how much money does lapsing save?

[raikky]

Our office is lapsing 3 duties at the moment. the upper management have said we need to be lapsing 9 duties. ( lol ) the only way lapsing is working right now is by bringing all the part timers in early to get off ips early so we can lapse. some days we lapse up to 5 duties. What I don't get is that when we do this we have people spare in the office. they usualy finish a couple hours early. so our office is spending monre money than ever by bringing in people early just to lapse. Its dspending more money in summer than it does in some weeks of winter. its strange. I e-mailed moya about this and by the sounds of it is purely just a box ticking exercise which saves naff all money at all.

I suspect this is royal mails way to show Ofcom who efficient it can be. Yet there is nothing efficient about it. Everybody is lapsing. I don't mind. if I have time. I do it. if I don't, I don't ,... simple. what I do have a problem with is that some people are lapsing and finishing up to 2 hours early some days. these people come in 30 mins early, work through their break, and start deliveries at 8.30 alsmot everyday. yet there are people who do the job properly by coming in on their time, taking their break and coming back bang on time. It is these who are suffering more. management don't care about making deliveries equal or fair, or even distributing lapsing so it maks it more fair. if somebody is cutting corners, then let them take more lapsing out.

to all those who come in early on their own time, miss their break and fly around like blue tit arseholes, stop ruining the job for those who are doing it properly. I hate it when the management compare us to those who don't give a s**t by saying 'so and so is lapsing, why cant you?'

once management realise that it is not possible to lapse anymore, they will start cutting jobs no doubt. Do people really think its unfair to be asked to work the hours you are paid to do. sure it was nice finishing early, but like I said, its f***s it up for the rest of the office

rant over

[datasaint]

I don't think lapsing is appropriate because of the disruption to the customers post. You get more misdeliveries, post arrives at inconsistent times, sometimes late if taken out on overtime.

From a purely professional standpoint it shouldn't be allowed.

[Darren Bent]

and embarrasing. I have seen about 6 vans and 12 postmen in one mile area because they are lapsing at the same time length. It look unprofessional to people who don't know about it.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

unfortunately it does generally work, if a full timer is off manager has roughly 7hr 48 min over time to play with, so if three people off probably around 22 hours, if lapsing is costing lass than 22 hours ot per pay then its worth while doing, problem you have is the runners who still take lapsing and rush round thus the 7 or 8 who are claiming ot dont amount to the 22 hours and dom saves money rather than bringing someone in

[Darren Bent]

It is a good idea, but it is abused by doing it too much. When we have to do it every day it is not practical.

Short term saving means long term problems will come from 4 things

1. Off work from Stress over rowing with managers/postal workers over lapsing/overtime - More Sick Pay

2. Injuries from overwork - more sick pay

3. Payment for Ill health retirement - for overworked postal workers.

4. More postal workers live longer due to increased fitness and costing more money on pensions.

5. What happens if there is a very bad flu virus putting say 1/4 of work force out of action for 3 weeks for example.

[eastie]

In our office we have been hiring a van at £13,000 a year for the last 4 years yet they dispute the odd 30 mins overtime

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Food for thought...

How much time does the lapsing take, including additional travel time?

How many attendance call parcels in theory should be getting a "delivered to neighbour" attempt no off your walk, taking an real world extra 90-120 seconds per parcel in most scenarios?

So, why are we lapsing and why does the CWU appear to not have addressed the above, especially in areas that currently are not being hit by TNT and Amazon delivering their own mail items?

Why are walks with a proven long term history of needing overtime to complete including most Tuesdays, even without the scheduled WTLL and/or all scheduled indoor work time, being allocated lapsing (even without DTN)? Oh yes, even "double-slotted" lapsing sections (~40 deliver points rather than ~20)!

We have the early start, IPS overtime OPGs too, in the hope we will be prepped early enough to say we can squeeze in our lapsing bundle.

[PhilthyPhil]

In our office we have been hiring a van at £13,000 a year for the last 4 years yet they dispute the odd 30 mins overtime

Where do you get this figure from? RM normally pay a lot less than this to hire vans. Hence why we have so many of them. They are not much more expensive than red fleet.

[bustedflush]

It is a good idea, but it is abused by doing it too much. When we have to do it every day it is not practical.

