Trials

[ted_e_bear]

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

Better as no one will have to do the full delivery days everyday you can take it in turns to do the parcels+1c only days.

[A2B]

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

Better as no one will have to do the full delivery days everyday you can take it in turns to do the parcels+1c only days.

I'm not sure the person who hasn't delivered mail for 10 years will agree with your post

[AlbertHerbertHawkins]

…
- 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.

Not sure how it works on DPR but when doing Core routes you should only be scanning one barcode per route now in the Delivery section (rather than one for delivery and one for collection). This means when doing 2 routes together (because you're permanently understaffed) you can scan a second route into the collection section, thus putting collection boxes for both routes on your PDA. Similarly when you get your customer collects up you can go into the manage collections menu and get the option to download collections from an additional route. So when covering 2 Core routes you can get everything you need onto one PDA.

[ted_e_bear]

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

Better as no one will have to do the full delivery days everyday you can take it in turns to do the parcels+1c only days.

I'm not sure the person who hasn't delivered mail for 10 years will agree with your post

What have they done for 10 years, a firms duty or callers office or something? That's only going to crop up when duties go because of revisions or people lose their duties in a repick etc, if their only option is going onto a van share and they're lucky they might be able to land on one where the other two don't mind working together everyday but I'd imagine that's about as good as it'll get without requiring such as workplace adjustments/DDA or whatever it's called, I'm not too impressed with the approaching changes either tbh.

[Perseus]

With the obvious exception of ring fenced duties, is there an issue with people having to deliver loops 1-8 on duty A then the next day do 1-8 on duty B?

Practically every single person in our office has/can do at least 2 different duties.

[A2B]

We have people on parcel duties for decades, not many now but the few are not looking forward to change but then again it won't be a change for the better

[Smoothbackground]

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.

Indeed. They already have a workaround when using Core Route so in theory it should be easy to transpose to DPR Route. It would save so much time.

[postslippete]

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.

This method doesn’t stand a chance of working in our office unless they put duties back in first just like they promised months ago. Now that Ofcom has jumped the gun and allowed RM to cut 2c deliveries to alternate weekdays, managers are now scrambling to make this system work so I'll expect a bit of chaos in the coming weeks. They are already shifting staff around, expecting one half of paired walks to take on double mail and/or all the parcels from both duties. It’s completely reliant on people doing overtime and if they’re not willing or able to do that, then it just doesn’t work. In reality all it really does instead is put even more pressure on staff. Managers want more work done in less time while also trying to slash overtime claims, so it's a no-win situation.

And yeah, I believe there are serious flaws with this new delivery model. For a start, there are too many moving parts and it relies far too much on van drivers - plus the “full delivery” days seem to be overloaded. Ahmed is doing Route B on a Tuesday and a Thursday - am I right in thinking that appears to be then 3 days’ worth of mail on a Monday if the system rotates? Friday, Saturday and Monday? And as Route B only gets delivered twice a week, how is he meant to do all the D2Ds? We can’t even complete them now with 6 days to do it. Maybe RM plans to phase out these D2Ds as mail volumes fall, but they are certainly not turning away the business and it’s not going to deliver itself is it??

Obviously, if a couple of people go off sick then this new system will fall apart fast. The workload is already being pushed onto fewer staff and it could snowball in some offices. While RM will argue that this model helps them stay technically USO compliant, all it really seems to be doing is turning a very simple process into a more chaotic one.

[Basildon Bond]

...Ahmed is doing Route B on a Tuesday and a Thursday - am I right in thinking that appears to be then 3 days’ worth of mail on a Monday if the system rotates? Friday, Saturday and Monday? And as Route B only gets delivered twice a week...

It does not make sense if you look at only one week (Monday - Friday). So you have to look at two weeks to see that IF the system works and mail does go out as intended, then over a fortnight you should ONLY have double mail.

