All revisions live next week

[Zicomurphy]

We get quite a few cross docked yorks and they seem to be slowly increasing. They are easy to spot as they have a half and half purple and white label rather than just a purple label.

I guess we’ll find out what their plans are when we get some kind of agreement. The last I can remember it being mentioned the CWU seemed to have dropped their objections to large parcels going to circa 300 hub offices and were looking to reach agreement on who would do that work. IE. Current OPGS and not people on new contracts/owner drivers. Our DOM has even warned people thinking of doing the new DPR duties that he can’t guarantee how long they will exist because we are not a hub office and we could lose that work at some point in the near future.

Anyway, our revision is starting next week despite disagreements being put in against it.

[2chorizon]

Post

"Doug lillicrap"

[goneaway]

Even the thing where you scan the york/sleeve to cover everything in the york/container thing never worked out, we now have to scan the contents

Why did the scanning just the York/container thing not work? Surely this would make for HUGE time savings?

[SpacePhoenix]

Even the thing where you scan the york/sleeve to cover everything in the york/container thing never worked out, we now have to scan the contents

Why did the scanning just the York/container thing not work? Surely this would make for HUGE time savings?

I believe it was found to not be reliable enough (actual sleeve contents not matching up with what the system says was in the sleeve). Also it's not unusual for there to be missorts in them sleeves. At least if we scan them the missorts can be extracted and dispatched on the 2C dispatch (1st available outward dispatch during the day) which won't be able to happen if they were just sent as a scanned sleeve.

[sweepster70]

"We've spent hundreds of millions on automation and not seen a lick of savings. But it's these revisions that'll save the company!"

All the stuff sorted at the super-hub still has to be sorted again in MCs anyway so they never were going to see any savings. The "local parcel hub" and "dedicated parcel route/duty" strategies are bound to fall apart soon due to staffing levels in DOs

You are half right. There are yorks that are sorted directly to the DO's that pass through the mail centre.

Never happened, nothing gets cross docked, we still have to scan it all. Even the thing where you scan the york/sleeve to cover everything in the york/container thing never worked out, we now have to scan the contents

You are correct in scanning the York, but the items inside don't have to be scanned. Each york is destined for a certain D/O and is only passing through the mail centre. These are yorks going from the North West hub. There is also cross docking at the hub.

[SpacePhoenix]

You are correct in scanning the York, but the items inside don't have to be scanned. Each york is destined for a certain D/O and is only passing through the mail centre. These are yorks going from the North West hub. There is also cross docking at the hub.

We started having to scan everything in them yorks a good few weeks ago, I believe the missort levels were too high. They won't get literally wheeled off of one lorry and onto another anyway as all yorks and sleeves that get loaded onto the lorries for the DO runs get condensed down

[britwrit]

You are correct in scanning the York, but the items inside don't have to be scanned. Each york is destined for a certain D/O and is only passing through the mail centre. These are yorks going from the North West hub. There is also cross docking at the hub.

We started having to scan everything in them yorks a good few weeks ago, I believe the missort levels were too high. They won't get literally wheeled off of one lorry and onto another anyway as all yorks and sleeves that get loaded onto the lorries for the DO runs get condensed down

This isn't surprising, given how we all know how Royal Mail works. Did the same guy who did network security for Royal Mail International design the superhubs?

[SpacePhoenix]

You are correct in scanning the York, but the items inside don't have to be scanned. Each york is destined for a certain D/O and is only passing through the mail centre. These are yorks going from the North West hub. There is also cross docking at the hub.

We started having to scan everything in them yorks a good few weeks ago, I believe the missort levels were too high. They won't get literally wheeled off of one lorry and onto another anyway as all yorks and sleeves that get loaded onto the lorries for the DO runs get condensed down

This isn't surprising, given how we all know how Royal Mail works. Did the same guy who did network security for Royal Mail International design the superhubs?

Even the sleeves that arrive sorted to just Primary (the busier selections) and Secondary (the quieter selections) now get every item scanned.

