Parcels are changing letter

[Postie45]

So by this I assume RM wants to increase the volume of tracked items to make most if not all parcels to be tracked. Thats all well and good but have they factored in all the extra time it will take at the doorstep to scan all these extra packages ? Im guessing they ran one of their infamous trials and found out it doesnt take any longer :arrrghhh

[teesdale]

The scanners worn on your hand for use in mail centres are going to get real grubby. I would say after a few months they will be in a pile on a table covered in bogeys and more, some already broken.

[motherhubbard]

So by this I assume RM wants to increase the volume of tracked items to make most if not all parcels to be tracked. Thats all well and good but have they factored in all the extra time it will take at the doorstep to scan all these extra packages ? Im guessing they ran one of their infamous trials and found out it doesnt take any longer

How long do you think it will take?
If the parcel doesn't fit through the letter box you have time to scan it while waiting for the door to open.
If it fits through - probably a max of 5 seconds/packet?

[datasaint]

So by this I assume RM wants to increase the volume of tracked items to make most if not all parcels to be tracked. Thats all well and good but have they factored in all the extra time it will take at the doorstep to scan all these extra packages ? Im guessing they ran one of their infamous trials and found out it doesnt take any longer

How long do you think it will take?
If the parcel doesn't fit through the letter box you have time to scan it while waiting for the door to open.
If it fits through - probably a max of 5 seconds/packet?

Fishing for the scanner in your bag takes time, having to keep hold of it when writing a 739 makes things awkward, then placing it back in the bag. It just slows the whole rhythm of delivery down.

Got no issue with doing it, but it's wholly unrealistic to say DTN and added scanning won't add time.

[DB1100]

The more you use the scanner the more chance it has to freeze up,with each reboot taking over 5 minutes,should be fun anyway the batteries don't keep their charge long enough now let alone using them even more,it's going to end in tears.

[Speedmeister]

You know how it is with Royal Mail - all these 'great ideas' are created by someone in an office somewhere who's never posted a letter or delivered a parcel in their lives. They have to keep coming up with these 'great ideas' to justify their job & salary.

[Darren Bent]

it is good as it will lead to

More accurate data of workload
Cut down claims of lost/stolen parcels
Making us more professional

But

It will be too time consuming and the PDA Scanners are not required standard.

[wannabeek]

Too time consuming? We're paid by the minute now. Bring it on in my opinion. Every minute I work over my time is extra coins in the pocket and I can just go home if I'd rather.

If they can invent a parcel that takes me 20 minutes to scan, attempt delivery and try umpteen neighbours, I'd only have to deliver a couple of dozen in a day!

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Oh look, another "training letter" delivered about a change of practice, that they want me to read in my time, instead of using the scheduled national standard 30mins work time listening and learning sessions on Tuesdays during my work day.

There are plenty of free Tuesdays, RM, I typically only get 3 WTLL per year... If I'm lucky! The rest are used to massage the figures (less overtime and/or more lapsing) on what is normally the lightest day of the week.

[toomuchcoke]

The more you use the scanner the more chance it has to freeze up,with each reboot taking over 5 minutes,should be fun anyway the batteries don't keep their charge long enough now let alone using them even more,it's going to end in tears.

New PDAs coming in remember? And since they're not going to be running Windows Mobile we can hope for them being more reliable in software terms! That said, the only common fault see is failure to connect to the network. Which is the sort of fault you can "carry" until you get back to the office. Freezes or reboots are so rare in my experience that I can't remember the last time one happened. I tend to work rural deliveries so the PDA spends most of it's time on charge anyway, but if you're doing a walking route I suggest typing the walk & collections numbers in manually whilst it's still on the charging cradle and then, once it's ready to go, suspending the comms! (Though this is probably a violation of some RM standard or other!)

