Walking speed used in GeoRoute?

[Lincox]

But what are the 70% and 85% based on. Is it based on traffic figures or is it based on actual count of points not delivered to over a period of several weeks to arrive at a mean average. Traffic figures mean nothing as you could have a low traffic count for a particular day but a high call count, as a particular advertiser may have blitzed your area on one day and you have 100% call rate as each address has at least one piece of mail. Traffic figures and call count are totally different pieces of delivery information and one shouldn't be used to provide data for the other in justifying delivery times.

[thegreatestfreddy]

But what are the 70% and 85% based on. Is it based on traffic figures or is it based on actual count of points not delivered to over a period of several weeks to arrive at a mean average. Traffic figures mean nothing as you could have a low traffic count for a particular day but a high call count, as a particular advertiser may have blitzed your area on one day and you have 100% call rate as each address has at least one piece of mail. Traffic figures and call count are totally different pieces of delivery information and one shouldn't be used to provide data for the other in justifying delivery times.

Exactly... traffic and call rate are different.... the 70% or 85% for example should be based upon actual count of points not delivered to over a period of several weeks to arrive at a mean average..... Can anyone on here confirm that this is the case ??

[dvbuk55]

Is this what the Panorama Programme was getting at... the pace they are using to devise the rounds is way too quick for anyone...?

It can't be.
It was tested in a "live" environment by the union.

Being the first to get to Greggs isin't a 'live' test

It wasn't a rush to get there DG it was the rush to get back whilst they were still hot.

[DGP1]

Is this what the Panorama Programme was getting at... the pace they are using to devise the rounds is way too quick for anyone...?

It can't be.
It was tested in a "live" environment by the union.

Being the first to get to Greggs isin't a 'live' test

It wasn't a rush to get there DG it was the rush to get back whilst they were still hot.

Not be a problem when they stop selling it warm

[chunk]

My call rates are often above 90%
this is partly due to d2d
but bulk mailings such as necter cards ,water bills etc can easily push your call rate to near 100%
which is usually unachievable in the allowed time.

[thegreatestfreddy]

mail volumes have been very 'light' in manager's terms in our office the last couple of weeks..... even all this time on they still don't realise however that it is call rate and the number of attended calls that is significant in being able to complete a walk on time or not.... they are still in complete denial over this for some reason and we waste hours in this office arguing about it and chasing manager's around to make sure that they have put you down for overtime....

we have recently been told that we are not allowed to pester the 'wages clerk' to look at the overtime sheets which is now making checking what you are being told by manger (ie you have been put on the overtime sheets) is true or not, only finding out they had lied to you when receiving you wage slip the following week.!!

[steve1873]

mail volumes have been very 'light' in manager's terms in our office the last couple of weeks..... even all this time on they still don't realise however that it is call rate and the number of attended calls that is significant in being able to complete a walk on time or not.... they are still in complete denial over this for some reason and we waste hours in this office arguing about it and chasing manager's around to make sure that they have put you down for overtime....

we have recently been told that we are not allowed to pester the 'wages clerk' to look at the overtime sheets which is now making checking what you are being told by manger (ie you have been put on the overtime sheets) is true or not, only finding out they had lied to you when receiving you wage slip the following week.!!

The problem is, and tbh I can see it from their perspective also, is that if volumes are lower then prep and indoor work will be reduced as a result. Meaning we are on the street earlier and thus outdoor span has increased. Therefore, even if the call rate is maintained you have longer outdoors.

The problem comes when they over emphasise by how much earlier you are supposed to be on the street and give too much extra work (lapsing) in order to compensate for that.

[Lincox]

Less indoor work=more outdoor work=more fatigue=more sick days=more lapsing=more bullying

[ninja]

The CSS machines do produce a call rate percentage for each walk and guess this is what they have been using in the talks with CWU HQ concerning the summer staffing plan. Although this is only a percentage breakdown of the mail to the walks for each day and doesn't take into account the manual elements that go into your delivery, so could give a false call rate. Although each walk should have a call rate agreed within the planning stages and not just a blanket one for the whole office which the planners like to try.

I have noticed that the drop in traffic has been within the CSS operations and the manual volumes have mostly been the same for my area. This means that the CSS call rate will drop but with the manual levels staying the same the indoor element doesn't change much so the managers lapsing opportunity hasn't been achieved.

They are under the impression that the summer agreement confirms that each walk has 30mins spare on the outdoor span and so there lapsing plan was based on this. I asked them to show me this is the agreement which they couldn't and then showed them an agreed document that states for every 10% increase in traffic the outdoor span grows by 1.8%.

[clashcityrocker]

The CSS machines do produce a call rate percentage for each walk ......... Although this is only a percentage breakdown of the mail to the walks for each day and doesn't take into account the manual elements that go into your delivery .

We used to do a breakdown from the ips as well.
The percentage from the CSS still remained pretty accurate.
Basically a walk that gets a lot of sequenced mail will get a lot of manual mail as well.
I could see a possibility of a walk getting very little sequenced but perhaps a lot of catalogues from the ips, but in my (limited) experience it never happened.

[fishtank]

I think the point is that using a tool like Automis to accurately predict an individual call rate then completely ignoring the manual and especially the parcel element renders the whole thing utterly useless, It's like counting the white keys on a piano then guessing the number of black keys.

If they want to reduce this simple job to a science which they obviously do then surely they can't just apply the sciencey part when it suits and then play a guessing game with the rest. In the past 10 years I've seen umpteen resource tools introduced into this job and I have to say that long term, medium term and even short term resource planning is no better than it was back then...incompetent management or flawed tools?

The truth is most days a Dom has no idea what's coming through those doors until the 600 bocks up to the loading bay and last minute resource "juggling/lapsing" simply pisses the staff off and saves the business the square root of f**k all.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

It beggars belief that they want to go all sciencey with letter counts (yet they try and squeeze300-400 sequenced letters in a perstop when it suits them), yet they do not have a decent ballpark figure for the dimensions of every letterbox in the country, so we can clearly see Jim at no. 42 needs an attendance call for any parcel bigger than 10x3cm; records from the last year show he is rarely in Mon-Fri for attendance call items (so DTN time needs allowing for... Not this "takes no extra time" rubbish); the walking distance to his door is ~15.5m each way; he has a gate and porch that are normally closed etc.

And breathe...

[thegreatestfreddy]

reduced volumes in our office don't seem to manifest in earlier getting out times..... i think simply because they reduce staffing levels as well which obviously impacts on number of bodies available for ips....

reduced mail volumes in my eyes my eyes means usual time out (give or take few mins), same call rate and attended call rate (with reduced number of items) + extended lapsing = proportionally as much overtime as during the busier periods.... i don't see where they are saving money and are knackering their staff in the process!