ST Post Code - postal service is worst in mainland Britain

[Tman]

I can't see how it's possible to process mail on the roads. As Axeman pointed out, the Law prevents anyone being in the back of a Lorry or Van on the move. So the only way to do that, would be on the Railways. Wchich is why he menioned the TPO as an example.

I thought he was making a wry joke re "sorting in the back of vans" but maybe he (and possibly yourself) really don't understand the AI set-up?
It's "off-line" processing; the images can be coded at the MDECs while the letter is physically being moved in Yorks by road.
At the hub or destination it's refed into the mech for it's route code (bottom line of orange ink) to be printed, and to be sorted to the relevant box. That's the basics.

Axeman has already given one example of what can happen. We need some spare capacity, within practical traveling distance. I know that redundant backups would be impractical, due to the cost

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Fires, plane crashes etc are once in a life-time occurrences, and don't think you'll find many, if any, firms would allow for those events when planning for the future.

But machines which aren't running at full capacity, will last longer (as they aren't under as much strain) and can take some of the extra load, if something goes wrong.

They wouldn't last appreciably longer, and as most faults and breakdowns occur from so-called "cold start ups" there wouldn't be any real gain.

As I said earlier: You've obviously put a lot of thought into this, and are making some good points. But I'm still not convinced that it's a wise course of action

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Actually Andy, I haven't put any thought into it, it's just the accepted way in industry, proven over decades. As to being a wise course of action, only time will tell, but RM do have a history of making decisions, the decision-makers moving on after two years and those left behind having to pick up the pieces and rebuild....

[andy2007]

You're right about me misunderstanding the AI setup. I thought that they had to be physically loaded into a machine, to be processed. And that it was basically, a far more advanced version of what we've used for years. Sorry.

As far as the machines are concerned: Although I've never worked in an MC. But I have been driving FLTs, Scuds, etc for a long time now, in an RDC. And one thing that I've noticed over that time, is that the ones used primarily for moving high volumes of heavy items. Always start getting "worse for wear", before the ones used around the Segs, where they tend to carry less weight. Because a lot of the heavier items, come in pre-sorted. I know that it is a completely different type of machine. But I thought that the general principles of wear and tear, would apply equaly. If not. I'm sorry.

Your final comment, sums up exactly why so many of us are worried about he future of RM. We've seen the same mistakes repeated again and again. And it's really upsetting, when the service is so important to us.