LTB 113/13 British Gas Smart Meter Contract

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LTB 113/13 British Gas Smart Meter Contract

No. 113/13

Ref: 530

Date: 22nd February 2013

To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague,

British Gas Smart Meter Contract

Branches will no doubt be aware of the British Gas contract recently won by Royal Mail which is a major win from a competitor, and due to demand the business needs to respond quickly to British Gas's request to start up.

As a consequence the first phase of activity will commence next week in a small part of the Midlands, with some other units following shortly after. Attached to this LTB is a spreadsheet which we have received today showing the units expected to be involved and how many engineers are predicted to go to each DO. Some of the details may change, but we thought it important to impart this information to Branches ASAP.

In the spreadsheet the units highlighted in Yellow are those that start next week. The remainder of the units show their expected start dates.

In simple terms the service will operate as follows:

1) RM Relay picks up sealed totes of Smart Meters from a British Gas Warehouse in Coventry and routes them overnight to the relevant DOs. They will arrive with the Blue Totes which come for the Service and Repair engineers.

2) The Relay driver will put the sealed totes in a designated storage area in the DO.

3) The Smart Meter Engineers will call at the DO from 0745 on the day the totes have been delivered.

4) The Smart Meter Engineer totes contain several Smart Meters and because they hold a stock on the van they don't need to always come at the start of their day. They also only need to come in 2-3 times per week, and not every day.

5) Royal Mail are issuing sealed totes to the Smart Meter engineers which will save on having to sort out parts and issuing them one by one.

6) It does mean that there may be some need for lifting of the totes which may weigh up to 20kg.

7) For this reason Royal Mail is seeking to make sure that the BG engineers can get their totes with the minimum need for lifting. This might mean that they come into the yard and then wheel the Totes in a York or on one of their own sack trolleys. Royal Mail has been clear with both British Gas and the DOMs that safety is the prime concern, and all arrangements need to be sanctioned by the DOM. CWU Safety Reps should also ensure that they are satisfied with local arrangements.

8) As well as picking up the new Smart Meters, the Smart Energy Experts will be returning sealed totes of the old meters that they have taken off the walls of customers.

9) Smart Energy engineers will on some visits pick up some consumable items from the Enquiry office/DO that have come through the Blue Tote channel.

10) The Royal Mail Relay driver will pick up any return totes when they deliver the new totes on the next night/morning.

This has to be rolled out quicker than anticipated and we would ask our Representatives to provide assistance and support in rolling this out successfully and safely. We have been pressing Royal Mail to look to identify new products and services and this falls into that category, and will provide new revenue opportunities. The high quality service that Royal Mail already provides to British Gas on other contracts has helped win this new business in these difficult times and in the face of competition.

Over the next couple of months this service will ramp up to around 1200 engineers and Branches will be kept informed of developments.

It is important that Health & Safety Reps ensure that safe procedures are being followed and where necessary they should intervene to ensure that is the case.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson's Office, quoting reference 530

Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson

Assistant Secretary

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