Letter to Branches No. 282/14 WEEKEND SERVICES

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Letter to Branches




No. 282/14
Ref: 709.02
Date: 28th April 2014


To All: Postal Branch Secretaries - FOR IMMEDIATE CIRCULATION TO ALL AREA/UNIT PROCESSING REPS, AREA/UNIT DISTRIBUTION REPRESENTATIVES, AREA/UNIT DELIVERY REPRESENTATIVES

Area Processing Representatives
Area Distribution Representatives
LGV Representatives
RDC Unit Representatives
Postal Divisional Representatives


Dear Colleague

WEEKEND SERVICES

The Department was contacted on Friday, 25th April 2014 with details of a new product offering which is being badged as a ‘Rapid Response’ to current competition activity and an initiative to ensure that we continue to have positive relationships with a number of key customers.

The proposed change is an enhanced processing window within the Royal Mail Letter/Parcel network for Tracked 24 & 48 products, which effectively requires the introduction of a new weekend network. As from the 10th/11th of May, the Latest Acceptance Times (LAT’s) for these products will be extended to provide an additional 35hrs of access.

Currently the LAT in RDC’s is 12.00 midday Saturday and this will be extended until effectively 23.00hrs on a Sunday. This will enable an extra T48 items to be delivered on Tuesday and an extra T24 items to be delivered on a Monday. (Attached to this LTB is a more detailed managerial summary of the changes proposed).

Against that backdrop the business has informed us of the need to move quickly in order to respond to our customer’s expectations and wish to announce that from the 10th/11th of May 2014 there will be improved service offerings for tracked high-volume customers, who Royal Mail Commercial are currently in negotiations with.

Because the volumes on this new product offering will be initially low the resourcing requirement will be on a overtime basis and will involve increased and new processing hours in RDC’s and Mail Centres especially on a Sunday night, and increased Network and Area Distribution hours

There is of course a huge amount of uncertainty in regard to the customer response and the amount of items that will need to be processed, so it is very much a ‘suck it and see’ situation at this stage.

Therefore the business has agreed that a cross functional National Working Group will be established and more detailed discussions will take place in respect of future weekend arrangements and the potential for more inventive and rewarding employment opportunities.

The purpose of this LTB therefore is to afford all branches and relevant IR Representatives a ‘heads up’ on the fact that local managers will be contacting local representatives with immediate effect to discuss the potential resourcing arrangements that will be required in the sites/functions affected.

In advance of these local discussions national management have agreed that any resourcing arrangements for this initiative will not change current duties, SA arrangements and dispatch and arrivals patterns. Equally any standalone overtime requirements will be for a minimum 4hr duration, unless there is an agreed extension of an existing duty.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number 709.02.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary

Enhanced Weekend Operation

This paper outlines an improved offering to our Tracked High Volume customers (entering via the RDCs).  This is a rapid response to competitor threat, with the objective of growing volume and revenue in a growing part of the market that we do not currently serve. The enhancement to our service outlined below provides an immediate opportunity to win new business from an existing customer and will provide the foundation for further opportunities with existing Tracked High Volume customers and new customers.

The enhancements are specifically to our Tracked 48 High Volume and Tracked 24 High Volume Bespoke products (Amazon and NDC). We are working towards a 10th May ‘go live’ date for the operational changes outlined below.

Background

Currently for both T48 HV and the T24 HV Bespokes we cut off at midday on a Saturday. Royal Mail therefore misses any weekend traffic produced after that time until we reopen on a Monday. In response to competitor activity, and to help secure known customer business in the Tracked 24 bespoke space, from the weekend of 10th May 2014 we will change our weekend accessibility to:

T48 HV – extend the LAT from 1200 Saturday to 2300 Sunday – a weekend LAT – for delivery on Tuesday
(this will affect RDCs – NDC/ PRDC / SWDC / NWDC / YDC / SDC)

T24 HV Amazon Bespoke – extend the LAT from 1200 Saturday to 1900 on Sunday for a Monday delivery
(this will affect RDCs - NDC / PRDC / SWDC / SDC and all MCs)

T24 HV NDC Bespoke – extend the LAT from 1200 Saturday to 1900 for ‘national’ coverage on a Saturday and then up to 1700 on a Sunday for a limited ‘core’ coverage – both for delivery on a Monday.
(this will affect NDC and all MCs)

RDC Operation

For Saturday Tracked 24 we will extend the current LAT to 19:00.  The traffic will then be processed and moved through Saturday night cross docking to MCs.  Some existing cross docking feeders may be retimed if needed, but initially we will run with existing feeders until we see the volumes involved.  We are basing the plan on the current weekday propositions for each DC. This volume is within the cross docking plan and spare capacity can be used.

