LAT - ramping up or slacking off

[Wild Rover]

Is LAT still workable? Still the future? Last few weeks it's been very quiet with most staff finishing well before their shift time. Can RM justify this as the weeks/months progress? Can't help think it's a waste of fuel sometimes. Just the time of the year with ramp up expected soon...are RM advertising LAT well enough?

[SpacePhoenix]

So far all ours has come through with the normal dispatches so will go out to the normal DOs and not the hubs. Mail has been down noticeably for all streams over the last few weeks

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Our LAT staff seem to be regularly asked now to prep D2Ds into various duty frames, because there isn't enough LAT items to deliver. The deliver area is too big for one driver to cover, but with two drivers per shift, there aren't enough deliveries to keep them both going until their contract hours finish time... Hopefully these drivers are taking account of their extra paid break, as usually they are doing the LAT work having been it since ~0700 or ~0930 on full or part time hours before the LAT hours!

I think this is one of the main reasons why RM want LAT staff to deliver the shoe box+ parcels as per Dingo's post, because without it, RM have a premium product which isn't producing enough intended workload for these later shifts.

[number one]

We are an LAT office and the people who do it do it on overtime. They get 4:30hrs for it and might only have 2 parcels.

[redneck]

We have had a full time duty made up for LAT, applications were asked for, a brown noser got it, and now the person is getting as many hours as they wish, taking overtime from under people's nosesfrom those who have been cut on the early starts and then doing a delivery followed by working delivering the little blighters until it's dark

[aiden01]

We are an LAT office and the people who do it do it on overtime. They get 4:30hrs for it and might only have 2 parcels.

Just like rest of officce then all free ot..

[trainzy]

I cover the LAT duty in our office, 30hrs a week with a rotating day off (which I normally work on OT). We cover seven postcode districts on the LAT duty in our office. It's a complete lottery on what you get and where you're going, somedays you get loads and some days you get hardly any. Friday our office got 12 which I was unable to complete in my six hour shift (5.5 hours inc break) so managers got someone else to do a couple of local town ones to the depot on OT. Saturday we only got three, two local to the depot (one was a literally a minute walk) one a five minute drive and other was 40 minute for a tiny box with contact lenses , over the hills and far far away (literally!) - which was lovely with the weather we had

They normally combine the duty with stuff like doing some extra town packets because the packet duty people couldn't complete or taking missorted tracked out with the array of LATs all over the half of the county I cover. But because of my skills and what I know, management will pay someone else OT to do some or all the LATs and get me to do a collection instead or half a walk or a break off needs covering so I do that instead.

I look at it that's it's a lot better than doing a walk or a delivery in my office and it's funny when my colleagues go they don't want to work till seven every night, especially as I had a lie in till ten for the work I do

[SpacePhoenix]

RM would be better off having a LAT duty for each DO who could also attempt any SDs that were 739d earlier in the day.

They need to really have a separate stream for the accepted at DO scan and delivery attempted/done scans for LAT items. There was a thread recently where someone was complaining that an item was sent to the wrong DO when it might have been a LAT item going through a LAT hub

[deltaforce]

If you read Dingos post, RM Are proposing that LATs will be taking parcels from Delivery at the expense of delivery jobs

[SpacePhoenix]

If you read Dingos post, RM Are proposing that LATs will be taking parcels from Delivery at the expense of delivery jobs

Our LAT comes in with the normal dispatches, the later LAT fails as it comes in too late.

[postmanzach]

I’m Not in an LAT office but have gone to one for some overtime. We were driving hour or so to deliver one or two parcels was crazy, such a waste of fuel.
Heard the LAT people are mostly being used to clear up cut offs and lapsing that isn’t right is it?

[Celgar]

We don't have a LAT duty in our DO but I have heard there is very little for them to deliver. When they have tried to deliver items to addresses on our walks they haven't been able to locate the addresses given the rural nature of our walks. So I guess then the items have been returned to sender or sent with the usual mail to us the following day. So it does sound like the LAT is a complete failure of an idea.

[Route1]

LATs have made 4 people in my office upto fulltime although they are temporary 3 month rolling contracts. Sometimes they get other offices in on o/t to cover too.

No full timers were allowed to go for them as it would have taken them over the 38hr but they can do it on o\t. Not one fulltimer has done it yet.

From the distances covered and number of parcels delivered I can see it seems a waste of money. But Royal Mail get paid big bucks from the LAT's according to one of the old World Class Manager guys. Plus it gets more ppl fulltime & o/t for those that want it.

We've had the usually problems delivering to far away places, eg postcode not found, House Names instead of numbers, Sat Nav takes you up a path to no-where etc.

[NorthernPostman]

-----------------------------------------------------

[postieaw11]

LATS are done by the managers favourites in my office. They also get to take the van home and leave their car in the secure compound overnight.