failing, then chances are that dispatch times will have to be pushed back to give time to process it. it might mean that the DTS algorithm has to be run later, the cut off time for running outward is 22:00.