Slow Prepping

[DemonPostie]

I do holiday cover in my office, so get moved around a bit. My contracted hours (all 30 of them) are 730-1345.

Apart from the odd really quiet tuesday, I always book overtime, as I usually finish after 3.

Now, I haven't been prep tested, but the boss went through my times today, and it looks like I was prepping at about 6 items per minute (including redir's, bundling, bagging, etc..), and said this was pretty slow.

I have been doing this round for about two weeks. I honestly thought I was doing better than that, but it did take me about 3 hours to prep a frame with around 400 addresses, and about 950 items of post.

Should I be worried about my slowness?

I think part of it may be that after I have bagged, I do take some time using the toilet, getting my mp3 player and mu lunch out of my locker, deciding if i should risk not taking my rain coat... etc... Maybe 15 minutes between finishing bagging and actually getting out of the office...

I just don't want to be thought of as super-slow...

[flaminmoses]

they really have to have a standard for a regular postie on a walk and one for those who move about a lot.
i would like to know what a tribunal would say if one of these came their way

[pickaname]

Thats ok...those 15 minutes can be part of your break you dont mention.

[DemonPostie]

How many hours do you have to work to get a break? Can you take it anytime you want?

[dayjur]

Royal Mail standards are 13 items per minute , eg if you have 950 items it should allegedly take you 73 minutes to prep your mech , flats , do your packets , redirections , missorts , kill offs , bundle up , weigh your bags and shift it over to driver.I find it hard to prep my walk most mornings in my allotted time which results in me cutting off.By the way i'm also P/T and take lapsing only on a Tuesday.

[NewPostieUK]

Shouldn't 6 items per minute mean you actually put 6 items into your frame in one minute? Why include going to the toilet etc? A better way would be just to time yourself. Set your stopwatch, throw up letters for 10 mins, then count how many you've done. If you've done 90, then thats 9 items per minute.

I don't think you'll be anywhere near top speed after just two weeks. Also, whats the frame like? I do one walk that is a nightmare to prep, takes me ages as one slot is two (or more!) houses, and the streets are split up all over the frame. Doesn't help when the frame says 1 The Street, 2 The Street, 3 The Street etc and people don't use numbers, just their own random choice of name, The House, The Street, Big House, The Street, Bungalow, The Street....takes an age to prep.

[Dee Plish]

Seems clear you need to be shown by a line manager how to do your job. Insist they train you and lead by example.

*Please be aware that as a consequence you will be addicted to tobacco and caffiene, laziness, corporate obedience, lies and incompetence*

Such is Royal Mail in 2009.

[crazytaxifife]

That is a joke as most of the doms in my office dont know the duties, i just get shifted all the time, dont whether I am coming in to a prepped duty or not. Would like to see some of them try and complete the duties I have to face week in and week out, but I am still expected to go to a different office and still finish in the same time. (the frasing stick a brush up my ****" seems to spring to mind

[pickaname]

Quote. Now, I haven't been prep tested, but the boss went through my times today, and it looks like I was prepping at about 6 items per minute (including redir's, bundling, bagging, etc..), and said this was pretty slow.

This is an RM B&H tool that is not agreed with the CWU and is unworkable. The "ONLY" agreed tools are the offial prep testing standards that can be found in downloads. They did try this in our office and i walked off the frame shouting and screaming up to the DOM and told him i was slapping in a grievance and the test was stopped and never finished.

There is no DOM in Portsmouth, only a lead line manager ;)

[DemonPostie]

This is an RM B&H tool that is not agreed with the CWU and is unworkable. The "ONLY" agreed tools are the offial prep testing standards that can be found in downloads. They did try this in our office and i walked off the frame shouting and screaming up to the DOM and told him i was slapping in a grievance and the test was stopped and never finished.

No, it was not done in any way to bully or harrass me. In fact, we only had a look out of curiosity after I showed him the 1996 document about doing your d2d's in your prep time... We were just looking to see where the D2D's are supposed to fit in... As I have said before, my managers are actually quite reasonable.

As it turns out, we calculated it wrong anyway and I am actually doing 10 items per minute, which is much more acceptable. :)

-me

[Bazman]

6 Items per minute? RM standard is 13 per minute?

I've been prep tested multiple times and the standards I've been told are 26 letters per minute or 22 flats per minute.

Is there any offical documentation on this?

[dohnut]

6 Items per minute? RM standard is 13 per minute?

I've been prep tested multiple times and the standards I've been told are 26 letters per minute or 22 flats per minute.

Is there any offical documentation on this?

same here, no offence but 6 a minute is VERY slow escpecially as you have been on the walk for 2 weeks, ussually takes me 2 days to get used to the frame, and as above 26 is the standard I think or maybe 24?

[POSTMAN]

I'm not sure if this helps guys.

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 36&t=18051" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DemonPostie]

Sorry for the confusion, but the 11 items per minute standard I was talking about is from the moment you collect your first letter to the moment you hand the full pouches over to the driver, including flats, redirections, deads, parcels, etc etc. It does work out actually throwing off about 25 letters per minute.
Basically take the TOTAL time to prep, and divide it by the number of items. Should come to about 11 per minute.

Sorry fot the confusion!

-me

[lekker]

This testing which has suddenly sprung up everywhere is simply a means of bullying us into working at an unachievable rate to hide the fact that their executive action is a complete fiasco.

Talk about desperation. "We've fouled up - it's your fault"