8 sets next week!

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:04

thought we weren't supposed to get any more than 6 in a week. RM themselves stated in the courier a couple of yrs back that six would be the maximum simply because the prep frame would be overloaded and you would struggle to get the mail in with any more than 6 sets.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:28

daveyeff wrote:thought we weren't supposed to get any more than 6 in a week. RM themselves stated in the courier a couple of yrs back that six would be the maximum simply because the prep frame would be overloaded and you would struggle to get the mail in with any more than 6 sets.

Our DO is split into two postcode types with one often getting six per week and the other one maybe only getting two or three and sometimes none at all! The ones that get more get seven on very odd occasions but it wouldn't usually be more than six. I think RM know that if they try to deliver too many D2Ds that more customers will ask around and find out they can opt out of them entirely. Ages ago I heard Reading had to deliver fifteen D2Ds but I don't know if that is still the case or not.

Post by **rambo1** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:30

Since we now have less mail, we have time to do 8 lots. Mail is dropping 7% year on year don't you know

which if you've ever worked it out, means in 10 yrs time we'll have roughly 50% of the mail we do now. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be actually going to 50% less calls although most mangers can't figure that bit out.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:43

if its dropped at the percentage they say it has for the past amount of years, then we should be delivering ''zero'' by now.

Marshamp11 · Post by **Marshamp11** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:52

daveyeff wrote:if its dropped at the percentage they say it has for the past amount of years, then we should be delivering ''zero'' by now.

Have been hearing this for at least the the last 20 years, I should be looking at cobwebs in my prep frame now.

Spigot bearing · Post by **Spigot bearing** » 22 Oct 2018, 16:58

Yep it's all just a load of codswallop, booking most days now.
38 hour week my backside.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 22 Oct 2018, 17:08

Anyone who hasn't noticed letter traffic has been dropping over the years must be living in a bubble.
Maybe they don't remember the days when everyone got a gas bill, an electricity bill, a phone bill and everyone paid it by sending a cheque.
Virtually all that has gone. What has it been replaced by?

Direct debits, online banking, Paypal have all contributed to a decrease in letter traffic.
And that's before we factor in the use of e-mails.

I struggle to use the 50 free stamps.
A few birthday cards and a few Christmas cards.
What other letters do people send by post?

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 22 Oct 2018, 17:11

Yeah letter volume is down, delivery points are up. So to a lot of posties it can appear that levels haven't really declined, especially with the big increase of packages too.
As for 8 sets, if it causes problems follow cut off procedure.

jack~jack · Post by **jack~jack** » 22 Oct 2018, 17:39

20 years ago I took 4 bags out in my car ,each day. Now with the drop off in mail, I ram 15 bags and dozens of over size in the back of a large van. I hope the mail doesn't drop off anymore!!

number one · Post by **number one** » 22 Oct 2018, 17:49

Mail volumes have dropped, there’s no doubt about that. I used to have 6 full bags of mail on a smaller round, now my round is much bigger and I can get it in 4 bags most days. However, the drop in mail doesn’t equate to having less work to do. When I started we had every member of staff went on the ips and it was sorted in about 40 minutes. Now we have 4 people on it and it takes over 2:30 hours. Add to this the time it takes to bag up a larger walk, load the vans with parcels etc. Then when out on delivery if a customer has one letter of ten you still go up the path plus with knocking on with parcels it’s time time time. Royal Mail seem to think the drop in mail volumes means we can do more or even cut hours from delivery. They would probably have to drop 60% for that to happen

Post by **wacko74** » 22 Oct 2018, 18:39

clashcityrocker wrote:Anyone who hasn't noticed letter traffic has been dropping over the years must be living in a bubble.
Maybe they don't remember the days when everyone got a gas bill, an electricity bill, a phone bill and everyone paid it by sending a cheque.
Virtually all that has gone. What has it been replaced by?

Direct debits, online banking, Paypal have all contributed to a decrease in letter traffic.
And that's before we factor in the use of e-mails.

I struggle to use the 50 free stamps.
A few birthday cards and a few Christmas cards.
What other letters do people send by post?

I notice you've quite specifically referred to only "letters" throughout that post and yes those types of letters may well be down but all other forms of mail, especially marketing mail, catalogues, brochures, promotional flyers etc definitely haven't reduced.

Post by **wacko74** » 22 Oct 2018, 18:55

number one wrote:Mail volumes have dropped, there’s no doubt about that. I used to have 6 full bags of mail on a smaller round, now my round is much bigger and I can get it in 4 bags most days. However, the drop in mail doesn’t equate to having less work to do. When I started we had every member of staff went on the ips and it was sorted in about 40 minutes. Now we have 4 people on it and it takes over 2:30 hours. Add to this the time it takes to bag up a larger walk, load the vans with parcels etc. Then when out on delivery if a customer has one letter of ten you still go up the path plus with knocking on with parcels it’s time time time. Royal Mail seem to think the drop in mail volumes means we can do more or even cut hours from delivery. They would probably have to drop 60% for that to happen

4 bags of mail!?

Even the rurals I cover have more than 4 bags and the singleton residential duties have anywhere from 8-12 bags a day.

The disparities in this job really are startling.

I agree with your point about time, time time... today for instance I had one cul de sac with 12 houses on it, all detached with seperate driveways, the first house had 3 pkts, a mixture of tracked and recorded (nobody home) it took me longer to deal with those 3 pkts than it did to deliver mail to all of the other calls on the street.

rubberbond · Post by **rubberbond** » 22 Oct 2018, 20:51

clashcityrocker wrote:Anyone who hasn't noticed letter traffic has been dropping over the years must be living in a bubble.
Maybe they don't remember the days when everyone got a gas bill, an electricity bill, a phone bill and everyone paid it by sending a cheque.
Virtually all that has gone. What has it been replaced by?

Direct debits, online banking, Paypal have all contributed to a decrease in letter traffic.
And that's before we factor in the use of e-mails.

I struggle to use the 50 free stamps.
A few birthday cards and a few Christmas cards.
What other letters do people send by post?

I sort of agree with what you're saying ,but the way they go on about declining volumes ,makes me wonder if in the pre internet age, everybody was writing to each other all the time, sort of postal Facebook if you like, I doubt that very much. I think I am working harder now than I ever have.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 22 Oct 2018, 21:21

It's the mix of mail that has changed over the last decade, a greater % of the mail is now packets (Tracked and non-Tracked)

bmccoll · Post by **bmccoll** » 22 Oct 2018, 22:08

Agreed there. From experience I've always presumed that D2D's are more important to RM than actual mail! Therefore it is part of you're workload and does/should generate OT. We no longer get paid per item.