Can an International Special Fail?

Mezza · Post by **Mezza** » 20 Mar 2016, 15:04

The old argument of is an International Special to be delivered by 1pm or not continues in my office.

My advice to anyone in doubt is do it by 1pm and then have no worries.
With most items delivered before 1pm in my area it rarely presents an issue.

Lately we have been failing far too many SD items, but i was wondering can an International Special actually fail?

If you don't have to deliver them by 1pm then when is the failure registered?

If they don't register as a failed SD item, then why are they sent, processed and handled as as an SD item in the first place?
Is it just down to getting as many scans in to boost revenue?

Just interested to know.

trevjim · Post by **trevjim** » 20 Mar 2016, 15:30

my office doesnt even bother scanning anything that isnt official. never had any issues doing it that way.

put it this way, I had two identical small packets for the same address the other day, one turned up in my parcel bag, the other came with my specials.

deltaforce · Post by **deltaforce** » 20 Mar 2016, 15:40

Delivered many international signed fors post 1pm and never had a problem.

HarryPoorer · Post by **HarryPoorer** » 20 Mar 2016, 16:07

if rle give you it then do it by 1pm or it fails, keeps them busy , what do they do while we are out?

motherhubbard · Post by **motherhubbard** » 20 Mar 2016, 16:29

Once an item has been scanned as a Special and allocated to a duty by the rle then if it isn't done by 1pm it will show up as a failure on the system.
Up above us are people who are only interested in figures and they are only interested in the headline figures and not the stories behind them.

Imagine you are trying to win new business and you tell the prospective customer that although the headline figure is 95% some of those were international items, some were redeliveries and some were scanned at 12.59 but the customer was in the shower and didn't come down to sign until 13.02.
They aren't interested in that.
What they want is a headline figure that says SD - 99% efficient.

So if it is given to you as a SD it needs to be done by 1pm.

Aus10 · Post by **Aus10** » 20 Mar 2016, 18:16

Newish to the job but as far as I know, International specials don't have to be delivered by 1pm - told this when given a few specials from the locker and a couple of them were Internationals. The RM guaranteed by 1pm must be done before 1pm but others had to be delivered that day, not necessarily before 1pm.

Would like to know what's really the procedure - hate to think I've been getting it wrong!

Post by **postiewhite** » 20 Mar 2016, 18:25

None UK specials can be delivered anytime in the day. The only specials you need to worry about are the Special Delivery guaranteed by 1pm which will fail and you will get into trouble if these arn't scanned at delivery point by 1pm.

Post by **postiewhite** » 20 Mar 2016, 18:29

motherhubbard wrote:Once an item has been scanned as a Special and allocated to a duty by the rle then if it isn't done by 1pm it will show up as a failure on the system.
Up above us are people who are only interested in figures and they are only interested in the headline figures and not the stories behind them.

Imagine you are trying to win new business and you tell the prospective customer that although the headline figure is 95% some of those were international items, some were redeliveries and some were scanned at 12.59 but the customer was in the shower and didn't come down to sign until 13.02.
They aren't interested in that.
What they want is a headline figure that says SD - 99% efficient.

So if it is given to you as a SD it needs to be done by 1pm.

We were told by 2 managers and this was 18 months ago that an international special does not need to be delivered by 1pm.
2 or 3 times a week an international special packet is given to me as a special and I never do them by 1pm and i'll continue to carry that way until told otherwise. If its a big issue that these specials HAVE to be done by 1pm we would have been told way before now as id say 10-15 across all duties fail every single day if thats the case. Its also in the royal mail monthly mag so im not sure where you're getting your info from.

NewPostieUK · Post by **NewPostieUK** » 20 Mar 2016, 18:30

There is no confusion! As has been confirmed in the Courier, Internationals do not have to be done before 1pm.

Think about it, they aren't even guaranteed on any particular day, never mind time.

Robtor · Post by **Robtor** » 20 Mar 2016, 18:50

If we fail a special we get questioned about it, however I regularly deliver internationals after 1pm. Clearly it doesn't matter.

Shaders · Post by **Shaders** » 20 Mar 2016, 19:19

We have been told by the DIM once it leaves the den its not even classed as a special,
Im sure theyre only put through as SD to get the figures up in the mail centres.

Surreypostie · Post by **Surreypostie** » 20 Mar 2016, 19:52

Quite a lot of these international so called specials do not even need to be signed for. We do them when we get there, never been an issue for us.

RedBagMan · Post by **RedBagMan** » 20 Mar 2016, 20:35

Back to my old moan - why the hell isn't there an OPG Manual that clarifies the many hundreds of "grey areas" that sometimes even the linos don't have an answer for ...

The Drivers get a "Drivers Manual" (and I'm sure the linos get a "Bullsh*t Manual") - what about us foot soldiers ??

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 20 Mar 2016, 20:55

NewPostieUK wrote:There is no confusion! As has been confirmed in the Courier, Internationals do not have to be done before 1pm.

Think about it, they aren't even guaranteed on any particular day, never mind time.

As NewPostie has stated it was in the Courier - if you want to wave it in a manager's face the July 2014 issue to be specific....don't ask me why I know, it was
either that or Jeremy Kyle on one of my regular Tuesday's off.........

Edward Hunter · Post by **Edward Hunter** » 20 Mar 2016, 22:10

knowledge is power yellowbelly. Nothing wrong with knowing your stuff! Although Jeremy kyle would have got my vote lol