How far behind are you

[Sean06]

Tracked for us was very heavy and busy today but at least 20% less than yesterday based on my non-scientific counting of Yorks. We cleared all Tracked, including LATs, by 6.00 pm tonight - quite an achievement for us.

Like others have observed, when I look through my steps and screenshots of routes, the Black Friday period was far and away busier than anything since. That’s not to say the last six weeks haven’t been complete chaos — just that that was the worst/busiest time.

Any letters go out?? My own postman told me today has,nt delivered a single letter in 10 days.

[Smoothbackground]

Tracked for us was very heavy and busy today but at least 20% less than yesterday based on my non-scientific counting of Yorks. We cleared all Tracked, including LATs, by 6.00 pm tonight - quite an achievement for us.

Like others have observed, when I look through my steps and screenshots of routes, the Black Friday period was far and away busier than anything since. That’s not to say the last six weeks haven’t been complete chaos — just that that was the worst/busiest time.

Any letters go out?? My own postman told me today has,nt delivered a single letter in 10 days.

Quite a lot did go out — only for most of it to come back! As I walked round tonight I could see bundles and bundles of cut-offs dumped by frames. Suppose they were the lucky ones — other frames have slots literally jammed together as they are so full. We have some people coming in on OT tomorrow to clear their frames, and then there will be a big push on Monday/Tuesday with clearing the mail in time for Christmas. So glad that tomorrow (Sunday) is my last day before Christmas!

[Ozzvaldo]

We haven't ever made the naughty list, even though we're constantly told by management that we're near the bottom, nationally, in virtually every metric that RM have invented to measure DO performance. I would be greatly surprised to find out that we had completely cleared the office even once since at least a year before Covid was invented.

Covid invented??

Don't read anything sinister into my turn of phrase. I was only referring to when Covid appeared on the scene.

[Clappedoutpostie]

Xmas has been done on the cheap, short staffed, no agency, no hire vans. The funny thing is they have thrown everything at processing this year but don’t want to pay to get it delivered. You really couldn’t make it up.

[Londonsburning]

Xmas has been done on the cheap, short staffed, no agency, no hire vans. The funny thing is they have thrown everything at processing this year but don’t want to pay to get it delivered. You really couldn’t make it up.

So exactly the same as every other year then..

[ted_e_bear]

Xmas has been done on the cheap, short staffed, no agency, no hire vans. The funny thing is they have thrown everything at processing this year but don’t want to pay to get it delivered. You really couldn’t make it up.

They always throw everything at processing, articles in the press they've taken on thousands of temp staff etc, no f****r to deliver it though, to be fair we got two new starters in October but they both left before November

[SpacePhoenix]

Xmas has been done on the cheap, short staffed, no agency, no hire vans. The funny thing is they have thrown everything at processing this year but don’t want to pay to get it delivered. You really couldn’t make it up.

They always throw everything at processing, articles in the press they've taken on thousands of temp staff etc, no f****r to deliver it though, to be fair we got two new starters in October but they both left before November

Wrong. The DO that covers where I live has had casuals during Xmas pressure for the last few years. Your screws are just too useless to organise getting some casuals

[Smoothbackground]

At our DO we have had 14 hire vans, at least 15 casuals each day, masses of OT from regular staff, a lot of whom have gone out first thing to clear/reduce their large — so really as much as we could have thrown at it. There is however always room for improvement…

[twoloops]

We were told if you have any pride, you will clear your frames for Christmas

[toonshola]

We were told if you have any pride, you will clear your frames for Christmas

Haha yeah we have that guilt trip every year.Think of your customers etc etc
I feel no guilt if we don’t clear by Christmas Eve. Don’t get me wrong I’ll try my best but the delivery spans now are f***ing insane on your average day never mind the chaos of Christmas. No coffee holding hasn’t done a delivery in over 15 years bully managers will sway my thinking.
Also I hope the union top brass are enjoying their 3 week break. They need their rest as the real screwing of us is coming in 2025.

[kazardaimenu]

Our worst shared van duty has got 5 days mail in about two thirds of it, 3 days in the other third. There are 9 trays of letters stacked under the frame and the overheads are full of overdue packets. There's nearly a full York of packets stood next to the frame awaiting its turn, as well. So far, there's only one person scheduled to cover it on Monday. We've got a couple of other shared van duties that aren't far off this state. There isn't a single duty with a clear frame, as of close of play on Saturday. The best we have is a couple of duties with half clear, half with today's mail left in.

Do they just come in and tie up what’s there to try and clear a big chunk or do they have to piss about scanning and prepping in the tracked?

[Londonsburning]

Our worst shared van duty has got 5 days mail in about two thirds of it, 3 days in the other third. There are 9 trays of letters stacked under the frame and the overheads are full of overdue packets. There's nearly a full York of packets stood next to the frame awaiting its turn, as well. So far, there's only one person scheduled to cover it on Monday. We've got a couple of other shared van duties that aren't far off this state. There isn't a single duty with a clear frame, as of close of play on Saturday. The best we have is a couple of duties with half clear, half with today's mail left in.

Do they just come in and tie up what’s there to try and clear a big chunk or do they have to piss about scanning and prepping in the tracked?

Tie down hit the street bring back. Probably claim s**t loads of OT because they DPR. Repeat.

Royal mail is f****d

[Ozzvaldo]

Our worst shared van duty has got 5 days mail in about two thirds of it, 3 days in the other third. There are 9 trays of letters stacked under the frame and the overheads are full of overdue packets. There's nearly a full York of packets stood next to the frame awaiting its turn, as well. So far, there's only one person scheduled to cover it on Monday. We've got a couple of other shared van duties that aren't far off this state. There isn't a single duty with a clear frame, as of close of play on Saturday. The best we have is a couple of duties with half clear, half with today's mail left in.

Do they just come in and tie up what’s there to try and clear a big chunk or do they have to piss about scanning and prepping in the tracked?

Sometimes the management send them out straight away, other times they insist on the postie trying to ram even more mail into a bulging frame. Either way, some rounds are at the stage where even just taking packets is enough work to fill the duty time without necessarily clearing the backlog of those, never mind the letters and flats. It's nothing new here. Last year, the frames on our worst deliveries weren't clear until the 2nd week of January.

[britwrit]

Xmas has been done on the cheap, short staffed, no agency, no hire vans. The funny thing is they have thrown everything at processing this year but don’t want to pay to get it delivered. You really couldn’t make it up.

They always throw everything at processing, articles in the press they've taken on thousands of temp staff etc, no f****r to deliver it though, to be fair we got two new starters in October but they both left before November

Weirdly, we've had a cutback of sorts at our mail centre. In years past, you'd see platoon-sized groups of casuals wandering blankly around. This year it's down to one or two.

I find it strange and frightening.