WHY DID BIKES GO ?? BRING THEM BACK !!

[knackeredjointsRUS]

Why were bike deliveries stopped ?? has anyone got a definite answer I keep hearing it was for health & safety reasons surely not. I walk round pushing a HCT for over 4 hours everyday and it is killing me,my feet hurt, my joints ache, my back aches, the days of a postie doing this job for 40 years are long gone can you imagine doing this job for 40 years !! no chance Royal mail are just putting way to much on us physically it's just to demanding. Look forward to hearing the real reason if anyone knows it .

[justdeno]

We have got 2 bikes back, and working on another! We had H&S issues with the HCT's, duties too big, no footpaths etc. So, there are bike duties allowed.

[knackeredjointsRUS]

Ever single bike in our office has gone !!! All duties are either van share or HCT's ( 74 duties ) yet TNT are using them 3 miles away to deliver, there exactly the same as ours were with panniers but orange

[chrisj]

RM is now more a Parcel business than a letter business. How many parcels can you carry on a bike? Some of the parcels are almost half the size of the bikes...

HCT is far more secure than a bike. You can lock up your HCT but a lot of times, bags are just left on bikes...

Using a bicycle has an inherent risk re: traffic, incidents and accidents (some posties don't even use Helmets)


Just my view but some still use them. At least one round* still gets done on a bike at ours - but that is only when the want a spare van or they could not get enough drivers.

* The round is part-rural and mostly semis and a few terraces - not high street.

[mtber]

[quote="chrisj"]RM is now more a Parcel business than a letter business.
yeah thats what moya keeps saying, strange that, cause 99 percent of my work is delivering letters what was wrong in having dedicated packet and parcell van deliveries for the big stuff, keeping the bikes for letters and the small packets been using a bike this way for 24 years it was a proven method

[chrisj]

Dedicated vans is Parcel Force. I prefer not having to work with drivers - most of them were dick*eads that think they are better than the walkers. Some of them still behave like that even in shared-vans.

It is just more efficient to carry everything with you than using drivers and having loads of packets left behind at the whim of drivers. The older method treated parcels as second class to letters.

It is not just the oversized packets that have increased but the medium sized ones too.

I agree that the walking is becoming more and more hurtful, especially for folks that were more used to bikes.

[halfull]

one word-packets

[Lincox]

CJ I dont disagree with you that some routes are better served by P&L, but I do disagree that pushing those prams is more efficient than using a bike. The bike which Royal Mail uses is efficient but does require points for reloading. However a better modified cycle which is used in some countries with three wheels, much larger front basket, larger panniers and when necessary a small lockable trailer would have been a far better way of taking the weight off the shoulders, kneck and torso and at the same time add speed to the delivery process. That would have been modernisation, not pushing a red pram on wheels fully laden for hours on end.

[chrisj]

HCT are for high street close to the office - they were used alongside the bikes...

The person was talking about using bikes for 24 years - that lies in the problem. Even the folks on HCT nowadays have to come back to the office to replenish. The bikes will not solve that problem at all - it will just mean there will be a need for more and more safe bagdrop points.

I have used some of the bikes - a lot of them were not safe. The maintenance was virtually non-existent and going downhill with laden bags on the bike was always a risk with wobble wheels and dodgy brakes.

You got drivers that were virtually uncontrollable by managers: some refuse some many packets and some think they can punish walkers that are not happy with their work or are not their friends. There was always an argument as regards some drivers and walkers end up waiting for bags or being made to take lots of bags out so that they are not stranded without work.

Bikes are dead! Thank God! However, if you like bikes so much then I will recommend TNT (below) they do not carry much mail or packets.

[Ahebban]

Substitute 'health and safety reasons' for 'efficiency savings' and you are closer to why cycles are being phased out in the revision process. In the older parts town where I live an HCT will not fit on the path, so we will most probably end up with some bastardised version of a park and loop system ... can't wait!

[UnhappyGremlin]

Bikes have gone because RM has deemed them not fit for purpose.
It is not an H&S issue at all.
They made a choice, and came up with an excuse.
They want everything to go by van. Full stop.
There are, and will be, a few instances where bikes will still be used.
But, by and large, it's vans all the way.

One guy I spoke to seems to think it is a fore runner to outsourcing, (owner drivers).
Time will tell....

[5plusbonusball]

20000 bikes have been sent to Africa, god knows why!

[plymouth3]

Can never understand why we did not go for the big 3 wheel bikes with a box at the back as big as a hct. Simples

[goldy]

They would rather are joints be worn out it was too easy with bikes i would argue
its much unheathier to nit use bikes.