Walkers on P/L luck of the draw with drivers

[eastie]

After a year of P/L its pot luck with the drivers

Good Drivers
Help out walkers if they have not many packets or are ahead
They will check before they load the van to see if the walker has packets for where he is delivering
Give bag drops asap

Selfish Drivers
Think only about themselves
Dont double up their packets with the walkers is they are going to the same address
Thin their own bags out of packets
Dont do bag drops when called by the walker slowing the walker down so as to cut off even more
turn their phone off until they're ready
Do later loops to get ahead

[DGP1]

It's one of the things I don't get about van shares, 2 people who have to clear the whole delivery..............doesn't matter who is supposed to do what, it just matters that it's done (I know that it sounds like some sort of management line but it's not), you have your 8 hours to work and if you need to walk a bit more and deliver a bit more then so be it, no point in being selfish and thinking that it's all about how little you can get away with.

[jagger]

Can't understand why drivers won't take packets that double up.
Would never use my own phone on delivery though. If Royal Mail want me to take calls from people on my van they should provide me(and them) with phones.

[krussel]

I am with DGP1 on this.

We are not yet P/L so i cannot comment. However it reminds me of (many years ago) when i used to double with a driver on OT. You nearly always got stiched up and actually delivered 3/4 of the walk why the driver sat at the end of the road in the van

[argyllflyer]

Give bag drops asap

Thought you said you had park and loop? Shouldn't be any bag drops now

[Stormproof]

It works both ways, being a driver its pot luck which walker you are paired up with.

[fishtank]

I think this good/bad driver/walker nonsense argument has very little merit as long as you do the job properly.
I've had around 20 different partners over the last two years,some slow,some fast,some boring,some interesting,some selfish and some helpful.
It's never made the slightest bit of difference to my working day.....probably because i'm all growed up now.
I could see how if you're still chasing time or panicking about getting finished small irritations might flare up into major issues but that's more about your state of mind than the circumstances themselves.

And eastie...phoning up for bag drops...really?
Park&Loop it's called...you park...and you loop.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

After a year of P/L its pot luck with the drivers



Selfish Drivers
Think only about themselves
Dont double up their packets with the walkers is they are going to the same address
Thin their own bags out of packets
Dont do bag drops when called by the walker slowing the walker down so as to cut off even more
turn their phone off until they're ready
Do later loops to get ahead

Not trying to be funny - I am being serious - is this post a study in Irony. Just for instance - if selfish drivers only think for themselves - does a selfish walker expect a driver to drop everything when he is ready for his next bag, slowing down the driver so as to cut off even more.

As with most things I guess it deppends on each persons POV but I much prefer FTs way of looking at it.

[Hitcher]

It works both ways, being a driver its pot luck which walker you are paired up with.

This, it works both ways.

Me and the driver both together to get the job done - I'll take large packets or take one of his loops if there's room on my trolley, and gives him more time to delivery some of my loops later on.

[goldy]

It's one of the things I don't get about van shares, 2 people who have to clear the whole delivery..............doesn't matter whole is supposed to do what, it just matters that it's done (I know that it sounds like some sort of management line but it's not), you have your 8 hours to work and if you need to walk a bit more and deliver a bit more then so be it, no point in being selfish and thinking that it's all about how little you can get away with.

Iam coming to the conclusion that p & l doesnt actually work its just a big expensive mess it only works if two guys do the same days and take the same holidays and get on work as a team etc, otherwise its a logistical nightmare fundamentally. Cant see RM getting rid of it now like they did the Consignia name change in early 2000 the only reason people havnt left is there are no other jobs around i Know we always say this but i really am looking for a move .

[DGP1]

It's one of the things I don't get about van shares, 2 people who have to clear the whole delivery..............doesn't matter whole is supposed to do what, it just matters that it's done (I know that it sounds like some sort of management line but it's not), you have your 8 hours to work and if you need to walk a bit more and deliver a bit more then so be it, no point in being selfish and thinking that it's all about how little you can get away with.