For Sunday Tracked 24 we will process and dispatch all Tracked 24 bespoke traffic received between 19:10 Saturday and 17:00 Sunday through a new network which will run on Sunday night.  This is a new solution based on the full national selections we currently receive during the week for road only connectivity.  Each RDC will receive collections from their normal customer Fulfilment Centres up to 17:00 Sunday.  On the first weekend of service we are expecting 26,000 items of new traffic in this space. The traffic will be processed to the normal national selections (so for NDC, SWDC and PRDC this does not include postcodes areas in Scotland, Belfast, where existing road services exclude servicing the day specification. 

All traffic for RDC’s local mail centres will be held at the RDC with the remainder dispatched on a hub to hub artic network which will run between NDC, SWDC and PRDC (SDC will be self-sufficient with its own network).  Traffic for local MC areas from other RDC’s will be cross docked at each local RDC and dispatched to MC’s either on artic’s where volume is available or on rigid’s ran by the MC’s.

For Tracked 48 High Volume we will offer a weekend collection to all current and new Tracked 48 customers.  The collection period will be between Saturday AM and 23:00 Sunday.  Any THV traffic collected during this time will be positioned at the RDC, unloaded on Monday morning from 6am and processed through the scanners by 12:00 midday.  This traffic will then be dispatched on Monday’s cross docking which will be flexed once volumes are confirmed.  The scanning window for this traffic will be from midday Saturday to midday Monday so should the volume received by any DC exceed the capacity available on a Monday morning there is the opportunity to process the traffic over the weekend subject to traffic availability.

At NDC, SWDC and PRDC which will open on Sunday the THV 48 traffic can be used as filler but must not be dispatched on the Sunday network.

Impact

The changes will require an increase in processing hours in the RDC and also additional network driving hours. These are currently being firmed up by unit and will be shared locally with colleagues.

MC Operation

For T24 High Volume Bespokes - Mail Centres will receive two dispatches of Tracked 24 Bespoke traffic – one via usual outlets on a Saturday into Sunday. The second lot of T24 traffic for Monday delivery will be collected in most cases (in some Network will provide) by local distribution from the RDC on Sunday night. They will run the mail back to the MC – only T24 traffic on these runs – for processing and onward dispatch to Delivery Offices for Monday Delivery.  This will require Mail Centres to resource a processing capability on Sunday evening in line with the expected T24 volumes, with attendance aligned to the arrival profile for each Mail Centre. Initially at least this will be resourced on overtime.  We currently have a forecast for 26,000 items on new traffic in this space, with fall to earths ranging from 160 items to 1800 items per Mail Centre. We will review existing DO Feeder runs to ensure we can achieve connection to Delivery Offices for a Monday service. The initial volumes means that impact on Monday deliveries will be negligible.

Impact

Requirement for new processing hours on Sunday nights aligned to forecast volumes and resourced via overtime – ranging from 1 duty to 8 duties according to Mail Centre volumes

Requirement for new driving hours on Sunday night to make Collections from RDC’s (where not serviced by Network) – 32 Collections in total with run times between 45 minutes and 4 hours 30 minutes

Requirement to review DO Feeder runs to ensure connection of T24 bespoke traffic for Monday delivery, with contingencies put in place where necessary (currently being scoped with 19 Mail Centres under review)

General note

The majority of change highlighted above is driven by the Tracked 24 bespoke solution and the service offering of a Monday delivery for a Sunday posted item. The operational solution identified to date very much reflects the relatively modest volumes we expect to see in the first few weeks of the service being offered. The immediate priority is to get the service to market quickly and for the service provided to the customer to be excellent. The ambition is to grow further business from this start up position. With this being the case out-with the scenarios outlined above no the changes to work-plans, duty structures or attendance times are planned at this time. As we move forward we will continuously monitor the volumes being secured and will review the robustness of the operational design accordingly.

[Surreypostie]

Good idea, still playing catch up with Amazon Logistics to name but one, they deliver sunday. Come on Royal mail, compete. Stop basing your business on eventually having no work and just cutting all the time. If TNT suddenly lost all their work and it came back to us we would be in the shite big time.

[Danelectro]

The initial volumes means that impact on Monday deliveries will be negligible.

can do culture