Short term saving means long term problems will come from 4 things

1. Off work from Stress over rowing with managers/postal workers over lapsing/overtime - More Sick Pay

2. Injuries from overwork - more sick pay

3. Payment for Ill health retirement - for overworked postal workers.

4. More postal workers live longer due to increased fitness and costing more money on pensions.

5. What happens if there is a very bad flu virus putting say 1/4 of work force out of action for 3 weeks for example.

Are you serious??
This kinda contradicts your 2 and 3 above.
You'll spend your retirement hobbling and taking an hour each morning to loosen up and lose the stiffness.
You'll be on crutches or in a wheelchair but never mind, your cardiovascular system will work a bit better. Oh, I forgot, on crutches or in a chair, it'll clog up even quicker than in an able-bodied pensioner....

[raikky]

if 1 full timwr is off lets say. that is 7.48 hrs the manager has to play with. but that full timer is still getting paid. the wages, everything comes out fo the same pot. its like I was speaking to a manage ronce about why we had 4 hire vans and he said because the fleet manager refused to lend us vans as that comes out his budget. its silly. all to do with budgets even if its actually costing more in reality.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

if 1 full timwr is off lets say. that is 7.48 hrs the manager has to play with. but that full timer is still getting paid. the wages, everything comes out fo the same pot. its like I was speaking to a manage ronce about why we had 4 hire vans and he said because the fleet manager refused to lend us vans as that comes out his budget. its silly. all to do with budgets even if its actually costing more in reality.

he still has to pay the 7.48, but doesnt need to pay someone else 7.48 to cover him, he may only end up paying 5 or 6 hours thus has saved a few hours

[taxi4leighton]

lapsing saves RM a fortune
if they lapse 4 walks
thats saving about 30 hours if walks are fulltime
multiply x days in a year x offices in UK
thats millions of pounds

[bustedflush]

lapsing saves RM a fortune
if they lapse 4 walks
thats saving about 30 hours if walks are fulltime
multiply x days in a year x offices in UK
thats millions of pounds

That's "millions of pounds" minus the DIMs' and Linos' extra bonuses for forcing it on you.

[steve1873]

We have recently started lapsing every day - previously it had only really been Mon, Tues & Wed, and only a couple of duties. Now after a few visits from the DOM's gaffer we are lapsing every single day and 5 duties. Mines included, so I have in effect became a reserve (I knew my duty was a potential for lapsing when I signed so have no complaints in this regard). The complaint I do have, is that despite being put on new deliveries that I haven't done previously, I am still expected to lapse - well yesterday, got back to depot at 14:30 (finishing time 14:35) and having not taken a full meal relief meant I was approx. 20 mins over my time.

Again today, back at the depot at about 14:05 (finish 14:15) and again not having full meal relief meant I was about 15 mins over my time.

Now I have no problems working my contracted hours, and lapsing in theory is a tool for them to fill hours that are potentially slack. But surely it should't be an absolute every day occurrence. Now they don't even bother telling us the traffic figures or whether we are below the model week etc. It is just expected that you lapse. Yet still the same people are running out office as soon as possible so as to make it work.

Now, both today and yesterday when I arrived back at depot - there were around 1/2 the vans parked up in their bays, meaning that half the vans were still out and about. So where was the capacity to lapse? Surely management should be taking note of the people who are consistently finishing early and targeting them instead of tarring us all with the same brush.

I intend having a discussion with either my DOM or lino tomorrow and letting them know that in future I will not refuse to lapse BUT I will take it on the proviso that it will be done last... IF time allows. I will be happy to follow the correct procedure and let them know at the soonest opportunity if I need to bring it back undelivered, but I am not going to be forced in to going over my time every single day, simply so that they can tick a box and are unable to deal with the slack in the office in the proper manner.

[steve1873]

It is a good idea, but it is abused by doing it too much. When we have to do it every day it is not practical.

Short term saving means long term problems will come from 4 things

1. Off work from Stress over rowing with managers/postal workers over lapsing/overtime - More Sick Pay

2. Injuries from overwork - more sick pay

3. Payment for Ill health retirement - for overworked postal workers.

4. More postal workers live longer due to increased fitness and costing more money on pensions.

5. What happens if there is a very bad flu virus putting say 1/4 of work force out of action for 3 weeks for example.

Are you serious??
This kinda contradicts your 2 and 3 above.
You'll spend your retirement hobbling and taking an hour each morning to loosen up and lose the stiffness.
You'll be on crutches or in a wheelchair but never mind, your cardiovascular system will work a bit better. Oh, I forgot, on crutches or in a chair, it'll clog up even quicker than in an able-bodied pensioner....

I am 32 - and no word of a lie, there are some days where I feel like this. I dread to think how I will feel in 10-20 years plus.