% of Manual Letters Vs Sequenced Letters

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 20 May 2018, 19:45

Ifyou were to think of 100% as representing all sequenced and manual letters (no large letters), what sort of % of that for your walk comes through sequenced (and typical number of boxes) and how has that gone up or down over time?

Post by **hothothot** » 20 May 2018, 20:08

I would say about 70% sequenced , it varies daily. Royal mail say letter volumes are going down I don't think so. One thing is for sure parcels are definitely up as are d2ds.

cpsteve · Post by **cpsteve** » 20 May 2018, 21:04

hothothot wrote:I would say about 70% sequenced , it varies daily. Royal mail say letter volumes are going down I don't think so. One thing is for sure parcels are definitely up as are d2ds.

Letter volumes are well down no question about that packets have more then made up for it in a time and revenue sense, d2ds are also very good for us the more we get the less chance of us losing f/t workers, the new 38 hour week should protect us from longer walks a great move from the union.

Spedley · Post by **Spedley** » 20 May 2018, 21:10

I get about 95% sequenced letters and 5% sequenced flats so of all my mail I'd say about 65% is sequenced and then about 8% packets on top of that (items too big to be classed as a letter)

DGH · Post by **DGH** » 21 May 2018, 19:00

It varies from day to day but typically letters seem about 80-85% sequenced and 15-20% needing sorted. Flats come 'double-walksorted' probably in about a 70% : 30% sorted to unsorted ratio.

The flats have probably marginally improved over time. The letters have unquestionably got worse in the last year (lots of the ones that come through the IPS have machine barcodes on them, far,far more than was initially the case, but we also get a good chunk that are blatantly machinable but haven't been through the machine. Naturally this tends to be worst on Tuesdays and also on days with unexpectedly above-average traffic.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 21 May 2018, 20:14

DGH wrote:It varies from day to day but typically letters seem about 80-85% sequenced and 15-20% needing sorted. Flats come 'double-walksorted' probably in about a 70% : 30% sorted to unsorted ratio.

The flats have probably marginally improved over time. The letters have unquestionably got worse in the last year (lots of the ones that come through the IPS have machine barcodes on them, far,far more than was initially the case, but we also get a good chunk that are blatantly machinable but haven't been through the machine. Naturally this tends to be worst on Tuesdays and also on days with unexpectedly above-average traffic.

Your local MC must have a flat sorting machine. RM seem to run whatever they can through the flat sorting machine, incldung packets. Sometimes you might get a load of machineable letters (for an IMP or iLSM) in a box of flats. I wonder if your local MC has a shortage of people trained on the CSS machines. I know that iLSMs can sequence mail, don't know if IMPs can as well

toomuchcoke · Post by **toomuchcoke** » 24 May 2018, 19:33

SpacePhoenix wrote:Ifyou were to think of 100% as representing all sequenced and manual letters (no large letters), what sort of % of that for your walk comes through sequenced (and typical number of boxes) and how has that gone up or down over time?

Based upon this morning and one of the two rounds I was prepping, there was :-

* 1.5x trays of sequenced mail (i.e. the first tray covered about 2/3rds of the frame, the second had the remainder of the frame in it plus the random stuff at the end of the sequencing).
* 1x ~5cm thick mech bundle.
* 2.5x trays of mixed letters & flats from the IPS fitting.
* Not quite 2 bags of parcels.

scoobymunster · Post by **scoobymunster** » 24 May 2018, 20:02

Can I ask any of our MC staff. Do these machines give you an accurate figure on how many seq. letters/manual/parcels you have processed? We keep getting told numbers are down, spreadsheets shown to support this. Yet somehow, the MC increasingly has to send us a third lorry load.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 24 May 2018, 20:40

scoobymunster wrote:Can I ask any of our MC staff. Do these machines give you an accurate figure on how many seq. letters/manual/parcels you have processed? We keep getting told numbers are down, spreadsheets shown to support this. Yet somehow, the MC increasingly has to send us a third lorry load.

They're quite accurate, might be a few off where the machine sucks a couple of letters through at once. From what I've heard the new thing for recording non-mech (ex Tracked and Specials) to DOs won't have part fills, it'll be just an average. Tracked gets busier and busier as time goes on. Your probably lucky that your local MC has got the drivers available to send you a 3rd lorry

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 25 May 2018, 09:34

Packets and parcels can't be sequenced but they do come through the machine now. We currently have problems at the moment with the 'tracked' items being mixed in randomly with the 'ordinary' parcels. Some are slipping through the net our end causing failures. Apparently 'tracked' being mixed in is the new system and will not be changed. No flat sorting machines so we sort all our flats in IPS.
An average ordinary day on my walk is:
Two trays of sequenced letters first run.
One tray of sequenced letters second run.
Two sacks full of packets & small parcels.
Approx. Five square metres of other assorted parcels/tracked/SDs.
Hard to say on IPS amount but about six or seven trays. Varies the most on this element.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 25 May 2018, 20:03

I get more buddy trays than I do sequenced and its quite staggering how many mis-sorts there are in them.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 25 May 2018, 20:11

postslippete wrote:I get more buddy trays than I do sequenced and its quite staggering how many mis-sorts there are in them.

When was your DO's A+ last updated?

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 27 May 2018, 10:55

I would say that if RM wanted to go down the route of working from sequenced trays of mail rather than using walk frames then the current quality and order of mail in sequenced mail wouldn't be good enough. Too much alternating upside down mail but more importantly letters out of order. Also missorts and small Bunches of letters for the relevant frame but not in walk frame order. This is nothing to do with incorrect A+ data if anyone wishes to mention that.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 27 May 2018, 11:06

Celgar wrote:the current quality and order of mail in sequenced mail wouldn't be good enough.

The sort/sequence plans for sequencing are written based on the A+ so WILL be wrong if your A+ isn't up to date

Celgar wrote:Too much alternating upside down mail but more importantly

That's down to which way up they are when they go through the first IMP or iLSM in the system. Once upside down and coded upside down they have to stay upside down or the CSS machines will reject them

Celgar wrote:letters out of order. Also missorts and small Bunches of letters for the relevant frame but not in walk frame order. This is nothing to do with incorrect A+ data if anyone wishes to mention that.

If it's wave 2 then to eliminate that would require the sequencing of wave 2 to not start until the IMPs or iLSMs have finished running the inward sort plan. if that were to happen then the sequencing would start later and so go out later to each DO.

Ozzvaldo · Post by **Ozzvaldo** » 27 May 2018, 13:29

These machines do not seem to be infallible. Every single day my "buddy boxes" and sequenced contain miss-sorts from different parts of the country (and not the same places every day either) as well as within the office.

Of the external miss-sorts, some are for similarly named towns, albeit nowhere near us, and some are for random places that have no obvious similarity to where I work. This is not just on my delivery, but occurs on all deliveries in my unit. I find it difficult to accept that random addresses from far and wide across the UK are arriving in my office purely because of A+ inaccuracies.