Posties not using trolleys

[SierraOscarBravo]

In my office almost everyone bolts around their deliveries with a bag over their shoulder DESPITE the fact that in the vans we have lightweight trolleys. I am one of the few who makes use of the equipment.

There seems to be this mentality that using the trolley will slow you down, yet it is surely more efficient to take bulky packets with you on the trolley and deliver as you go around than to have to go around afterwards in the van delivering packets separately.

When I use the HCT I take it the whole way around the delivery with me as this I believe is the general idea - ie to take the weight off your shoulder. Everyone else I know ties the HCT up and walks around with a bag over their shoulder sometimes leaving the trolley for up to an hour at a time. Even the workplace coach bolts around (literally runs) his delivery with a bag over his shoulder.

My point is why are so many people willing to risk injury to their backs, shoulders, legs, knees etc just because they choose not to use the equipment provided. You can guarantee that if you go off sick with a bad back etc the management will blame you for not using the equipment provided.

I also think management should be clamping down and ensuring that we use the trolleys. It is health and safety after all.

[woody38]

Everybody has there own way of doing delivery I use boxes & Keep moving the van, I have tried the trolley but find it hard to carry & it slows me down. I totally agree with u about people useing bags & running round, all that does is make the jobs bigger, management are not stupid if they see people getting back early they thing everybody can do it.

[tommyrep]

Woody
You are part of the same problem !
Why carry a trolley ? And slows you down ? Is that your fault ? It is company policy to use the agreed revision methods.
They are mandatory. If management were doing their jobs they should discipline all people not using the proper methods.
Would they be so slow to apply or carry out suspensions etc, for wilful delay for example! Don't think so, selective discrimination. drop boxes were removed as well to do away with time taken to drop mail off, seen as double work. Just do the job properly, get the offices properly staffed and stop making managements job cutting program in its tracks. Delivery staff need a kick up. The a..e at times.

[tommyrep]

Sierra bravo
Don't think for one minute office coaches were selected on their merits of setting a good example to others.
There are and were other motives in the selection process. Do not confuse ability to coach and management plants.

[bustedflush]

In my office almost everyone bolts around their deliveries with a bag over their shoulder DESPITE the fact that in the vans we have lightweight trolleys. I am one of the few who makes use of the equipment.

There seems to be this mentality that using the trolley will slow you down, yet it is surely more efficient to take bulky packets with you on the trolley and deliver as you go around than to have to go around afterwards in the van delivering packets separately.

When I use the HCT I take it the whole way around the delivery with me as this I believe is the general idea - ie to take the weight off your shoulder. Everyone else I know ties the HCT up and walks around with a bag over their shoulder sometimes leaving the trolley for up to an hour at a time. Even the workplace coach bolts around (literally runs) his delivery with a bag over his shoulder.

My point is why are so many people willing to risk injury to their backs, shoulders, legs, knees etc just because they choose not to use the equipment provided. You can guarantee that if you go off sick with a bad back etc the management will blame you for not using the equipment provided.

I also think management should be clamping down and ensuring that we use the trolleys. It is health and safety after all.

Many in my DO would carry a pouch of mail over one shoulder and packets over the other. Obviously NOT the heavy denser packets but clothing and small boxes and jiffy bags etc. Then it was on to the ghost OT and early finish. I don't think it's so much carrying a pouch, but weight of it that's important. I always felt more comfortable having the mail with me rather than leaving it on a trolley at the end of a long drive, sometimes out of sight. The trolley also used to aggravate my elbow and back continually taking the weight via the handle before gathering momentum. Face it, ANY repeated stress is bad, whether walking with pouches or pushing or pulling that trolley.

[Pompey Boy]

There seems to be this mentality that using the trolley will slow you down, yet it is surely more efficient to take bulky packets with you on the trolley and deliver as you go around than to have to go around afterwards in the van delivering packets separately.

Same in our office. If you use a trolley you are slow and all of the usual bollocks!

