The hollow man wrote:Also, i take it that geo-route does not take into account the time it takes to throw off heavy walks and prep times, as all walks differ in our office to the amount of mail/packets each walk recieves, some walks have shedloads of mail and packets others very little

so how can a fair system be imposed

Thats the $64 million dollar question
We have all these issues at our place,estate walks are very light,but tend to have lots of stairs,High St walks get loads of packets,reg etc etc, residential walks very heavy loads of flats redirections etc etc.
In the past we have let 1 or 2 heavy walks stay off ips on heavy days but this has caused friction with some of the staff,you will never win someone will allways moan about something,maybe the best way is to where possible make the walks further away from the office a bit shorter in delivery,the ones close to the office3.5 hours max,make sure ALL staff are on the IPS,get the guys on the lighter walks to help the heavy ones prep,ALL take your meal breaks together before you go out and all where possible leave at about the same time,this imho could be a fair system for all.