Royal Mail Bullying 4 hour delivery timed on quickest postie

[Big Daz]

You got some s**t coming your way Daz. 9 PT /56 FT Our office is running on 45/55% ratio ,all bent and corner cutting, but as far as RM are concerned it is a viable working model(till it goes tits up)

Or has he? This may be a shot in the dark but some areas will have to be overstaffed if the 75/25 is to be maintained - how else can you maintain that. If the workload falls below a certain level you cannot sustain 75/25 - it makes you wonder if some areas have been ring-fenced against cuts.

The IWT using 100BSI and the national ACF figures says 154 hours savings on our AWD hours.

This is tabletop rather than pegasus, so waht may happen or be proposed to happen by RML in early 2012 when pegasus and eveything else comes along is too far in the future to guess. Although reading this site does make me wonder what on earth RML will want from us in 2012.

[steven100]

You save more time when the mail is walk sequenced, and reserves have no problems throwing it in. At the end it can throw up some missorts. But it does reduce the time. Part-time here we come (oh wait i am part time) .

[BELIAL]

I imagine that RML will aim for PT to replace FT retirees post sequenced revision although with housing growth its possible to kep FT jobs on the basis of longer spans.

What puzzles me is that many posters on this site have claimed how little time sequenced mail saves and yet all of a sudden the talk is about the much longer spans that will come about with sequenced mail.

So does sequenced mail save lots of time or not?

Can only tell you about my office; Sequenced mail will save you about 7-10 mins for 500 -700 slot frames depending on traffic if you are fairly familiar with the prep. The only effect sequenced mail has had on our IPS is to increase the amount of manual mail and sorting time. Presumably because the sequencing machines operate with less tolerance. You will spot the extra manual , it comes in mixed trays of about 12 walks.
Still never seen a tray of WS flats despite the fact that our MC is supposedly up to speed

In case you missed it Big D

[Lincox]

Get about two trays of walk sorted flats most days. They have about five items in each and the rest of the flats come unwalksorted. Get one tray of walk sequenced mail which starts off ok and then at the end of the tray you are back to jumping around the frame. Time saving at the moment zilch,, but I agree that for someone who is not used to the frame, it is easier and speeds up the time getting used to where the different streets are. If this is going to be the standard of walk sequenced mail, then they will never recoup the cost of the machines.

[kilrenny]

I broke off on Monday. no way are the walks now 4 hours. Took 50 hours out our DO which is fairly small rural and we had 4 hours foisted on us just like that. walks even at quick pace are over 4 hours. I have told manager if the walks are done by the book ie reading once you get to the door and no shortcuts they are more like 5 hours.

[kilrenny]

we do not get sequenced and have been told we will not. means prep takes ages

[POSTMAN]

I broke off on Monday. no way are the walks now 4 hours. Took 50 hours out our DO which is fairly small rural and we had 4 hours foisted on us just like that. walks even at quick pace are over 4 hours. I have told manager if the walks are done by the book ie reading once you get to the door and no shortcuts they are more like 5 hours.

Is this a revision then with you lot involved?

[packmule]

We've had our revision and because I kept going over have been prep tested (walk was actually the right size prior, didn't make time) . No result for test as yet but should be well in. Now hear it may be a walk test
Bring it on ,talk about clutching at straws to get the result you want

[OnAFlyer]

So does sequenced mail save lots of time or not?

In our office it saves nothing, because the last batch is so late (8.45-9.15am) that we are getting out later than we ever were before. It's getting to the point that managers are bringing it through for us to hand sort because it's quicker than waiting for the machines. The machines that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds

@Belial, it sounds like that's the mail you're getting, we get a cage full and it's all for the same 10-12 walks.

