Rural duties

Shaders · Post by **Shaders** » 30 Mar 2018, 21:42

Just wondering what people’s thoughts are about rurals in general.

Do/did you enjoy them?
Do/did you find it harder/easier than built up duties?
Would you recommend them?
Advantages/disadvantages?

Anymore opinions?

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 30 Mar 2018, 22:04

They’re the best.

Less walking. Less delivery points. Less mail. No partner.

joewyan · Post by **joewyan** » 30 Mar 2018, 22:21

Not saying they are easy as some certainly aren’t but in most places I have worked it’s always the senior guys on the rural jobs so I think that says something.

GT85 · Post by **GT85** » 31 Mar 2018, 07:46

This is based on our rural deliveries...

Learning the frame and where all the delivery points are is the hardest bit.
Lots of getting in and out of the van can cause back issues.
More driving than walking.
Most customers are happy to see you and appreciate you "safe placing" packets.
Christmas tips in the hundreds.
Sometimes a nightmare if you have to break off your normal route to get a special done b4 1.

Always seem to be senior people on them and despite all the whinging about how hard it is they all resigned for their duties following a revision.

delfranklin1969 · Post by **delfranklin1969** » 31 Mar 2018, 14:28

I used to love doing rural rounds and its the one thing I really miss about working in a smaller country office as opposed to the van shares and trolleys in the city where I work now.

Takes a bit of time to get to know the round and there is always a few tricky houses but once you crack it, they're fantastic. I found the people out in the sticks more friendly in general as well.

simply_the_best · Post by **simply_the_best** » 31 Mar 2018, 15:30

There's more rurals than walks in my office!!

I certainly enjoy my rural far more than I ever did doing a walk, our walks are killers that'd I'd struggle with these days, my feet are goosed.

Christmas was very profitable as well

Shaders · Post by **Shaders** » 31 Mar 2018, 15:57

Many thanks for the responses, what I was expecting to be honest.
I think there might be one coming up in the next few weeks and was thinking about it

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 31 Mar 2018, 17:34

Rural duties usually have more named properties whereas town or shared deliveries tend to have numbered properties. Those town & shared walks usually have multiple sets of relatively the same numbers. Rural duties sometimes have a few copies of the same house names but not usually that many. Therefore I have found you can make horrendous missorts with sorting numbered houses but relatively few or hopefully no missorts with named properties.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 31 Mar 2018, 17:41

All walks in DOs are supposed to be the same but posties on shared walks tend to finish their deliveries before rural deliveries. This isn't always the case but I have noticed there is a tendency for this to happen. It is quite hard to make all walks the same length. The RM computer system is meant to do this but it never really seems to work. Some Postie's are a lot quicker than others as well. So many variables........

Jpro747 · Post by **Jpro747** » 31 Mar 2018, 22:15

GT85 wrote:This is based on our rural deliveries...

Learning the frame and where all the delivery points are is the hardest bit.
Lots of getting in and out of the van can cause back issues.
More driving than walking.
Most customers are happy to see you and appreciate you "safe placing" packets.
Christmas tips in the hundreds.
Sometimes a nightmare if you have to break off your normal route to get a special done b4 1.

Always seem to be senior people on them and despite all the whinging about how hard it is they all resigned for their duties following a revision.

This is spot on. I would also add that they seem to ‘drag’ more than a town duty. Also, you have to watch out for dogs especially on farms as they can appear out of nowhere.

deltaforce · Post by **deltaforce** » 01 Apr 2018, 09:15

Our rurals are no better than the town walks. They are often very long , 5 hrs +, loads of walking due to new build estates.. leaving packets is no go ,rural or town. As for Christmas tips.... your having a laugh. The only advantage is having your own van and that’s now being eroded following revisions.

banner · Post by **banner** » 01 Apr 2018, 16:45

20 years of doing rurals and town deliveries so I will give you my two penneth on rurals.

pros.
No weight to carry if you manage it properly.
Work at your own pace, take break when you want.
Easier to manage packets etc.. more safeplaces and such.
Easier to predict your finishing time on any particular day.
Easier to inspect properties for dogs and escape them as you usually have the van close by.
Relief from bad weather between delivery points.

cons.
Walks take longer to throw out due to more individual property names rather than streets.
Getting in and out of a low van 100s of times a day can get quite tiring.
'Easy' mail days aren't that much easier for rurals as many tracks and lanes have more than one property at the bottom so you still end up going to most places.
Managers throw missed tracks and specials onto rural drivers.
Van breaks down and you are totally screwed until RAC arrives unlike town walks where there is usually scope to keep delivering.
Any really bad weather and your duty will be abandoned and you have to deal with the built up mail later.

There are other little differences but those are the major ones I can think of. If you haven't tried a rural before you should give it a go. I like doing both and just look at the positives of both can bring.

Shaders · Post by **Shaders** » 01 Apr 2018, 17:21

Very informative, thank you.
It’s early days yet, the duty might not even come up but just wanted to be informed just in case it does.

kookoo32 · Post by **kookoo32** » 03 Apr 2018, 21:56

Probably depends on the office you work in. In our place the rural duties have a half hour later start than the town and are usually back and away home before any town duties. They also do no IPS in our office either. Would love a rural but at the last office re-sign (where we went to shared vans) the rural duties weren't included and those staff already on them stayed where they were.