The problem with any system is that mail and parcel volumes differ on a day-by-day basis. Royal Mail, fuelled by a series of idiots at the very top - who have since moved on to pastures new - has adopted the 'work all contracted hours' mantra and seems to want to take it right to the very end, without acknowledging this one fundamental fact - because mail volumes differ, indoor and outdoor work varies on a daily basis. No round can be plotted by a computer to work in a particular way, and no matter what system is tried, there are days on which it won't work, whether it goes against the employer or the employee (in the former case, with the employee finishing early, in the latter case, finishing late).
If they want to create this system whereby everything is generalised and standardised, they're going to have to come up with some far more creative ways of doing it. This is simply not a job where things can be formulated and then implemented. This is not some simple logistical conundrum. Park and loop is one system that will work if the rounds are made to work, but that is unlikely to solve the problem of 'dead time' on certain days. What is going to happen then - do the loops become bigger? Do we lapse a loop (I love that sentence)? I just don't understand how any system is going to be acceptable. They have so far gone totally the wrong way with walks being too long but the old problems will arise if they go the other way.
Oh dear what a shambles. Maybe it's time folk just clocked in and clocked out and got paid from minute A to minute B, rounded up to the nearest half-hour. Make the walks so that they're approximately four hours and just let us get on with it. I know it won't appeal to some, and even I would say it's complete bonkers, but 'working your hours' will never work in a workplace that changes on a day-by-day basis.