[joewyan]

On my delivery there are so many blocks or flats that it would be a question of mail security using a trolley and I would have to remove the bags to carry them into the flats anyway so you can't judge all deliveries the same. I prefer not to use them and arrange smaller loops so bags are lighter.

[SierraOscarBravo]

As has been said on here the use of trolleys is supposed to be mandatory. So why are so many "choosing" not to use them and why do management turn a blind eye to trolleys not being used?

In our office, to give an example, there are two runners who work together on one of the biggest - if not the biggest - deliveries in the office. Neither of them use trolleys. They literally run around cutting every corner going and most of the time get back first. Their delivery also has the highest number of customer complaints in the office. Yet management does nothing.

As for delivering to flats with a trolley there is no reason why you can't use a trolley. Just use common sense. Keep the mail with you or at least in sight. I deliver to flats and incur no problems.

[joewyan]

I have some of the best performance figures, with virtually no complaints and yet don't use a trolley. I can't carry the trolley up stairs with me to flats so would have to put bag on my back or leave unattended which I won't do!

[SierraOscarBravo]

I have some of the best performance figures, with virtually no complaints and yet don't use a trolley. I can't carry the trolley up stairs with me to flats so would have to put bag on my back or leave unattended which I won't do!

The use of trolleys is MANDATORY. Nobody is saying you carry a trolley up flights of stairs. You can unhook the mail pouch and bring inside the block you are delivering. Ideally the loops should be designed so that blocks of flats are at the end of loops or are within small loops so that the pouch weight is light.

Yes it may take a little bit longer but think of your back, shoulders, knees, legs etc. You may not notice now but give it 10 or 15 years and you will suffer the crippling effects. It is not worth it.

This week I have heard colleagues moaning about the weight of their bags with the National Trust magazines yet still they hump overweight bags around on their shoulders rather than use the trolley equipment provided.

[joewyan]

Yes that's a fair comment. I have divided my route into smaller loops though so that I do not have heavy bags and that works for me. Each to their own I say. No office is going to be able to ensure everyone uses a trolley.

[taurus88]

I always used to use the trolley, but nowadays on Mondays and Tuesdays, with just 1-2 bundles in each bag and very few packets, I've relaxed my attitude a bit. On the busy days (Wednesday to Saturday), the volume is multiplied by 2 or 3 and there's no way you can comfortably carry a bag on your shoulder. My opinion is still the same, that people who run around carrying HEAVY bags are fools, not because they're helping the business save money, not even because they're doing it (only) to save time. Their problem is that they're endangering their long-term health for the sake of those things. There's a world of difference between the 0 to 5kg bags I carry on light days, weighed against the heavy bags I see people carrying on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and (especially) Saturday, but I know full well that I shouldn't be carrying those bags, regardless of the mental gymnastics I use to justify it.

[PHARRY]

I have some of the best performance figures, with virtually no complaints and yet don't use a trolley. I can't carry the trolley up stairs with me to flats so would have to put bag on my back or leave unattended which I won't do!

The use of trolleys is MANDATORY. Nobody is saying you carry a trolley up flights of stairs. You can unhook the mail pouch and bring inside the block you are delivering. Ideally the loops should be designed so that blocks of flats are at the end of loops or are within small loops so that the pouch weight is light.

Yes it may take a little bit longer but think of your back, shoulders, knees, legs etc. You may not notice now but give it 10 or 15 years and you will suffer the crippling effects. It is not worth it.

This week I have heard colleagues moaning about the weight of their bags with the National Trust magazines yet still they hump overweight bags around on their shoulders rather than use the trolley equipment provided.

No it's not mandatory

[mbavelja]

No it's not mandatory

I think if you read the BT 2010 agreement (or just the WTLL sheet that accompanied it) you will find that "mandatory" is the exact word used.

[woody38]

The problem with most of the loops at our office is they are to big, do not run in sequence, who ever originally planned the jobs is the problem, many people who do the jobs & follow the fittting get in a right mess. Things are still the same, last year they transferred some walks in from a delivery office which was closing, some jobs, big, some small, fittings not planned the way u deliver, has anybody else found that the planner are also a problem as well.