Example:

Screenshot 2025-07-20 113243.png

Note: Saturday is actually 1C (plus any mail for the same house), and ALL: Tracked, parcels (packets or oversize), customer collections, boxes, etc.

At least that's how I see it.

[SkiSunday]

Mr Kretzinsky should just see it for what it is and offer auctions for duties within each and every MC area, like we used to do. He would soon find out who wants to do what by seniority and who would leave at the drop of a hat, for free!

[Acca Dacca]

How are the door to doors being delivered currently in the trials on the weeks where a duty is only getting a full delivery twice?

I know in some offices the non drivers are prepping them in on the Saturday but surely they cant all be delivered in 2 days? Thats a lot of extra weight too.

Or is this one of the things that isnt working and RM are either neglecting them or throwing money at it so it seems like its working better than it is?

[claretandblue]

...Ahmed is doing Route B on a Tuesday and a Thursday - am I right in thinking that appears to be then 3 days’ worth of mail on a Monday if the system rotates? Friday, Saturday and Monday? And as Route B only gets delivered twice a week...

It does not make sense if you look at only one week (Monday - Friday). So you have to look at two weeks to see that IF the system works and mail does go out as intended, then over a fortnight you should ONLY have double mail.

Example:


Screenshot 2025-07-20 113243.png

Note: Saturday is actually 1C (plus any mail for the same house), and ALL: Tracked, parcels (packets or oversize), customer collections, boxes, etc.

At least that's how I see it.

Incorrect, it's tripple mail Monday Tuesday because of Saturday.

[ted_e_bear]

...Ahmed is doing Route B on a Tuesday and a Thursday - am I right in thinking that appears to be then 3 days’ worth of mail on a Monday if the system rotates? Friday, Saturday and Monday? And as Route B only gets delivered twice a week...

It does not make sense if you look at only one week (Monday - Friday). So you have to look at two weeks to see that IF the system works and mail does go out as intended, then over a fortnight you should ONLY have double mail.

Example:


Screenshot 2025-07-20 113243.png

Note: Saturday is actually 1C (plus any mail for the same house), and ALL: Tracked, parcels (packets or oversize), customer collections, boxes, etc.

At least that's how I see it.

You're not taking into account what would have been Saturday's mail so every Monday a pair of duties due an all items delivery won't have had one since the previous Thursday so in effect Fri, Sat and Mon's mail, equally the other pair that gets left Monday and it's all mail Tues won't have had an all mail since the previous Friday so Sat, Mon and Tues mail.

[Acca Dacca]

...Ahmed is doing Route B on a Tuesday and a Thursday - am I right in thinking that appears to be then 3 days’ worth of mail on a Monday if the system rotates? Friday, Saturday and Monday? And as Route B only gets delivered twice a week...

It does not make sense if you look at only one week (Monday - Friday). So you have to look at two weeks to see that IF the system works and mail does go out as intended, then over a fortnight you should ONLY have double mail.

Example:


Screenshot 2025-07-20 113243.png

Note: Saturday is actually 1C (plus any mail for the same house), and ALL: Tracked, parcels (packets or oversize), customer collections, boxes, etc.

At least that's how I see it.

If Route A gets a full delivery on the Friday then Route B will get it on the Monday with triple mail ( comprising of Fridays 2nd that didnt go out as it was Route A's turn, Saturdays 2nd that only 1st class went out and all of Mondays 1st and 2nd combined )

When Route A gets a full delivery again it will have triple - the 2nd that didnt go out on the Saturday, the 2nd that didnt go out on the Monday as it was Route B's turn and 1st and 2nd Tuesdays mail

So basically Mondays and Tuesdays is effectively triple mail and one of those rounds will need 50% of the door to doors done as well on one of those triple mail days as the duty is due to only get a full delivery twice that week

[Basildon Bond]

I thought I understood it, but nope. Oh well! Still, it's good to throw something up and try to shoot at it so we all get closer to understanding it (maybe)!

So this is more like it over a two week period...

Screenshot 2025-07-20 141050.png