Trials

[TopperGas]

So when they make the trials finally work and then they roll it out nationally then how will that work in other offices?
For example if the trial offices need to put back in say 1 duty for every 10 duties then does this trend follow through to all the other offices? Or is it a case they reduce each walk by so many minutes?
The point I'm getting at is that once the trial offices are running smoothly eventually then how we can guarantee the rest of us will be ok?

As I understand each manager is being told to come up with a plan which they feel will work for their office, as it's hardly rocket science to work out if 2 days mail his doable on a duty or whether it needs reducing, the posties who've rushed out of the door, when other are still tieing and are back first will now find their duties aren't being reduced in size. Obviously it'll be a case of suck and see and if it's not working more duties will need to be put in.

[funkflex55]

If they are leaving up to management to decide what will work.then we are all f****d more than if they just force through the absolute bullshit that is ODM. A lot of these managers are so far from reality it will be a complete clown show in the RM circuses.

[Basildon Bond]

Does anyone know why the "official" poster says route A and C are combined and then B and D are combined? Grabbed the image below from a post on the beloved Robin app that someone took...

route_coverage_poster_Robin.png

Note: If you cannot make out the line of text in the image above that is written under the table it states:

In week 2 ,the route rotation changes so that Route B, and D receive 'All Products' deliveries on 3 days whilst routes A and C receive then on 2 days

It would make more sense to me (at least) if A & B are combined and C & D are combined. I thought I had it until I saw that. I thought A & B are an existing pair of duties (twinned frames) at the moment and C & D were another (possibly nearest neighbour) pair of duties (combined frames).

I would like to believe it would work:
- one regular van share/ paired frame to be "linked" with another existing paired frame and swapping between them over two weeks
- one walk (pair of frames) goes out three times the first week (Mon-Wed-Fri)
- the other two frames go out twice (Tues-Thurs)
- the second walk (that only went out twice the week before) now starts the second week going out on a Monday three times in week two (Mon-Wed-Fri) and the first walk only goes out twice (Tues-Thurs) on the second week
- after two weeks both paired frames have both gone out the same amount, and then they swap back again on week three and on and on swapping forever
- I believe, but could be wrong, that the idea is to have blue and yellow colour coding for the days. Probably hear things like "blue walks clearing today guys", and the manager shouting "check IPS and clear the yellow today people", etc.

However, it relies on:
- a fair rota for who is walking/driving if you can do either
- two decent sized and working vans being available
- three people:
-- two drivers minimum that never get to work together (that could be a plus if you don't like someone) plus a walker
-- one driver is paired with the walker handling double mail (hence more weight and less space for packets in the pouch), warming calling as many D2Ds as possible, pouches full of mail so more packets kicked out and done in the van (hence more time per loop) and the oversized on the "active mail" walk for that day. Plus specials, boxes, customer collections.
-- the other driver is working solo and zooming about the "inactive mail" walk (pair of frames) doing all packets (Tracked and 2D), oversized and all 1C mail with any accompanying mail items for the same address that has 1C mail. Plus specials, boxes, customer collections.
- the "inactive mail" driver needs two PDAs to be able to scan in both sides and get the box list (if there are boxes on both sides), customer collections, and consolidate easily back at the office
- if the "inactive mail" driver does not know the walk and/or wants to treat the round as a DPR (dedicated parcel route + half a box of mail (there really is that little amount of first class post some days), then that driver needs two PDAs as I don't think you can ad-hoc postbox scans from the the DPR screen. So you'd need a PDA for the DPR list of parcels, then remember where the mail is for both sides, and a 2nd PDA for the boxes on one round, download customer collections for both rounds (you can do this on one PDA), ad-hoc the boxes (if any) on the second round, consolidate the boxes/PDA back at the office for the first round, and re-login and consolidate for the ad-hoc boxes on the second round and switch the PDA off straight away. Yikes.

Is that right? Have I missed something?

If you have one failure, one van breakdown, one sickness, lack of PDAs or batteries, or a surplus of non-driving staff in an office/ not enough drivers... the mail will surely back up very quickly and it would seem very difficult to fight your way back to the new standard that is double mail. Plus all the (now multiple) D2Ds have to be put in (ideally nested for speed outdoors) at the start of the week to aid warm calling with 1C and 2C mail. Most people don't have time to put a column in a day so you can probably forget all D2Ds going in for the entire office at the start of the week.

There are still questions on what gets delivered to the DO each day, what the IPS looks like, how the sort works, what happens to existing single frames in the office that cannot be paired up easily to other frames. And why mail on all rurals still has to go everyday I don't know - I have put letters on top of letters on kitchen tables in farm houses and rammed letters each day into boxes on farm gates that probably only get emptied once a week at best. They don't seem to need a daily service and driving all the way down a single tracked lane each day scratching the van to put a Nectar points letter in a full box doesn't make sense to me; but what do I know!