With the way that all Tracked large and normal large go through the system mixed together, I think it's only a matter of time before the same gets done for Tracked small and normal small. Over the course of the night it's now not unusual to be extracting over a yorks worth of SDs from all the yorks and sleeves of Tracked and normal received from other MCs.

We're even starting to find Tracked letters in the mech from other MCs

[chrisj]

It might sound like a lot of work but counting numbers of sleeves or York is absolutely no way of knowing the real volume... In top of that, some folks are manipulating the numbers, subsequently the number of staff needed.

Royal Mail needs to know precisely what is coming in and what is being processed and delivered; system stuck in pre-privatisation eras...

Having said the above, most of the managers do not use the technology and figured available to them; they just wing things and are just happy to get the day over; regardless of how fair the workload is for all...

Future Revisions in MCs and DOs should be based on more accurate (not precise, of course) figures; but they will need to rid of some of the managers and change the workers culture too.

* The managers have all been given bumper increases but some have not taken on the additional work and responsibilities; some of them will feel the force very soon.

[pieoftheday]

It might sound like a lot of work but counting numbers of sleeves or York is absolutely no way of knowing the real volume... In top of that, some folks are manipulating the numbers, subsequently the number of staff needed.

Royal Mail needs to know precisely what is coming in and what is being processed and delivered; system stuck in pre-privatisation eras...

Having said the above, most of the managers do not use the technology and figured available to them; they just wing things and are just happy to get the day over; regardless of how fair the workload is for all...

Future Revisions in MCs and DOs should be based on more accurate (not precise, of course) figures; but they will need to rid of some of the managers and change the workers culture too.

* The managers have all been given bumper increases but some have not taken on the additional work and responsibilities; some of them will feel the force very soon.

Just like WLA (world load assessment) pointless

[SpacePhoenix]

It might sound like a lot of work but counting numbers of sleeves or York is absolutely no way of knowing the real volume... In top of that, some folks are manipulating the numbers, subsequently the number of staff needed.

Royal Mail needs to know precisely what is coming in and what is being processed and delivered; system stuck in pre-privatisation eras...

Having said the above, most of the managers do not use the technology and figured available to them; they just wing things and are just happy to get the day over; regardless of how fair the workload is for all...

Future Revisions in MCs and DOs should be based on more accurate (not precise, of course) figures; but they will need to rid of some of the managers and change the workers culture too.

* The managers have all been given bumper increases but some have not taken on the additional work and responsibilities; some of them will feel the force very soon.

As it stands the only way for RM to get accurate counts would be to have ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING scanned, first as it passes through the outward MC, then the inward MC, then on arrival at the DO and then when delivery is attempted

[chrisj]

I guess scanning absolutely everything will be a lot of work but hey ho, it will keep more people in the job.

Pre-covid, MCs were using finger scanners to scan most parcels with any kind of barcode but that was not being do e by everyone and time pressures also accounted for lack of scanning esp towards the end of shifts or when the volume was really high.

Counting sleeves or York is just not good enough... Something in between, maybe?

You now have situations that because low volumes, some MCs or hubs are deliberately misrepresenting figures so that they can hang on to their staff or pinch work from other MCs or Hubs.

[SpacePhoenix]

AFAIK earlies and lates have only ever scanned Tracked and SDs. On nights we've never scanned items that aren't SDs or Tracked

[chrisj]

I am talking first class parcels not just tracked items; it was Late Shift! Hey ho! It has stopped! Just scanning sleeves for all items except SDs. Airmails now being scanned again.

I accept that you cannot have precise figures - but you do wonder how can a business function properly without a good measure of their figures...

[Kenfandango]

Our revision went "live" today. 4 walks in our section gone, the 2 duty holders (as 2 were absorption) have to resign and kick someone off another duty. But then RM are paying 2 people to do the big trackeds to compensate for the extra drops on the rounds, so as far as I can tell this revision is costing RM 2 extra wages...