Delivery Method Trials and its impact

[SpacePhoenix]

This time in many mail centres work is available earlier than ever before. Network 2018 has been designed to ensure more work is available in the night to be dispatch to delivery units.

Dream on. Our work comes in later so there'll be less work available to DOs early on. What planet do you live on?

can't believe all this, is it not taking a step back, we are already getting unsequenced mail on 2nd wave on a tuesday as the dom wants to save more cash, i honestly cant see this saving royal mail time or money,

think the union needs to get our input the folks that actually do the job, and i wont be carrying one of them pouches pictured above not with my shoulder.

The amount of unsequenced mail on wave 2 is going to increase anyway as a result of Network 18, probably even more so once autumn pressure kicks in, it's possible that some of the unsequenced will end up just being broken down to DO level only in order to make the dispatch times.

[BELIAL]

The CWU does not have a veto to change. .

Yes it does , It's called a 90% vote for strike action, but someone "negotiated" that into extinction. I think it 's very clear what is going down, why pay RM money every week to screw you over?

[Martin Walsh]

Delivery Methods to avoid the manual sortation of sequenced mail
39. Royal Mail is seeking to improve efficiency by avoiding the manual sortation of mail that has already been sequenced or, put another way, ‘the prepping of already prepped mail’. How this can be achieved was a source of difference between the parties. There was considerable discussion between the parties about the methods used to address this in mail delivery services in a number of other countries, which included a specially designed vest with pockets for different mail bundles to be worn by the OPG, but there were differences between the parties about what was appropriate within Royal Mail. It was noted that the outcomes of a trial already undertaken at Walsall needed to be known and shared so this could input into the design of future trials. It was proposed by Royal Mail that both the Employer and the Union should each contribute 2 to 3 ideas for consideration in the planning of these delivery methods trials to take place in the first few months of next year. It was agreed that these would need to be undertaken in 2/3 delivery offices to include both urban and rural areas.

This was part of the external mediation report. It was than contained within the National Agreement.

TBT the members had the opportunity to vote on the agreement and done it on massive numbers .

Remember within any agreement there are compromises on Deliveries Royal Mail originally wanted a 9-5 Delivery job , they than wanted everyone to move to 15:30 finish. The CWU stopped this. However we could oppose everything or there would have not been an agreement , hence why there are trails.

The outcome of those trials will be subject to a new vote of the membership who will have a further opportunity to have a say. I really don’t members would want to campaign and strike to save sorting into prep 2000 frames.

The trails will either prove what Royal Mail says or not. If they are correct than the union will be looking at safeguarding jobs by moving straight to a 35 hour gross working week in deliveries based on the deployment of the delivery method solution for all offices , the deployment of AHDC and final mile Optimisation .

[Martin Walsh]

This is the external mediators position on later starts :

The CWU is critical of what it describes as a cost cutting strategy by the Company of meeting market demands by delaying RM’s operations to a later acceptance time and delivery time for both letters and parcels and believes that the business should extend the current delivery window by creating a 7 am to 7pm model of operations whilst also defining the combined USO core delivery, the issue for RM is how such a model could be affordably resourced. Royal Mail seeks to ensure that it uses every opportunity to combine parcel and letters deliveries as it is the ‘once up the path’ delivery mode that is its advantage and enables the Company to compete.
27. There were extensive discussions during the mediation regarding the Employer’s plan to adjust core working hours to enable a later letter delivery time to provide more opportunity for profitable traffic to come into its network up to 1.30.am This was identified in the Employer’s submission as providing an opportunity to gain at least £45 million and to remove, predominantly, third party costs in the region of £20 million. The latest delivery time is at present 15.00 hours and 16.00 hours in rural areas. Royal Mail’s initial proposal was for a latest delivery time of 17.00 hours but, as a result of the parties’ discussions prior to the mediation, this had moved to a last delivery time of 15.30.
28. The Employer explained how the starting time at an individual delivery office to achieve this half hour later delivery time is dependent on its proximity to the Mail Centre. This was the factor that would determine when the starting time would be and when the half hour later letter delivery time was introduced. The Employer’s explained that, in many instances the change would be a notional one but the difficulty is that delivery offices currently have different start and finish times. These have historically not been determined by their geographical proximity to the Mail Centre but by the individual Delivery Office so the extent of adjustment will vary. The impact of the half hour last letter delivery across delivery offices is currently being analysed and this data should be available to share with the Union by mid-January 2018. Three worked examples at three areas were provided during the discussions which revealed the anticipated variety of outcomes.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

TBT the members had the opportunity to vote on the agreement and done it on massive numbers .

My point exactly.

If the Union really want to engage members then just offering the power of veto ain't gonna help.

That's all the CWU gave us the power of veto. That's not engagement, that's using the membership as a power base.

We will always disagree but I think the gap between those who do the work and those that negotiate on our behalf is getting bigger. Of course, I recognise the valuable work they do, and the sacrifices reps and senior reps make but it is an issue that needs attention or the shouts on here, and IRL, of "That's it I am leaving the Union" will continue to grow.

[fishtank]

They are no alone , every other European country now bench mergers or something simila

That might be true but Royal Mail is also pretty much unique in the way it delivers what we call D2D and in the way it combines most of its parcel delivery with letters. It also has by far the tightest regulation of any European country.

What that little mix means is that we have by far the most difficult, convoluted and over-complicated delivery role of all our European mates. You believe that Royal Mail have the right to make it more difficult, I don't disagree it's their business not mine but you seriously think the union should help to facilitate that?

It's not the union's place to facilitate change, it's the union's place to protect jobs and the conditions we have to work under, explain how bench merging does either?

