The Royal Mail's Worldwide Distribution Centre

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The Royal Mail's Worldwide Distribution Centre - as big as six football pitches and more advanced than a space shuttle

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770

This is the vast interior of the Royal Mail's Worldwide Distribution Centre near Heathrow.

The 430,000 sq ft building is the size of six football pitches and, by 2009, will sort every letter and parcel to enter or leave Britain.

Already 460,000 packages an hour travel along the centre's ten miles of conveyor belts. This photograph, taken with a fish-eye lens, focuses on the final dispatch area.



A 16ft-high snaking conveyor belt carries levered wooden trays that tip post bags down chutes, each visibly worn by the coarsely woven sacks.

Each chute directs mail to a different country or area of the world.

Further back along the conveyor-belt system, complicated software determines the route of each piece of mail.

Destinations are identified by scanners powered by Siemens-designed computers that use 4.2million lines of code - more than on a Space Shuttle or Stealth Bomber.

Opened in 2003 at a cost of £367million, the centre operates 24 hours a day.

By next year, it will have fully replaced the eight foreign mail sorting offices that previously served Britain.

Its 1,500 workers have had aviation security training and can access the sorting floor only by passing a fingerprint scanner.

[baldrick]

Hope the scanners and computers work better on the Stealth bombers and Space shuttles, as the ones at HWDC are sending mail for Ireland to Iran among other 'detours'.

[DGP1]

Hope the scanners work better on the Stealth bombers as they are sending mail for Ireland to Iran among other 'detours'.

Just another case of friendly fire

[BELIAL]

If our D2D's got misrouted would that be a case of friendly flyer going now

[DGP1]

If our D2D's got misrouted would that be a case of friendly flyer going now

[Lounge Lizard]

On flying, I delivered a package originally from Northern Ireland to a dairy farm last week, clearly labelled that it must go by surface mail as it was prohibited going by air. What might it be, and was it safe for me to carry ?

[andy2007]

On flying, I delivered a package originally from Northern Ireland to a dairy farm last week, clearly labelled that it must go by surface mail as it was prohibited going by air. What might it be, and was it safe for me to carry ?

It could be a number of things. For example, Cigarette Lighters, Hairspray, Deodorant, etc.. Obviously there are more dangerous things that can't fly, but anything potentially dangerous, must be clearly labeled as such.

[F0zziebear]

This project was late, over budget, and quality wise a disaster.

This is symptomatic of Royal Mail's inability to get to grip with it's projects (in general).

Operations managers who are not good in enough or can't be bothered, or made surplus usually end up in a general pool , who then get involved in implementing the company's change projects. This is madness.

There are exceptions in terms of people and projects, but there are few if any projects that have gone to time, cost and quality.

HWDC was no exception

F0zz

[Lounge Lizard]

On flying, I delivered a package originally from Northern Ireland to a dairy farm last week, clearly labelled that it must go by surface mail as it was prohibited going by air. What might it be, and was it safe for me to carry ?

It could be a number of things. For example, Cigarette Lighters, Hairspray, Deodorant, etc.. Obviously there are more dangerous things that can't fly, but anything potentially dangerous, must be clearly labeled as such.

Any suggestions as to why a milking parlour would need cigarette lighters, hairspray and deodorant ?

[POSTMAN]

On flying, I delivered a package originally from Northern Ireland to a dairy farm last week, clearly labelled that it must go by surface mail as it was prohibited going by air. What might it be, and was it safe for me to carry ?

It could be a number of things. For example, Cigarette Lighters, Hairspray, Deodorant, etc.. Obviously there are more dangerous things that can't fly, but anything potentially dangerous, must be clearly labeled as such.

Any suggestions as to why a milking parlour would need cigarette lighters, hairspray and deodorant ?

Smelly,vain cows with a nicoteen habit.

[Carnoustie]

Smelly,vain cows with a nicoteen habit.

I thought we were here to discuss postal issues, not the Spice Girls

[james]

I totally do not say it was the HWDC but far to many items are coming to Nortern Ireland saying send via different route as postage does not cover ! i can see this could be casual's not seeing the spilt between north and south or one of the casuals from foriegn lands but that is no excuse to delay the mail up to five days for a uk customer .

[norbert]

This project was late, over budget, and quality wise a disaster.

This is symptomatic of Royal Mail's inability to get to grip with it's projects (in general).

Operations managers who are not good in enough or can't be bothered, or made surplus usually end up in a general pool , who then get involved in implementing the company's change projects. This is madness.

There are exceptions in terms of people and projects, but there are few if any projects that have gone to time, cost and quality.

HWDC was no exception

F0zz

Cheers Fozz !, that'll be the no compulsory redundancies policy with MTSF , and the same Command & Ignore Policy that Senior Managers quite rightly criticize their Junior /Middle Managers for . You'll just end up with lots of people who don't give a s*** . Either control your managers properly or pay them up , otherwise it's simply moving the deckchairs on the Titantic .

I'm not a "Management Guru " but I and others can see the contradictions , and it's the likes of us that have to deal with these botch ups .

[norbert]

On flying, I delivered a package originally from Northern Ireland to a dairy farm last week, clearly labelled that it must go by surface mail as it was prohibited going by air. What might it be, and was it safe for me to carry ?

It could be a number of things. For example, Cigarette Lighters, Hairspray, Deodorant, etc.. Obviously there are more dangerous things that can't fly, but anything potentially dangerous, must be clearly labeled as such.

Any suggestions as to why a milking parlour would need cigarette lighters, hairspray and deodorant ?

Sent a petrol lighter to Zippo to be repaired under it's lifetime guarantee , paid the proper air mail postage @ the SPO to Bradford , Pennsylvania . It turned out that the warranty return packets are intercepted and go to a PO box address in London due to the Paranoia after 9/11.

[Night Tonic]

You ever tried VISITING the states now? Its like the spanish inquisition. One of the questions they ask you is "Are you or at anytime have you been involved in terrorist action?" - whats the point in that one? Like a terrorist is going to say yes....