Post bikes

[A2B]

I think there is a sea change coming in deliveries that will utilise the vehicles and have outworkers on delivery on part time contracts replenished by the vans who will deliver parcels and packets and do a cut down delivery.

Hasn't that been happening for years! Our deliveries are mainly done by HCT, large packets and specials are done by a driver who will also bring out any mail that couldn't be carried in the HCT

[dvbuk55]

I think there is a sea change coming in deliveries that will utilise the vehicles and have outworkers on delivery on part time contracts replenished by the vans who will deliver parcels and packets and do a cut down delivery.

Hasn't that been happening for years! Our deliveries are mainly done by HCT, large packets and specials are done by a driver who will also bring out any mail that couldn't be carried in the HCT

It will of course be horses for courses, out of 100 duties only 16 are HCT the rest are P&L or rural vans. It was, in the day, that outworkers were in rural areas who lived there and the mail was dropped off at their home and they delivered from there. With the advent of PDAs that would/could pose a problem unless it was addressed with the new version.

[Brain Fury]

The Millennium was replaced by the Mailstar in 2001 but remained in service for a minimum of 7 years after that and a few are probably still in use now. No bikes were sold by RM - they could only be scrapped or donated to charity so no Millennium or Mailstar being sold is entirely legitimate. To be honest with so few bikes left in service and those due to go within a few months it probably doesn't matter.

Prior to the African recycling scheme the way to deal with BLRd and replacement cycles was to saw out the frame number and keep it as proof of destruction, the frame was then scrapped. Later of course nobody really cared what happened to them, RM became totally disinterested in them and latterly would not replace them and suggested that the cycle mechanic should decide if it was roadworthy or not. Can you imagine the furore if an OPG cycle mechanic said the bike was OK and there was a frame failure, fork failure etc. I refused to make the decision and would only let the cycle out if a manager signed the bikes log sheet to say he was happy the bike was roadworthy. Incidentally each cycle had its own log book and any repairs and services carried out were duly noted.

You're right that the advent of the DM Project was taken as an opportunity to drastically reduce the supply of new bikes not least because due to use of private cars we had far more bikes than were actually being used on delivery. AFAIK the last major purchase of bikes was in 2007. That was not an unreasonable decision except of course that DM took a lot longer than originally planned to be deployed. The lifespan of bikes was often misinterpreted anyway. The 7 year period didn't mean that it would suddenly fall apart a day later, it was actually the time after which the cost of replacement of components made it more economic to buy a new bike. Later the Mailstar was independently tested and was found to be robust enough for a 10 year life. So it wasn't unreasonable to ask cycle mechanics to assess road worthiness. Steel bike frames won't suddenly fail like aluminium does, any split will take a while to develop to the point where the frame might fail so provided the bikes are regularly inspected there shouldn't have been a particular risk. A bigger risk was the failure to replace the handlebars on schedule.

RM has been dealing with the Re-Cycle - Bikes to Africa charity for over 12 years but the problem was that they couldn't collect the redundant bikes and RM was forced to pay a separate carrier to get them to Colchester. Alternatively bikes could be scrapped by sawing the frames in half but the waste skip contractor often objected if more than the odd bike was put in a skip. The effects of the DM Project changed the game. Whereas previously the maximum number of bikes donated to Africa in a year had been about 2000, under DM it was faced with the prospect of disposing of over 20,000 bikes in 2 or 3 years. Fortunately a second charity was found that would collect bikes and could cope with the additional volume so it was no longer necessary to scrap bikes. At no point in the last 20 years has RM policy been to allow bikes to be given or sold to anyone in the UK.

[Brain Fury]

I don't know what happened to the bikes nationally but in our DO they were left to rust in the bike sheds, they were abandoned and fell apart.

One day last Summer an Irish man in a truck came onto the site and asked if he could load them all onto his vehicle and take them away, I said I'd have to call manager. I did and the Irish fella offered my Lino a grand if he let them take them away, of course my Lino refused. His vehicle was seen circulating the premises every day/evening for the next week or so. A week later a skip was ordered and all of the bikes disposed of.

What a waste of money. I wonder what happened to the bikes in your offices???

Incidentally, the same happened to all our old sorting frames and drop bag frames. Why didn't someone in RM get them collected by a metal recycling facility and make some money back? Their policies baffle me.

I assume you've been through a Delivery Methods revision by now in which case all the information about how to dispose of the redundant bikes was part of the planning and implementation process. Sounds like it has simply been ignored locally. I think there were arrangements for the frames etc but I'm not sure

[dvbuk55]

I assume you've been through a Delivery Methods revision by now in which case all the information about how to dispose of the redundant bikes was part of the planning and implementation process. Sounds like it has simply been ignored locally. I think there were arrangements for the frames etc but I'm not sure

Well having the information on the disposal and actually getting anyone to deal with it are two totally different issues, hence the abandonment of the poor two wheeled mites to a fate worse than an Irish tinker.

[da'bunny]

I saw this for sale last year at a local steam rally, personally I cant see the appeal of the post bikes ,I always found them the worst bikes ive ever ridden!

[dvbuk55]

I saw this for sale last year at a local steam rally, personally I cant see the appeal of the post bikes ,I always found them the worst bikes ive ever ridden!

This was an early model because it has calliper and rod brakes and was single geared. The later models had 3 gears The Millenium followed by the Mailstar I think had 5 gears and was by far the easiest to maintain.

[Brain Fury]

I think the picture is a RM92 which preceded the Millennium. I can't remember how many gears the Millennium had but the Mailstar had 5 gears when introduced but was reduced the 3 later on.

[NWpostie]

I saw this for sale last year at a local steam rally, personally I cant see the appeal of the post bikes ,I always found them the worst bikes ive ever ridden!

I remembered riding them, the brakes were lethal and didn't inspire confidence when going down a hill, I didn't think it would stop in time if a car were to pull out of a junction, I remember going down particularly steep hill and it going a touch too fast and my brakes was not really doing much just snatching on the rims I certainly used up 3 of my 9 lives that day.