I'm pretty sure, like most smartphones these days, the new ones don't have a removable battery. Whilst this might be an issue in the longer term, in the short term it does at least remove the possibility of having the battery fly off when/if you drop it! Here's hoping the charging cradles in the vans are better designed, especially when it comes to being resilient to cope with multiple insertions/removals a day! (Though presumably the new PDAs are going to have a micro-USB connector rather than the fragile proprietary one on the existing units?)

With the existing PDAs I wonder if the Royal Mail will have the sense to realise that when they replace an office's existing batch of PDAs, some of those will still be vaguely decent and some will still have vaguely decent batteries. Hence swapping those good parts for the worst of the PDAs in the offices that are at the back of the queue for the new PDAs would be a pretty good idea. Probably not!

[5plusbonusball]

" With the existing PDAs I wonder if the Royal Mail will have the sense to realise that when they replace an office's existing batch of PDAs, some of those will still be vaguely decent and some will still have vaguely decent batteries. Hence swapping those good parts for the worst of the PDAs in the offices that are at the back of the queue for the new PDAs would be a pretty good idea. Probably not! ! "
Nobody in rm above an OPG has any "sense" mate!

[DB1100]

The more you use the scanner the more chance it has to freeze up,with each reboot taking over 5 minutes,should be fun anyway the batteries don't keep their charge long enough now let alone using them even more,it's going to end in tears.

New PDAs coming in remember? And since they're not going to be running Windows Mobile we can hope for them being more reliable in software terms! That said, the only common fault see is failure to connect to the network. Which is the sort of fault you can "carry" until you get back to the office. Freezes or reboots are so rare in my experience that I can't remember the last time one happened. I tend to work rural deliveries so the PDA spends most of it's time on charge anyway, but if you're doing a walking route I suggest typing the walk & collections numbers in manually whilst it's still on the charging cradle and then, once it's ready to go, suspending the comms! (Though this is probably a violation of some RM standard or other!)

I'm pretty sure, like most smartphones these days, the new ones don't have a removable battery. Whilst this might be an issue in the longer term, in the short term it does at least remove the possibility of having the battery fly off when/if you drop it! Here's hoping the charging cradles in the vans are better designed, especially when it comes to being resilient to cope with multiple insertions/removals a day! (Though presumably the new PDAs are going to have a micro-USB connector rather than the fragile proprietary one on the existing units?)

With the existing PDAs I wonder if the Royal Mail will have the sense to realise that when they replace an office's existing batch of PDAs, some of those will still be vaguely decent and some will still have vaguely decent batteries. Hence swapping those good parts for the worst of the PDAs in the offices that are at the back of the queue for the new PDAs would be a pretty good idea. Probably not!

I'm not holding my breath for these new PDA's I think it will be age's before we,at the sharp end get them also this constant short charging wrecks the batteries

[blue1873]

" With the existing PDAs I wonder if the Royal Mail will have the sense to realise that when they replace an office's existing batch of PDAs, some of those will still be vaguely decent and some will still have vaguely decent batteries. Hence swapping those good parts for the worst of the PDAs in the offices that are at the back of the queue for the new PDAs would be a pretty good idea. Probably not! ! "
Nobody in rm above an OPG has any "sense" mate!

"Nobody in RM above an OPG has any "sense"
You've been reading my mind sir.

[toomuchcoke]

I'm not holding my breath for these new PDA's I think it will be age's before we,at the sharp end get them also this constant short charging wrecks the batteries

Well I would hope, like every consumer smartphone on the marketplace, the new PDAs would have a lithium-ion battery and not nickel-cadmium! i.e. no "memory effect" so short charging would have no effect on the battery life. Yes, lithium-ion have a limited number of charge cycles but that's not affected by short charging - discharging a lithium ion battery from 100% to 90%, charging it back up up to 100% and repeating 10x would have the same effect on battery life as discharging from 100% to 0% and charging back up to 100%.

[SpacePhoenix]

Hopefully the new ones will send any unsent data when they're sat in the cradle.