LATs route planning?

postmanzach · Post by **postmanzach** » 16 Oct 2018, 21:00

Did some overtime this evening doing LATs, was a nightmare. Driving back and forth wasting loads.

Was expecting an easy night as I did it for the first time last Friday and had 8 parcels to do in 4 hours in an area I knew.
Tonight had over a dozen and I didn’t know the area.

Any ideas on how to plan a route with a dozen parcels in unknown area? Is there a decent route planner thing online that does this or an app?
Heard that the pdas can do this somewhat but not very well. I didn’t have time tonight to try it as was already running late. Surely it should be possible to scan a dozen parcels and the pda to give you a route the IT/programmer people need to update the pdas ASAP

Bren24 · Post by **Bren24** » 16 Oct 2018, 22:14

http://www.routexl.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

postmanzach · Post by **postmanzach** » 17 Oct 2018, 13:10

Bren24 wrote:http://www.routexl.co.uk/

That’s brilliant cheers

Stormproof · Post by **Stormproof** » 18 Oct 2018, 22:32

I normally go by the postcode as I cover an area 1 - 20 which I break down into the 20 areas. Then use Google maps to see which one is the next closest drop. Don't rely on the navigation on the PDA as its years out of date and doesn't give you alternative routes if there has been an accident etc.

GlassDoor · Post by **GlassDoor** » 20 Oct 2018, 20:39

postmanzach wrote:Did some overtime this evening doing LATs, was a nightmare. Driving back and forth wasting loads.

Was expecting an easy night as I did it for the first time last Friday and had 8 parcels to do in 4 hours in an area I knew.
Tonight had over a dozen and I didn’t know the area.

Any ideas on how to plan a route with a dozen parcels in unknown area? Is there a decent route planner thing online that does this or an app?
Heard that the pdas can do this somewhat but not very well. I didn’t have time tonight to try it as was already running late. Surely it should be possible to scan a dozen parcels and the pda to give you a route the IT/programmer people need to update the pdas ASAP

Hi, i treid using the PDA, but its useless for this.

I just use my phone with google maps, it lets you add in up to 10 stops and you can rearrange them to find the best route for you. Works great for me, but again only has a limit of 10 stops.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:23

Do all the LAT items have 2D barcodes on them? If they do i don't know why RM can't have some software that generates the route for you based on what items are scanned in as the address afaik forms part of the 2D barcode

panch1989 · Post by **panch1989** » 20 Oct 2018, 22:04

Every other delivery firm has software that sorts and plans a route based on what you scan into your PDA. Royal mail are just too tight to pay for this software aswell. Instead just let the postie wing it on his 100 mile round trip instead.

postmanzach · Post by **postmanzach** » 21 Oct 2018, 07:22

SpacePhoenix wrote:Do all the LAT items have 2D barcodes on them? If they do i don't know why RM can't have some software that generates the route for you based on what items are scanned in as the address afaik forms part of the 2D barcode

They do indeed. I noticed it as if you scan a 2d before you login it comes up with the address in the username bit.

My Dom tells me there’s a pda update coming with improved map and the ability to scan in the 2d barcodes to get their locations.

Anyone else like the LATs? I personally think it’s the best change in Royal Mail in a while. Customers are much more likely to be in and gives us the opportunity to do loads of overtime. I’d rather do a few 12 hour days and still take my rest days and get a decent pyslip.

zipmeister · Post by **zipmeister** » 21 Oct 2018, 10:03

The LAT deployment manager mentioned dedicated PDA's for the LAT delivery duties with an advanced TomTom type programme and route manifest for the "future"

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 21 Oct 2018, 11:15

Given how long RM has had 2D barcodes, I'm surprised that RM hasn't made 2D barcodes mandatory for all Tracked items

goneaway · Post by **goneaway** » 22 Oct 2018, 21:52

I noticed a new icon (with a lorry icon) had appeared on the PDA homescreen today and indeed it appears to be a multi-drop route planner. Has anyone tried it and is it worth it to use it as yet? Does it have live traffic built-in (like Waze, Google Maps, TomTom Traffic, etc), to seek out the best route, allowing you to be automatically rerouted around traffic holdups?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 25 Oct 2018, 20:12

Have heard that the LAT items won't be marked as LAT items in any way and no special york labels or bag labels either so we'll have no way of knowing if a Tracked item is a LAT item or not. If true it's a recipe for multiple LAT items failing, saying that for some MCs the LAT items are going to fail anyway

number one · Post by **number one** » 25 Oct 2018, 20:18

SpacePhoenix wrote:Have heard that the LAT items won't be marked as LAT items in any way and no special york labels or bag labels either so we'll have no way of knowing if a Tracked item is a LAT item or not. If true it's a recipe for multiple LAT items failing, saying that for some MCs the LAT items are going to fail anyway

Managers get an email at 8am with the amount of LAT Items due and the addresses.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 25 Oct 2018, 20:29

number one wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:Have heard that the LAT items won't be marked as LAT items in any way and no special york labels or bag labels either so we'll have no way of knowing if a Tracked item is a LAT item or not. If true it's a recipe for multiple LAT items failing, saying that for some MCs the LAT items are going to fail anyway

Managers get an email at 8am with the amount of LAT Items due and the addresses.

If they're not marked up in any way as LAT then they'll just get sorted as normal Tracked in MCs and when night shifts cut off to get the dispatches out, any LAT left will just fail with any leftover Tracked

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 25 Oct 2018, 23:49

SpacePhoenix wrote:Have heard that the LAT items won't be marked as LAT items in any way and no special york labels or bag labels either so we'll have no way of knowing if a Tracked item is a LAT item or not. If true it's a recipe for multiple LAT items failing, saying that for some MCs the LAT items are going to fail anyway

I would imagine they would marked up and separated in some way just as special delivery items are. It's RMs new product and they won't want to be home to Mr Cockup.