Green light for new mail centre machines

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 23 Jun 2018, 13:37

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Parcel sort machines (PSMs) will be up and running at 13 mail centres around the country, following the completion of successful trials at four sites, reports CWU industrial assistant secretary Davie Robertson. The project will ultimately deploy 16 machines and the location of the remaining three PSMs has yet to be determined.

“Within the Four Pillars of Security agreement, we see the mail centre network as a key integral element of a successful operational pipeline and it’s crucial that the network can prosper, attract new business, new volume, and additional traffic – in order to maintain and secure jobs for our members going forward,” says Davie.

Trials of the machine began in 2016 at Swindon Mail Centre and were then extended to Home Counties North (HCN), Chelmsford and Greenford Mail Centres.

The union has supported the trial activity and sees the PSM deployment as a positive indicator of the way forward for the company and CWU members with regards to parcel sortation and growth opportunities.

Two york tippers lift and empty input york containers onto a conveyor that takes the parcels up to the operators at the top, who place the machinable parcels onto the system.

The parcels travel through a reader which uses optical character recognition (OCR) and reads bar codes to select the correct destination – the parcels move onto a circular sorter, and when each item reaches its correct output, a drop-tray sorter drops it into its designated output york.

Through the course of the trial, and with the full input of the CWU, the PSMs are now reaching a business case sort rate of 10,000 parcels per hour, with a maximum per-item weight of 3kg and maximum dimensions of 450mm x 350mm x 200mm.

While the PSM is designed to run at full capacity with an agreed staffing level of 11 per machine, contingency arrangements have also been agreed which would allow for lower staffing levels in certain circumstances, such as sampling or low-volume runs.

Volunteers will be sought for these positions, and full training – including the appropriate health and safety aspects – will be provided.

Explaining the importance of this development, Davie said: “Clearly parcel growth is a commercial priority for the business and it’s crucial that our mail centres are equipped to deal with increasing volumes of parcel traffic.

“The deployment of the PSM’s is a key initiative in ensuring that Royal Mail can compete for and win volume in the competitive parcels market.

“Successful deployment of this machine has the potential to put Royal Mail at the forefront of the industry and ahead of the competition – which is of crucial importance for the best interests of our members going forward,” Davie added.

The mail centres where PSMs will be installed are: Birmingham, Bristol, Chelmsford, Gatwick, Greenford, Home Counties North, Jubilee, Leeds, Manchester, Preston, South Midlands, Swindon, Warrington

Deployment commencement dates for the above sites will be announced soon

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 23 Jun 2018, 19:40

Will this mean that every MC that doesn't have one will loose their 2C parcels to one that has?

Post by **aiden01** » 23 Jun 2018, 20:21

SpacePhoenix wrote:Will this mean that every MC that doesn't have one will loose their 2C parcels to one that has?

Hope not but you never know.

Post by **teesdale** » 23 Jun 2018, 22:07

Those operators at the top are going to need a stiff drink the night before to cope with the job satisfaction.

Post by **rainbowwarrior72** » 23 Jun 2018, 23:55

I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 24 Jun 2018, 00:47

rainbowwarrior72 wrote:I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included

Medway would probably be covered by either Jubilee or Greenford (probably depending partly on capacity and which one is nearer to Medway)

Post by **redheadedwoman** » 29 Jun 2018, 19:26

rainbowwarrior72 wrote:I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included

We are not worthy of one.
It is the beginning of the end for our 2c outward operation as all those offices near us including Gatwick will be looking for work to fill those machines

there are a lot of very angry members on the early shift at Medway who feel that both management and the CWU have let the plant down and are only concerned for lates and nights

Rommagic · Post by **Rommagic** » 01 Jul 2018, 09:52

redheadedwoman wrote:
rainbowwarrior72 wrote:I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included
We are not worthy of one.
It is the beginning of the end for our 2c outward operation as all those offices near us including Gatwick will be looking for work to fill those machines there are a lot of very angry members on the early shift at Medway who feel that both management and the CWU have let the plant down and are only concerned for lates and nights

When will it affect the Medway from?.

Post by **redheadedwoman** » 01 Jul 2018, 12:49

Rommagic wrote:
redheadedwoman wrote:
rainbowwarrior72 wrote:I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included
We are not worthy of one.
It is the beginning of the end for our 2c outward operation as all those offices near us including Gatwick will be looking for work to fill those machines there are a lot of very angry members on the early shift at Medway who feel that both management and the CWU have let the plant down and are only concerned for lates and nights

When will it affect the Medway from?.

As soon as those machines are up and running I would guess.

Post by **denhamhoop** » 08 Jul 2018, 10:32

rainbowwarrior72 wrote:I have heard that these PSMs are not as good as RM thought they were. Also I've noticed that Medway is not included

Depends on the quality of the mail loves clear easy to read mail does not love Chinese mail with hard to read addresses and kicks out 60% to 80% of this mail back to manual in general about 20% to 30% of the rest.Its amazing as a human sorter if i cannot sort at 98% error rate its not acceptable but as a machine 70 % is more than acceptable

Post by **jmcg** » 09 Jul 2018, 00:52

These machines excel at damaging an awful lot of packets.....

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 09 Jul 2018, 01:00

Whose the manufacturer of the machines?

mrgund · Post by **mrgund** » 19 Aug 2018, 23:19

Sheffield MC is getting one, but wasn't on the original list. Little bird said that some MC's don't want them.

Post by **Stampy** » 24 Aug 2018, 18:43

Staff at PE MC keep getting told that they're getting one......

Post by **pickles10** » 26 Aug 2018, 20:32

Beginning installation of one at Leeds MC next month