Our revision has us doing 4hr 15 walks in a 7hr 48 day(39hr week). The problem I can see is that by the time you add on travelling time and van checks (30 mins), a break (40 mins) and toilet break (15 mins) we are already at 5hr 40. That leaves 2hrs 8m to do the IPS, fully prep all the walks and tie up. Even on a later start, say 7am, that means we'd have to be tied up for 9.08 (or 9.48 if break taken).

How are we going to manage that when the sequenced mail isn't coming in until 9am or later, and the walks are bigger? Most people can't get out before 9.45-10 now and that's with a 6am start and no break.

Even our managers say the machines are a complete bag of crap, the savings they are supposed to make are completely fictional. Before sequencing we could have done these new walks easily as the mail was ready earlier.

[music4essex]

We have been having problems with sequenced mail, at least 2-3 days a week includings sats the first walk sequ mail comes in 1or 2 boxes letters only, but quite often the second tray is not sequenced ,
today the mail was 45 mins late not sequenced and had to be manual sorted toon ips and then the mail in the trays was non sequenced,

we had a brush up with management about what he was going to pay for being out late, even said that lapsing of walks should stop now, DIM said he had a conferance call and would say something, I argued that I don't want to see what happened to me when i c laimed 45 mins last week to see in wage slip they docked 30mins, so today I cut off the lapsing,
When i got back to the office only 3 people had cut off

Also heard the dim saying if the mail keeps arriving late we will have to start late can see more arguments coming up, we currently start at 6am dim wants 7am I would prefer 6.30

Happy days not
Essex mum

[OnAFlyer]

Oh, and since the WSM's have come in (that are supposed to save 400 hours) we aren't collapsing as much, just 1 day this week instead of 5 before.

[BELIAL]

@Belial, it sounds like that's the mail you're getting, we get a cage full and it's all for the same 10-12 walks.

Thats the stuff It previously came in walksorted . Now the MC walksorts it and the WSM's spit it out and shuffle it up ,very modernized and efficient like Still, more inward prep ,more hours

[brandydoguk]

We started getting sequenced mail recently, what a waste of time and money. There is the same amount of sorting on ips, only about half our total mail is actually sequenced and we now get it later. We've stopped lapsing unless it is a really quiet day and we get our last batch of w/s mail by 8:00.

The other day they stopped our first batch of mail going through the machines to do other office's second batch first, then we were sat around for 45 minutes until ours was finally done. Since the w/s started we're pretty much working to our finish times which is fair enough but it has been pretty quiet mail wise. God help us when the run up to Xmas starts and we get hammered. Even the linos are saying they may scrap the sequencing on our second batch as it takes too long and will cause us to be claiming o/t on busy days.

[SpacePhoenix]

We started getting sequenced mail recently, what a waste of time and money. There is the same amount of sorting on ips, only about half our total mail is actually sequenced and we now get it later. We've stopped lapsing unless it is a really quiet day and we get our last batch of w/s mail by 8:00.

The other day they stopped our first batch of mail going through the machines to do other office's second batch first, then we were sat around for 45 minutes until ours was finally done. Since the w/s started we're pretty much working to our finish times which is fair enough but it has been pretty quiet mail wise. God help us when the run up to Xmas starts and we get hammered. Even the linos are saying they may scrap the sequencing on our second batch as it takes too long and will cause us to be claiming o/t on busy days.

I doubt that any DO anywhere will get too much sequenced mail during xmas pressure as LSMs and iLSMs will be running outward plans for the majority of the time. It'll be interesting to see how well both the iLSMs and CSS machines handle xmas cards. From what I've read/heard if there is even a single mistake or something a CSS machine doesn't like about a batch it'll reject the whole batch (and them presumably that batch would then get sent through as a manual mail boxes to whichever DO.

[Stormproof]

The only stuff in my office that seems to go through the WSM is the stuff that was originally in the mech bundles. 2/3 trays a day probably saves about 8 mins. Loads on the IPS that could be run through the machines but is'nt resulting in more manual sorting. Why does'nt the DSA crap come walksorted? Roll on our revision 4.5hr delivery