How many letters (on average) in a mech tray?

[Harry_Perkins]

Anyone got the figures on this? I've been accused of going slow of late. The usual story here. I don't think my rest day cover goes on sorting (for what reason, I don't know), comes in early and doesn't take meal relief. So he has about 2 hours prep time on me! So all I keep getting from managers is 'we had no trouble with this walk yesterday' etc. Just want to find out, roughly, how fast I'm actually sorting.

[slinger]

I don't think you'll ever get two trays of mail with the same number of letters in. As far as I'm aware for RM2000 sized frame you should be prepping at 25 letters a minute which is actually a fair old rate to do all morning non-stop.

[POSTMAN]

I've been accused of going slow of late.

s**t happens,ignore him especially after what you posted about your cover.

[smarterdarter]

Ask him/her to show you how it should be done, they will run a mile.
Anyway our mech is sequenced now so they will expect 60+ a minute

[Lincox]

Get the same at our yard. Several coming in up to 45 minutes early. We who come in at correct time are scrutinised as they say others are completing rounds within contract. Are they b--ks. They are doing RM unpaid work although some manipulate the time at the end of shift.

[Edward Hunter]

Our DOM was prepping a walk on Saturday, the slowest thing ive ever seen on two legs. About 20 of us walked over at seperate intervals to tell him he had "failed his prep test", drove him f***ing mad

[westlondonpostie]

Royal Mail says that the average tray contains 150 letters, 2 weeks ago I did a count on 1 tray and it had 318 letters in it,
Get your manager to count out 150 items and then tell him to test you, it's total bollox that some managers are testing people by the tray when it far excedes the 150 items RM says it does contain! If you are sorting a tray that contains over 300 items to me it's obvious that it's gonna take you twice as long as what RM says it should take for 150, but then brains have never been in abundence where managers are concerned

[Lincox]

Or vice versa, get him to check you doing a tray that has less than 150 in it. He will think that your the fastest thing on two legs, apart from that guy who won the 100 and 200 at the olympics. His name is lost on me at the moment.

[wolfie citizen smith]

I don't think you'll ever get two trays of mail with the same number of letters in. As far as I'm aware for RM2000 sized frame you should be prepping at 25 letters a minute which is actually a fair old rate to do all morning non-stop.

25 letters a minute, the person who told you that must be insane or either uninformed. During the 20 minute testing of the use of the RM2000 which is based on 640 delivery points the average LPM=12. Yet another reason to disregard the spoken word by management. I would strongly suggest you get your unit rep involved here citizen striaght away

[slinger]

I had a look today, as it's printed out on a sheet of paper on the side of the frames and it was 25 for RM2000, 34 on 48 box fitting for IPS. The best people regularly when tested throw in around 30 in RM2000 - the average in our office when tested would be about the 25 stated, but they don't or won't manage that for the whole time throwing their rounds off. Sorters regularly throw in around 50 in the 48 box fitting for IPS. To get over the 34 wanted is very easy.

This is actual letters not items of mail so not packets/flats.

[Lincox]

Where does the information on your frame come from Slinger. Is it local management or union agreed rate. If you take into account that you have to empty the mech box, sling out missorts etc. no way is 25 achievable. That is nearly 1 every 2 seconds. You have got to handle, read and insert into frame in that time, let alone have a slurp of tea. I think the 12 stated above is nearer the true rate over a full shift. I think when we had our R2000 installed they said about 15-17 per minute once we had become accustomed to the new frame.

[slinger]

Just for a 1 minute test. I do think 25 a min. for the whole time prepping is totally unrealistic, but most people who are experienced on a particular frame can do the 25 if tested - they just go for it, but like I said no way is it feasable for the whole time prepping. The tests are crap anyway as most people can do the set rate if tested, they just speed up for the time of the test. Our testing also doesn't take it account accuracy, which is far more important.

I haven't a clue whether it's a local agreement or what, but I will have a look on the sheet again and see if there are anymore details.

Regards RM saying 150 letters in a tray - absolute crap, I can sort on IPS about 50 a min when going for it using the 48 box fitting, now I'd do a full tray in 3 minutes if that's the case - takes me 5 mins minimum to do a full tray if I go for it, so on that basis you are looking at 250+ easy.

[wolfie citizen smith]

i stand by my last statement 12 letters per minute on the RM2000, this was tested and agreed by Royal Mail over a period of 20 mins, with fatigue included you can a agree 10 letters per min. Incorperate that into your working day then calculate time to perform your your whole duty, then see how much Royal Mail are taking the piss... DO YOUR JOB PROPERLY

[slinger]

Had another look today. The sheet didn't say whom it was agreed by or when, but did say that it is 24 per minute on 48 box fitting for walk prep - not IPS. IPS was the 34 per minute I suggested earlier, which is pedestrian pace and shouldn't be a problem for anyone imo.

I haven't prepped a walk using 48 box fitting for over 10 years - all our walks are on RM2000 frames, which is 25 in a minute test, this is imo alot tougher than the 34 in a min IPS test.

[ashadd]

There is NO AGREED PREP TEST. my dom tested me twice ,he said it should be 14 per minute but he would accept 12, i did 11.97. He fudged the figures on both occasions to make me look bad.One time he got me down as low as 8 p/m. The area manager agreed with me saying there was no agreed test to compare me with. So he started to compare my fitting with the early starters, which made me look even worse.