Backless Frames

[dvbuk55]

Backless frames are going in this weekend at my office. Has anyone had any experience of them and how succesful they are in comparison to the old system. Apparently we are only using the sorters, no porters because there is insufficient staff to take off the IPS/double prep so you still collect your own mail, after you've finished IPS................so no change except instead of collecting from the front you collect from the back.......................so instead of going round the back to pull your mail out you would imagine it would be simpler to pull it from the front......................still someone must be making money from it.

[fng]

It works alright to be honest in my opinion. Before it was a case of leaning over some sweaty fat sorter (no offence to sweaty fat sorters) who huffed and puffed at you for making him go even slower than he was already.

Now just nip between the frames and grab the mail from the back the sorters can carry on doing their job unhinded.

[fishtank]

That seems a bit pointless DV...no porters.

[Stormproof]

We are going to have backless frames aswell. I heard the best sorters will be on the IPS the rest will be porters, so thats 2 sorters and 98 porters then

[fishtank]

We are going to have backless frames aswell. I heard the best sorters will be on the IPS the rest will be porters, so thats 2 sorters and 98 porters then

No Storm...the 2 are Supersorters or Sorting Champions or some other s**t like that.
The other 98 of us are potential IHR/NCI/Dismissal cases.

[dvbuk55]

That seems a bit pointless DV...no porters.

I thought the whole point was to have porters, hence the backless frame but it seems to be more a question of seeming to toe a collective line even though we cannot implement portering, we cannot fit in the D2D cupboards because there is insufficient room - so the end result is backless frames full stop. Ain't life grand

Makes you wonder if the whole issue of new frames, more vehicles, CSS machines et al what the value of colleague shares would have been? I imagine a room of RM boffins, or do I mean buffoons, sitting round a table thinking of ways to spend money to avoid giving the plebs any.

[Stormproof]

I imagine a room of RM boffins, or do I mean buffoons, sitting round a table thinking of ways to spend money to avoid giving the plebs any.

That reminds me of a parcel we once had in the Callers office for one of the area directors. They had sent off for some hats
No wonder this firm is in the state its in.

[fishtank]

I think this is how it went down DV.
Someone in RM Procurement got their hands on a shipment of cheap IPS frames meaning to simply replace the old ones.
Obviously the reason they were so cheap was because someone had forgotten to fit the back panel.
Rather than look foolish...again....a desperate attempt at face saving was needed and after a "Blue Sky" brainstorming session someone was despatched to B&Q to source as much bungie cord as possible.
The backless frame was born....

[pinstripe]

We had them installed against the advice of the union. They argued that there was insufficient space for them, the use and training of 'porters' had not been properly addressed and that they were a waste of money.

They were installed on a Sunday, Monday morning came and it was a disaster. No porters, no-one allowed to go down the backs of the frames due to H&S, staff clearing in over the top of the sorters, mail flying back out of the slots because of the elastic bands on the back, even less space in the office than before. We ended up with the Area H&S rep down and he wasn't impressed. Now the space between the 2 rows of backless frames is used to store the yorks of M/S. Oh, and both letters and flats are sorted into the same slots, so clearing down is a nightmare. I can see why RM love them.

[dvbuk55]

I think this is how it went down DV.
Someone in RM Procurement got their hands on a shipment of cheap IPS frames meaning to simply replace the old ones.
Obviously the reason they were so cheap was because someone had forgotten to fit the back panel.
Rather than look foolish...again....a desperate attempt at face saving was needed and after a "Blue Sky" brainstorming session someone was despatched to B&Q to source as much bungie cord as possible.
The backless frame was born....

That sounds a bit sleazy to be honest ft...................RM Procurement I have visions of East Europeans, shady deals in cafes

Reminds me of my dad, he was on a trip to London and was offered some nice white shirts, packaged and some named brand at the time. He bought two thinking he would wear one on the journey back................got back to the hotel, opened the box and the shirts had no sleeves, just ragged edges...................he never forgave the cockney spivs, although it was a source of amusement for many years - he died 40 years ago.

[woofwoof]

search for indoor flow

[NewPostieUK]

It's too hard to pull the stuff out, from either back or front! We have no porters either, and the bungee straps make it hard to pull the stuff out the back, especially the top and bottom, most people still go round the front. The slots are too shallow, you can't get your hand in to get a good grip of the letters.

[taurus88]

They're w**k, in my humble opinion. No improvement on the previous. You have to fight through bungee cords to get your mail now. Sounds easy but saves nothing at any point. 95% of staff still go round the front anyway instead of having to fight through the bungees to get their mail. Although, by the time I get to work, there's usually no-one on IPS, anyway. So I just grab from the front.

[clashcityrocker]

The backless frames are smaller - meaning after sorting 3 British Medical Journals or just one Red the box needs to be cleared.
If they say you need one porter, you will really need at least 3.
They're not the slickest bit of kit in the DO.

[SpacePhoenix]

We had them installed against the advice of the union. They argued that there was insufficient space for them, the use and training of 'porters' had not been properly addressed and that they were a waste of money.

They were installed on a Sunday, Monday morning came and it was a disaster. No porters, no-one allowed to go down the backs of the frames due to H&S, staff clearing in over the top of the sorters, mail flying back out of the slots because of the elastic bands on the back, even less space in the office than before. We ended up with the Area H&S rep down and he wasn't impressed. Now the space between the 2 rows of backless frames is used to store the yorks of M/S. Oh, and both letters and flats are sorted into the same slots, so clearing down is a nightmare. I can see why RM love them.

You may as well move them together and close that space up as very soon mailsort won't arrive at MCs until the day before it's due to be deleivered.

Think of it this way your clearing down the frames more often and each time a slot is cleared you're probably having to stop sorting for a few moments. All that time will add up meaning you'll probably get off the IPS later, so get tied up later and depending on time have a bit less time to deliver it so increases the chances of people having to cut-off.