Iam coming to the conclusion that p & l doesnt actually work its just a big expensive mess it only works if two guys do the same days and take the same holidays and get on work as a team etc, otherwise its a logistical nightmare fundamentally. Cant see RM getting rid of it now like they did the Consignia name change in early 2000 the only reason people havnt left is there are no other jobs around i Know we always say this but i really am looking for a move .

I think it's a legitimate system of delivery if it's properly done, from the planning stage right through to the delivery element, plus, as FT says, it's all about how you deal with it, do you think of this as a job that you can shave some time off to finish a bit early or is it job somewhere you go for 8 hours and do whatever work they give you to fill those hours. I know that I'm much happier when I'm actually working and not sitting on my arse waiting but then that might be just me

[alloria]

Although I agree with what you are saying, Park and Loop has been a complete mess overall, there are actually times where it works.

On one of the walks I was on, there was a street that we used to split into three parts, two of which were roughly equal in size, and a much smaller last part. Whoever would finish and get back to the van first really depended on the number of packets we had, so whoever got back to the van first would do the third part.

Sometimes I would get back to the van and the driver would already be doing the last part (so I would get the next street bags ready) or I would get back first, so I would grab the last part.

It worked really well, but only on that ONE Street! If every street were like that, it would be great.

I was also lucky to have a driver who was very helpful.

[fishtank]

Iam coming to the conclusion that p & l doesnt actually work its just a big expensive mess.

Park&Loop does work,it's just more inefficient than a single delivery.
Anybody who has been in the job for any length of time could have told RM that and some of us did about 4 years ago when the idea first appeared...they didn't listen.
If you couple that with the increase in packet traffic and decrease in letter traffic it stands to reason that your cost per item will rise.
What went wrong with park&loop was that managers have been tasked with cutting hours from delivery offices at the same time as introducing the new delivery methods,it was a crazy idea that these revisions would cut costs,any saving from the introduction of walk sequenced mail was negated by the introduction of D2D into workload and any savings from removing conveyance duties had to be re-invested into the delivery side.
The position of senior Royal Mail management should have been to introduce these changes with at best a zero overall cost to office budget.
Instead they took bad advice from somebody and got greedy resulting in the mayhem of failing revisions and bullying and harassment of our members as managers panicked.
The union hasn't exactly covered itself in glory either through poor training of reps,poor support from branch and an unwillingness to even accept there was a problem for the first 18 months.

[TheCobra]

It's all about teamwork, some people are good at it and others aren't.

The fact is, a lot of postmen got used to being pretty selfish in the days before P&L, there are a lot like that in my office who only care about themselves and getting themselves out the building and home in time for Jeremy Kyle.

P&L has changed the whole nature of being a postman, from working by yourself most of the time to having to work together with someone, it really is clear in my office that for some people it is a massive struggle. There's no 'I' in team as they say!

[eastie]

Give bag drops asap

Thought you said you had park and loop? Shouldn't be any bag drops now

Where do I put my 12 bags for my delivery then ??
The driver has my bags in our van and when I finish my 2 bags on my trolley I ring him for the next ones, as there are fields on one side of the road none of our loops start or finish at the same point .
More like park and straight line
example.
My driver has 100 calls on his 1st bag and then delivers all the large packets for his and my 1st bags whilst I have approx 200 calls.
As he always finishes15 mins before me most days he decides to thin out his other bags and delivers them and waits until he is pranked by me sitting in his van eating sandwiches before he brings my next bag
This then makes his (drivers) next bag even lighter and quicker to deliver and this carries on rather than dropping my next bag off to me as he knows I am nearly finished.
I must lose 5 minutes per bag waiting for my 8 drops so that is 40 minutes and whilst I am waiting he is delivering packets or delivering parts of his later loops.
When I do the driver part of my round on occasions I work as a team and easily finish on time helping the walker when I can but the driver I have at the moment is just taking the p*ss . The DOM knows whats going on but as the driver is the Health and Safety rep so lets him get away with it.