[DB1100]

So we might have to walk around in 30 degree heat,with a "vest" containing multiple bundles of mail for 5 hrs plus,and do the same in winter when it's snowing and piling up on top,ha ha,brilliant.

[BELIAL]

If it walks like a duck ,and it quacks like a duck, then whatever ground breaking; cusp bearing ;pot of gold; deal of the century agreements it comes up with but fails to back up still means it's a management run staff association.

[Martin Walsh]

Look I get I am normally public enemy one on here but I am informing you of something most were not aware off.

Do you really think that the union wants what Royal Mail want to trail ? No it does not however as Royal Mail point out they own the frames and if they choose to like they did with backless frames they can change them providing they consult on safety etc.

The CWU in the negotiations main objectives on Deliveries was stopping the 9-5 model and than stopping everyone finishing at 15:30. Remember the only reason their is 20% of the LAT product which will not connect with normal deliveries is that we stopped the 9-5 delivery model.

We stopped the team working model , the walk ownership and the heavy and light delivery model.

However in negotiations you don’t get everything and hence we have agreed to trail the delivery method and every single employee in the offices in the trails will be spoken to and they will have in put.

If successful than there will a new agreement which will be subject to a vote.

If you think the union should have said well we not go to get involved in this ! Do you really believe they would stop this change. Did it stop world class Mail’s changing loads of things or IWM when they introduced back less frames ?

[fishtank]

There's a huge difference between stopping something and actively endorsing it. I guess we'll see where your and the union's position is when this much vaunted new agreement arrives.

Thing is despite the trials still being on going and those involved being asked their opinion I can already guess what it's going to be. Funny that.

[Sugar]

After 6 pages of reading I'm now convinced both parties are full of armchair experts and neither party would stand a scooby of a chance of completing a delivery if they had to go out and do one themselves following their own ways of working.

A job that is so simple is made massively complicated and stressful by said armchair experts to justify their over inflated wages and bonkers job titles.

[SpacePhoenix]

After 6 pages of reading I'm now convinced both parties are full of armchair experts and neither party would stand a scooby of a chance of completing a delivery if they had to go out and do one themselves following their own ways of working.

A job that is so simple is made massively complicated and stressful by said armchair experts to justify their over inflated wages and bonkers job titles.

You probably don't need to go up through the levels of management before you reach one that either havn't worked in all areas they manage and/or been employed into RM as a manager from outside the business

[BELIAL]

I am aware that my pay gets worse ; my pension has gone down the plug hole; and management are given carte blanche to override any and every agreement reached.
Contact your Office rep " I never heard that ,Ha Ha Ha." Contact your area rep "I don't care what your manager said" Contact your divisional rep , well why bother he gave away seniority in the first place.
Contact national officers, what's the point? the culture comes from the top.

[Martin Walsh]

There's a huge difference between stopping something and actively endorsing it. I guess we'll see where your and the union's position is when this much vaunted new agreement arrives.

Thing is despite the trials still being on going and those involved being asked their opinion I can already guess what it's going to be. Funny that.

Fish part of the row about not having later starts was to have trails on delivery methods. Royal Mail would have simply kept on wanting everyone to move later. First it was 9-5 based on having all the LAT traffic go out with normal deliveries, instead of now 20 percent now not going out with normal deliveies which will cost more.

Additionally later starts would allow up to 90% of work on a first wave as by midnight this is what is available in a Mail Centre for sequencing. Potentially more depending on arrival of second wave than this would allow Royal Mail to ensure no one would need to sort any sequencing in a frame.

The union stopped later starts and part of that was to to trail the concept of not prepping into a frame.

I think some wants us all to chain ourselves to the protection of prep 2000 frames . It is simply short shifted .

The more you have on the first wave than the more Royal Mail will argue that you are inefficient if you than prep that into a frame.

Royal Mail have a National project called the drive to 85% for Mail centres to achieve 85% Pm first wave some are about 80 now some are well below. However 67% the daily workload for a Mail Centre is available in Mail centres before 14:00 this is DSA work., 3% 1st class intra is avalble by 22:00 and 20% of second class is available in a Mail Centre is available before mid night this means that 90% of a Delivery Offices sequencing workload is in a Mail Centre by mid night and yet the amount of what is on the first wave ranges from 60 to 90% depending on the Mail Centre. Hence why Mail Centre will have a re-alignment Of duties so they resource for when the work is avalble rather that when a traditional duty set is.

The CWU would have made a massive mistake by ingnoring where Royal Mail wants to go on Prepping. As we would been still arguing over start and finish times.

[Sugar]

Dingo I'm open minded and happy to trial RM's latest greatest reinvention of the wheel and bench merge etc. The concept doesn't seem that difficult in doing but what gets me is how the feck is trying to work in 150-200 packet items that get pulled out of our packet cart each morning going to save the time RM is saying its going to save?

It doesn't take an Einstein to work out its far faster sorting packets into a 2000 fitting than bits and bats of mail on a "bench".

Its the same old robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario and I can't believe no one in the union top hierarchy hasn't worked that one out.

After 6 pages of reading I'm now convinced both parties are full of armchair experts and neither party would stand a scooby of a chance of completing a delivery if they had to go out and do one themselves following their own ways of working.

A job that is so simple is made massively complicated and stressful by said armchair experts to justify their over inflated wages and bonkers job titles.

You probably don't need to go up through the levels of management before you reach one that either havn't worked in all areas they manage and/or been employed into RM as a manager from outside the business

They're flooding management positions over here with "graduates" at present and I've yet to find one who's got the slightest bit of common sense or can think outside of what they've been taught at Uni or been drip fed by RM management trainers. Its like one robot after another with the same drivel and then stomping off to the office to sulk when they get shown how wrong they are.