Posties given trollies as bikes are banned

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.lep.co.uk/weirdnews/Posties- ... 5608343.jp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lancashire posties are being made to hike miles from the start of their rounds after being banned from getting on their bikes.
Delivery workers on town and city centre rounds have been told they must use high-capacity trolleys rather than traditional bicycles which have been used on rounds for almost 130 years.

One worker at Royal Mail's delivery office in Leyland said that disgruntled posties were unhappy that they were made to walk for miles from the start of their round and then have to walk back to the delivery office.

The worker, who asked not to be named, said: "It is simply because we can take more mail in one of these trolleys than we can on a bike, but sometimes we can be out for three-and-a-half hours and always walking away from where we started.

"At least on the bike you can pedal a bit quicker if it starts to rain. With these trolleys you are stuck out there whatever the weather."

She said other posties were unhappy at a new "park-and-loop" system being trialled where a pair of workers drive a van out to a pre-arranged point and start deliveries from there. When they complete their rounds, they drive to the next point and start again.

A worker said: "It is car-sharing for postmen, they brought it in last year but people do not like it because different people go at different speeds so you are relying on other people."

Andy Tatchell, of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) office in Preston, said the union currently had no national agreements with Royal Mail about the trolleys.

He said: "These practices are more due to the way mail is delivered these days. There is a common misconception that the number of letters being delivered has dropped, in fact it has risen.

"Back when I used to deliver mail, you might have had one or maybe two bags. Now you are nearer five or six bags so delivering by bike just is not practical."

A spokesman for Royal Mail confirmed it had introduced high-capacity trolleys on some routes in Leyland in a bid to "lighten the load" of its workers.

She said: "This is part of our national review to ensure we continue to deliver the mail as efficiently as possible to our customers.

"Any changes are discussed with our people first but we will continue to use a range of vehicles, including vans, trolleys and bikes where appropriate and customers should see no significant changes."

[shadow]

I think this is going to be a blow to those poor guys that lost their jobs for not wearing their helmets. They should be reinstated. Even more so now that bikes are banned.

[dvbuk55]

"Andy Tatchell, of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) office in Preston, said the union currently had no national agreements with Royal Mail about the trolleys.

He said: "These practices are more due to the way mail is delivered these days. There is a common misconception that the number of letters being delivered has dropped, in fact it has risen.

"Back when I used to deliver mail, you might have had one or maybe two bags. Now you are nearer five or six bags so delivering by bike just is not practical."

FFS Andy Tatchell is a local full time union official and he thinks posties only have 5 or 6 bags to deliver, it's more like 5+6 bags - it really is time these bods got off their ars*s and visited delivery offices and spoke to the membership - maybe they'd have a better idea of what reality is. The union needs sorting out root and branch and especially branch - the gentlemans club has to stop and they must start behaving like representatives of the membership.

[Fluke]

The walks should have been risk assessed prior to deployment and the postmen given suitable training. If this hasnt been done then they are within their rights to refuse to use the new equipment and insist on retaining their bikes untill its been done and agreed.

[Big Daz]

I have 4 bags on average sometimes 3 on a light day and 5 on a heavy (weight) day

Saturday i had 29kg of mail, yet yesterday it was almost double.

[BELIAL]

I have 4 bags on average sometimes 3 on a light day and 5 on a heavy (weight) day

Saturday i had 29kg of mail, yet yesterday it was almost double.

You are kidding? aren't you? If not let me be your ghost of pre christmas future,it ain't pretty and you won't like it

[guswood]

I have 4 bags on average sometimes 3 on a light day and 5 on a heavy (weight) day

Saturday i had 29kg of mail, yet yesterday it was almost double.

Where are you delivering-on a desert island ?
I have on average 100kilo of mail to deliver most days and now we are in September it will only get heavier

[BELIAL]

My thoughts exactly

[Big Daz]

I have 4 bags on average sometimes 3 on a light day and 5 on a heavy (weight) day

Saturday i had 29kg of mail, yet yesterday it was almost double.

Where are you delivering-on a desert island ?
I have on average 100kilo of mail to deliver most days and now we are in September it will only get heavier

That comrade is a perfect post


It proves beyond all doubt that as CWU say, mail levels vary from function to function and from D.O to D.O.

[jcjd]

If a delivery starting point is more then 15mins walking distance from your office then an HCT shouldn't be used

[dvbuk55]

I have 4 bags on average sometimes 3 on a light day and 5 on a heavy (weight) day

Saturday i had 29kg of mail, yet yesterday it was almost double.

Where are you delivering-on a desert island ?
I have on average 100kilo of mail to deliver most days and now we are in September it will only get heavier

That comrade is a perfect post


It proves beyond all doubt that as CWU say, mail levels vary from function to function and from D.O to D.O.

How long would you say it takes you to deliver that and how many drops on your delivery and how many deliveries like that in your office?

[Big Daz]

Put it like this the duty were the person is back to back with me is FT mine is PT 30 hours.

He has less stops but more mail.

His delivery is further away from the office than mine, in fact his toytal travel time is double that of mine.

Mail levels seem to be more driven by how affulent any paticular area is rather than the amount of calls on the round.

As for my delivery it can be done within 3.5 hours, yet ive had days where ive gone under 3 hours and others where its been closer to 4 hours.

Its the exact same cadet round I did in 1991 to 1993 when we had 2.5 hour span with 35 houses added on from then.

Total calls 474

[stokes11eg]

Eh? 400 odd drops? Most walks in our office range between 7-9 hundred plus, not counting the lapsed part which is roughly 60 odd houses.

[Big Daz]

Eh? 400 odd drops? Most walks in our office range between 7-9 hundred plus, not counting the lapsed part which is roughly 60 odd houses.

Most are under 500 at my place and thats after a pegasus revision, we are absorbing two urban deliveries most days but not Saturdays, day off overtime is still plentiful on Saturdays. Also at times the day off (Tuesday) of the absorbed deliveries is still covered by the floaters.

The new estate of 1250 houses that is going up is also being absorbed and is around 250 to 300 houses built so far. This is absorbed between the two oversized pkt/pouch drop off duties and the late RLE duty but I belive RML wish to raid our afternoon SA Collection hours to use to cover the estate as it gets bigger.