Collection Monitoring Device - Trial

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LTB 158/12 - Collection Monitoring Device – Trial

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To: All Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague
Collection Monitoring Device - Trial

A Collections National Strategic Involvement Meeting took place with the business on the 1st February 2012, attended by Tony Bouch PEC Member on behalf of the Outdoor Department. During the meeting Nick Hemmings Collections Best Practice Manager stated that the business was looking to trial a device which could monitor / record the time and date when mail has been posted at a Postbox.
Subsequently Royal Mail formally informed the Union that they wished to proceed with a trial of the monitoring device in the Stirling area of Scotland, mainly due to the fact that the devices are manufactured there.
In setting out the background to the device and what it would be hoped the trial could be used for they also made it clear that they wanted to run a trial with the full involvement of the CWU at all levels.
Further dialogue has taken place between the dept and Royal Mail and consequently additional information was sent across to the department and a draft set of words were exchanged in the form of a Joint Statement. These words have now been agreed and endorsed by the Postal Executive at its statutory meeting on the 6th March 2012 and are attached to this document for your information.
Also attached for information purposes is the WTLL brief that will be given to employees in the participating unit(s).
The devices are being installed in the Postboxes on Friday 9th March and the trial is due to commence on Monday 12th March. All employees at the participating sites will be fully briefed prior to the trial commencing.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson's Office, quoting reference 540

Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely


Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary - Outdoor
COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

URGENT INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS

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Royal Mail & CWU Trial of Collection Postbox Mail Monitoring Device


Aims / Background
At present information on the volume of mails contained within Postboxes is gathered via manual counts undertaken by Royal Mail Collection Employees, which is restricted to identifying the number of items at the time of collection and not the times they were posted.

Royal Mail has been able to secure the services of a company based in Stirling that would be able to supply a device that would be situated under or above the aperture depending on the Postbox type, which would record the time and date when mail has been posted.

This data will then be sent to an external website and made available to Royal Mail for analysis. The purpose of the trial is to identify if the information generated by the device could then be used to aid the planning of collection routes and the frequency of collections from individual boxes, and/or general data gathering.

Trial / Deployment
Given that the company supplying the device is based within the Stirling area it has been agreed between Royal Mail and CWU to use the Stirling Collection area for the trial.

The trial will initially consist of 6 devices being be used to cover Lamp/Pedestal/Wall Postboxes across the area and will progress to larger boxes as the device is developed further by the supplier.

The trial will start in March 2012 and run for a 3 month period in order to provide sufficient data to assess the capabilities of the device and determine its viability in a live operational environment.

Joint Involvement / Communications
In keeping with similar initiatives deployed within Collections the CWU will be fully involved in the trial and all data/information will be shared with the CWU at local and national level throughout the trial period. Consideration will also be given to Joint Communications.
Tony Bouch, CWU Postal Executive Member will oversee the trial on behalf of CWU HQ and will remain in regular dialogue with Nick Hemmings, CBP Programme Mgr for Royal Mail. Any problems or issues will be flagged up to these respective parties at the earliest opportunity.

The relevant Divisional / Area / Local Representatives will be informed of the trial in advance and will receive a presentation prior to its commencement. Collection employees locally will also be briefed about the trial which will include the location of the devices and what they are being used for. This may be supported by WTLL sessions and/or Individual handouts

Review
Following the trial the full results will be shared with the CWU and jointly analysed before any decision is taken on the purchase of further devices or future roll out. The CWU will also have access to Collection Employees who were involved in the trial to gather their views and take input; this may involve a joint questionnaire. If a decision is taken to roll the device out nationally then discussions will take place with the CWU to review the impact that this may have on existing national agreements and arrangements.





Nick Hemmings Bob Gibson
Royal Mail CWU

Date: 6/03/2012

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let’s talkabout
Postbox Mail Monitoring Device – Stirling Area Trials

Monitoring device.doc

[POSTMAN]

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I could save them the trouble.
Most boxes it's mainly between 0730 and 0930...and then again it's 1630-1800.
People going to work and the end of the working day.
High street boxes and outside P.O.s it's a constant trickle all day long.
At Christmas it's constant.
Been like that for as long as i can remember...not likely to change.
Gadgets for the sake of gadgets.

[wandle]

I could save them the trouble.
Most boxes it's mainly between 0730 and 0930...and then again it's 1630-1800.
People going to work and the end of the working day.
High street boxes and outside P.O.s it's a constant trickle all day long.
At Christmas it's constant.
Been like that for as long as i can remember...not likely to change.
Gadgets for the sake of gadgets.

Or, if your information is confirmed by analysis of the results from those gadgets, an excuse for Royal Mail to save money by only collecting from most boxes twice a day...
at just after 0930 and just after 1800