[claretandblue]

D2Ds are meant to be prepped on the Saturday by non drivers.

[SpacePhoenix]

There are still questions on what gets delivered to the DO each day, what the IPS looks like, how the sort works, what happens to existing single frames in the office that cannot be paired up easily to other frames. And why mail on all rurals still has to go everyday I don't know - I have put letters on top of letters on kitchen tables in farm houses and rammed letters each day into boxes on farm gates that probably only get emptied once a week at best. They don't seem to need a daily service and driving all the way down a single tracked lane each day scratching the van to put a Nectar points letter in a full box doesn't make sense to me; but what do I know!

Manual letters and flats will arrive at the DO on the same yorks but in separate trays, white labels for 1C, white with green stripes for 2C. Mech will be whatever the DTS has released for that day.

[Chelseablue]

Why is it so difficult to understand?

Leaving behind (for now) some of the issues with the ODM - something tells me that the theory behind it is totally lost on some, possibly due to it never having been explained.

It's been explained countless times on here but alas, it's still lost...
Sorry if I've offended anyone.

It's no problem. What kind of delivery do you normally do and I'll explain it around that. i.e, HCT, shared van driver, shared van passenger, solo van driver.

My partner is ,, shared van, non driver, been there for years , struggling so dda . No VRs in our office, so worried hes not going to manage soon with these brutal walks Because we heard that staff can sign for 2 duties instead of one , he will maybe lose his duty as guy has been round looking at his duty ( as well as staying on his duty hes been on for years) . Signing for 2 duties each will cause problems , lot of arguements daily already at our office and thsts without this nightmare coming in.

[Smoothbackground]

…
- the "inactive mail" driver needs two PDAs to be able to scan in both sides and get the box list (if there are boxes on both sides), customer collections, and consolidate easily back at the office
- if the "inactive mail" driver does not know the walk and/or wants to treat the round as a DPR (dedicated parcel route + half a box of mail (there really is that little amount of first class post some days), then that driver needs two PDAs as I don't think you can ad-hoc postbox scans from the the DPR screen…

Would def work better with two PDAs, but we always have to make do with one at ours.

You can ad hoc postboxes from within the DPR itinerary — hit Manage Outdoor at bottom, Ad Hoc Collection, scan the key barcode, ad hoc the box like you do in the walk itinerary.

For cust-collects there is no workaround — you need to exit/finish the DPR itinerary, give it a second, then go back into Outdoor, this time selecting Core, scan the walk route barcode, process the collection as normal, then exit the walk route and go back into your DPR itinerary. Really fiddly and slows you down if you have to do this flicking multiple times a day.

[TopperGas]

…
- the "inactive mail" driver needs two PDAs to be able to scan in both sides and get the box list (if there are boxes on both sides), customer collections, and consolidate easily back at the office
- if the "inactive mail" driver does not know the walk and/or wants to treat the round as a DPR (dedicated parcel route + half a box of mail (there really is that little amount of first class post some days), then that driver needs two PDAs as I don't think you can ad-hoc postbox scans from the the DPR screen…

Would def work better with two PDAs, but we always have to make do with one at ours.

You can ad hoc postboxes from within the DPR itinerary — hit Manage Outdoor at bottom, Ad Hoc Collection, scan the key barcode, ad hoc the box like you do in the walk itinerary.

For cust-collects there is no workaround — you need to exit/finish the DPR itinerary, give it a second, then go back into Outdoor, this time selecting Core, scan the walk route barcode, process the collection as normal, then exit the walk route and go back into your DPR itinerary. Really fiddly and slows you down if you have to do this flicking multiple times a day.

Just wait until you get back to the DO and then do as you've suggested with anything you have collected? If you get one difficult customer insisting they watch you scan the parcel/receive an email acknowledgement just go to Indoors and do an acceptance scan.

Unless it's changed recently you can't log in on two PDA's at the same time.

[TopperGas]

…
- the "inactive mail" driver needs two PDAs to be able to scan in both sides and get the box list (if there are boxes on both sides), customer collections, and consolidate easily back at the office
- if the "inactive mail" driver does not know the walk and/or wants to treat the round as a DPR (dedicated parcel route + half a box of mail (there really is that little amount of first class post some days), then that driver needs two PDAs as I don't think you can ad-hoc postbox scans from the the DPR screen…

Would def work better with two PDAs, but we always have to make do with one at ours.

You can ad hoc postboxes from within the DPR itinerary — hit Manage Outdoor at bottom, Ad Hoc Collection, scan the key barcode, ad hoc the box like you do in the walk itinerary.

For cust-collects there is no workaround — you need to exit/finish the DPR itinerary, give it a second, then go back into Outdoor, this time selecting Core, scan the walk route barcode, process the collection as normal, then exit the walk route and go back into your DPR itinerary. Really fiddly and slows you down if you have to do this flicking multiple times a day.

