Failed Mystery Shopper!

[SpacePhoenix]

Something I've always wondered is how the PDA knows what items require a signature (or which internationals need a photo).

It can't be querying a remote database because that would eat endless cellular bandwidth and would add blatantly obvious latency, and also with the original Intermec PDAs you couldn't see out the day on one battery if you left it connected the whole time and yet it functioned the same. So it must be encoded into the 1D barcode. The problem must then lie in software failing to extract the AV flags. I'm sure, though, RM definitely didn't get it coded for pennies in the third world.

It would have to be encoded in the 2D barcode, the 1D barcode is literally just a tracking number.

[ted_e_bear]

Something I've always wondered is how the PDA knows what items require a signature (or which internationals need a photo).

It can't be querying a remote database because that would eat endless cellular bandwidth and would add blatantly obvious latency, and also with the original Intermec PDAs you couldn't see out the day on one battery if you left it connected the whole time and yet it functioned the same. So it must be encoded into the 1D barcode. The problem must then lie in software failing to extract the AV flags. I'm sure, though, RM definitely didn't get it coded for pennies in the third world.

It would have to be encoded in the 2D barcode, the 1D barcode is literally just a tracking number.

Nah it must be something in the sequence that triggers it, if you scan the 1d it triggers signature or just photo.

[Londonsburning]

Oh look, spacepheonix talking nonsense again lol

[SpacePhoenix]

Something I've always wondered is how the PDA knows what items require a signature (or which internationals need a photo).

It can't be querying a remote database because that would eat endless cellular bandwidth and would add blatantly obvious latency, and also with the original Intermec PDAs you couldn't see out the day on one battery if you left it connected the whole time and yet it functioned the same. So it must be encoded into the 1D barcode. The problem must then lie in software failing to extract the AV flags. I'm sure, though, RM definitely didn't get it coded for pennies in the third world.

It would have to be encoded in the 2D barcode, the 1D barcode is literally just a tracking number.

Nah it must be something in the sequence that triggers it, if you scan the 1d it triggers signature or just photo.

It's certainly not the 1D barcode, it's got to be something else. It's more likely that when they're being scanned to walks the PDA is grabbing a list of them.

Oh look, spacepheonix talking nonsense again lol

Oh look, Londonsburning acting like an idiot again lol

[Mr Rush]

It would have to be encoded in the 2D barcode, the 1D barcode is literally just a tracking number.

Nah it must be something in the sequence that triggers it, if you scan the 1d it triggers signature or just photo.

Regarding plain Signed For, the 1D cannot just be the tracking number. Even before 2D was introduced you would be prompted for a signature - that information must be somewhere, and the only place it could exist is on the packet or letter in the form of the old 13-digit barcode.

If scanning the 1D on an AV item fails to initialise the elaborate theatrics of security on the doorstep then is the problem actually lots of people not scanning the 2D even after a decade of having it hammered in? I know from observing some colleagues that this is likely the case.

[SpacePhoenix]

Regarding plain Signed For, the 1D cannot just be the tracking number. Even before 2D was introduced you would be prompted for a signature - that information must be somewhere, and the only place it could exist is on the packet or letter in the form of the old 13-digit barcode.

Before the 2D the PDAs would have gone on the two letters at the start of a tracking number. They would have been programmed to act based on them letters.

If scanning the 1D on an AV item fails to initialise the elaborate theatrics of security on the doorstep then is the problem actually lots of people not scanning the 2D even after a decade of having it hammered in? I know from observing some colleagues that this is likely the case.

With more and more items, not just ones from the UK having 2D barcodes I don't think it'll be too many years before RM and its equivalents around the world start to phase out 1D barcodes

[TopperGas]

ID barcodes have already disappeared from some Tracked labels, I had a couple this week which wouldn't scan, I guess that's progress!!

[ted_e_bear]

It would have to be encoded in the 2D barcode, the 1D barcode is literally just a tracking number.

Nah it must be something in the sequence that triggers it, if you scan the 1d it triggers signature or just photo.

Regarding plain Signed For, the 1D cannot just be the tracking number. Even before 2D was introduced you would be prompted for a signature - that information must be somewhere, and the only place it could exist is on the packet or letter in the form of the old 13-digit barcode.

If scanning the 1D on an AV item fails to initialise the elaborate theatrics of security on the doorstep then is the problem actually lots of people not scanning the 2D even after a decade of having it hammered in? I know from observing some colleagues that this is likely the case.

Scanning just the 1d on an AV item definitely initiates the process, it's mentioned above on one of the rare occasions that sp says something useful that it's determined by the 1st two letters in the barcode number

[GizzardPuke]

Scanning just the 1d on an AV item definitely initiates the process, it's mentioned above on one of the rare occasions that sp says something useful that it's determined by the 1st two letters in the barcode number

There was a glitch a few months ago where items starting OH, which is a non-signature code, were coming up as needing a signature on the PDA. It appears to have stopped now.
It's items beginning QH that need signatures so I assume whoever inputs these codes to the system did a typo!
Many years ago, pre-PDA, we had to scan all the barcodes in after the posties had finished their rounds and handed in their little bits of paper. There were often times when a new series of letters hadn't been added to the software so they were unscannable.
Mind you, half the items where the postie had written the tracking number in by hand were unscannable too due to being written in hieroglyphics or something.

[Mr Rush]

It's items beginning QH that need signatures so I assume whoever inputs these codes to the system did a typo!

Some of the printing is so bad or miniscule that I really struggle to differentiate OH from QH, especially out in the elements. There were very good reasons why certain letters did not appear in the leading two alphanumerics, same as 'I' 'O' 'Q' 'Z' either being absent entirely or positionally restricted on number plates due to the possibility for confusion. When they started doing this last year I assumed RM had ran out of unique barcodes to see them through the retention period for the tracking data.