guardianangel wrote: ↑08 Jan 2023, 22:17
I really think royal mail haven't thought it through,moving mail around during both rush hours will have a catastrophic impact on productivity,its going to be chaos,in my city you can add another half hour each way in traffic as for the lorries delivering to delivery offices from mail centres that's another thing,we will be back to the older days of a 3 hour delivery,bring it on.
I already started working 9.00/9.30-17.00/1730 depending on day of the week, doing a dedicated parcel route.
I have made it work for me, but I have a unique situation that mitigates some of the drawbacks. However I can confirm that the later starts/finishes does impact significantly on productivity and personal life. Just getting to work at that time of day puts you into the rush hour traffic, causing stress and delay, but its the evening commute that is the killer for me, it is just demoralising.
Another colleague who was doing the same as me since Feb last year had too much of it and found getting to and from work so stressful that he went back to the walks. (at the moment they still start at normal times)
As for productivity, If I have to deliver near a school, and I have 3 on my route, and if I go anywhere near one at about 1500 I can easily be delayed enough to cause a failure. Rush hour starts at 1600 and can also cause delays(just getting in and out of the van on a main road is difficult and dangerous.)
On occasion traffic snarl-ups can cause drastic problems too. last month, I had finished my route in time but got caught up in a gridlock situation en route to the office. I was stuck on one road for over an hour! Needless to say I had to claim OT but it was the loss of my time that I would never get back that was most frustrating.