Just wait until you get back to the DO and then do as you've suggested with anything you have collected? If you get one difficult customer insisting they watch you scan the parcel/receive an email acknowledgement just go to Indoors and do an acceptance scan.

Unless it's changed recently you can't log in on two PDA's at the same time.

[sindba]

Why is it so difficult to understand?

Leaving behind (for now) some of the issues with the ODM - something tells me that the theory behind it is totally lost on some, possibly due to it never having been explained.

It's been explained countless times on here but alas, it's still lost...
Sorry if I've offended anyone.

It's no problem. What kind of delivery do you normally do and I'll explain it around that. i.e, HCT, shared van driver, shared van passenger, solo van driver.

My partner is ,, shared van, non driver, been there for years , struggling so dda . No VRs in our office, so worried hes not going to manage soon with these brutal walks Because we heard that staff can sign for 2 duties instead of one , he will maybe lose his duty as guy has been round looking at his duty ( as well as staying on his duty hes been on for years) . Signing for 2 duties each will cause problems , lot of arguements daily already at our office and thsts without this nightmare coming in.

No!

You sign for a duty, one duty, like you always have.

If he's a non- walker, it just means on days that he's due to be the driver, he'll be swapped onto the walking part of his van share instead.

[Smoothbackground]

…
- the "inactive mail" driver needs two PDAs to be able to scan in both sides and get the box list (if there are boxes on both sides), customer collections, and consolidate easily back at the office
- if the "inactive mail" driver does not know the walk and/or wants to treat the round as a DPR (dedicated parcel route + half a box of mail (there really is that little amount of first class post some days), then that driver needs two PDAs as I don't think you can ad-hoc postbox scans from the the DPR screen…

Would def work better with two PDAs, but we always have to make do with one at ours.

You can ad hoc postboxes from within the DPR itinerary — hit Manage Outdoor at bottom, Ad Hoc Collection, scan the key barcode, ad hoc the box like you do in the walk itinerary.

For cust-collects there is no workaround — you need to exit/finish the DPR itinerary, give it a second, then go back into Outdoor, this time selecting Core, scan the walk route barcode, process the collection as normal, then exit the walk route and go back into your DPR itinerary. Really fiddly and slows you down if you have to do this flicking multiple times a day.

Just wait until you get back to the DO and then do as you've suggested with anything you have collected? If you get one difficult customer insisting they watch you scan the parcel/receive an email acknowledgement just go to Indoors and do an acceptance scan.

Unless it's changed recently you can't log in on two PDA's at the same time.

I’ve never had the luxury of two PDAs in my hand to try it, but it def makes sense that you can’t log in on two at the same time. Anyway, having two PDAs could in itself get confusing.

I agree, scanning the customer-collects back at the DO would be the most efficient thing to do, but I’m a bit of a stickler for detail, some might call it a bit OCD, and I like to scan them on the doorstep as I collect them. This undeniqbly does slow me down a bit — though nowhere near as much as the customer closing the door for five minutes while they frantically wrap up whatever tosh it is they're returning to Amazon. Pain in the proverbial for sure!

[Clappedoutpostie]

Surely all it would take is a software update to be able to add boxes and customer collections onto the PDA when using the DPR function.

[Acca Dacca]

Why is it so difficult to understand?

Leaving behind (for now) some of the issues with the ODM - something tells me that the theory behind it is totally lost on some, possibly due to it never having been explained.

It's been explained countless times on here but alas, it's still lost...
Sorry if I've offended anyone.

It's no problem. What kind of delivery do you normally do and I'll explain it around that. i.e, HCT, shared van driver, shared van passenger, solo van driver.

My partner is ,, shared van, non driver, been there for years , struggling so dda . No VRs in our office, so worried hes not going to manage soon with these brutal walks Because we heard that staff can sign for 2 duties instead of one , he will maybe lose his duty as guy has been round looking at his duty ( as well as staying on his duty hes been on for years) . Signing for 2 duties each will cause problems , lot of arguements daily already at our office and thsts without this nightmare coming in.

No!

You sign for a duty, one duty, like you always have.

If he's a non- walker, it just means on days that he's due to be the driver, he'll be swapped onto the walking part of his van share instead.

If its 3 people doing 4 walks then who is signing for what?

Is it a case of 4 duties are given a group letter for instance and three people can sign for one of the groups ( no more than 1 non driver in each group )

so three people can sign for group A, three group B etc etc

So you arent signing for a walk or two walks even but more signing for the group of 4 walks along with two others

[ted_e_bear]

Perhaps someone from a trial pilot office can clarify the signing for duties procedure, this would apply to shared van duties obviously not singletons.

So as there's what would previously have been 4 duties now being done by 3 people, is it a case for example 3 people can sign for duty A which actually comprises 4 existing standalone duties,

(in which case of course only one non driver would be able to sign)

Or what ?

[claretandblue]

I would like to know how it works with 3 drivers.