LTB 458/19 - Royal Mail and the CWU: Final Mile Optimisation (FMO) Joint Launch Communication

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 29 Jul 2019, 16:09

LTB 458/19 - Royal Mail and the CWU: Final Mile Optimisation (FMO) Joint Launch Communication

No. 458/2019

Monday 29th July 2019

Royal Mail and the CWU: Final Mile Optimisation (FMO) Joint Launch Communication

Dear Colleagues,

On the 15th February 2019, the Outdoor Department issued a memo to Divisional Reps and ADRs containing a RM & CWU Joint Statement which outlined developments and proof of concept activity in relation to the system upgrades of the outdoor planning tools for Delivery and Collections and which have been given the overall title of Final Mile Optimisation (FMO).

Since then and following further verbal updates given by the Department at the recent ADR Briefings held on the 12th and 18th July 2019, the purpose of this LTB is to confirm the joint launch of the system upgrades under FMO of Route Manager and Georoute.

To provide some background, Branches and Reps will be aware that meetings have been taking place since late 2018 between Royal Mail and the CWU through the Delivery Systems Working Group and as part of the National Delivery design and section 19.3 of the National Guiding Principles (Four Pillars and Pay) Agreement on a number of developments and system upgrades linked to planning tools for Delivery and Collections.

The upgrades covered the two key systems of:

Replacing A-plus with Route Manager
Replacing the Georoute 2008 with Georoute 2017
Following further discussions and joint proof of concept activity, the attached Final Mile Optimisation (FMO) Joint Launch Communications has been agreed and is attached for the attention of Branches and Representatives.

Whilst the attached joint launch communication is fairly self-explanatory, it confirms the following key items:

What is Final Mile Optimisation

FMO is a necessary technical refresh of the outdoor route planning systems for Delivery and Collections which are over 10 years old and reaching end of life.

New software and technology means that the new systems can:

Simplify and improve current processes
Take advantage of new data products e.g. road speed, terrain, maps, NYB
Reduce the maintenance task for local units
Enhance the verification processes
Complete revisions faster with a quicker start-up phase
Build in manual interventions automatically
Use latest agreed outdoor values
Achieve greater accuracy with high confidence in outputs
This refresh forms part of Royal Mail’s Digital Transformation Strategy. It will help to better maintain accurate routing data ensuring fair and balanced workload for all, plan and execute change faster by automating many of the tasks that previously relied on manual input or intervention and supports the development of new products and services to customers such as Consumer Collections and Inflight Redirections.

FMO will be deployed in 2 releases as follows:

Release 1 goes live on a staged basis from w/c 29th July 2019 and will include:

Pegasus A-Plus and Road Network Maintenance applications replaced with a new Route Manager application for Delivery
Georoute 2008 replaced with Georoute 2017 for Delivery
Updated data products and automatic refresh cycle through trusted 3rd party sources
Release 2 will go live at a later date following completion of a design, build, and test phase:

Adjusted should take time to reflect forecast traffic
Seasonal route planning capability
Georoute 2017 and Route Manager for Collections
Royal Mail and the CWU can now confirm that Release 1 is ready to go live from 29th July.

Planning for Release 2 will commence shortly with joint discussions taking place through the Delivery Systems Group continuing on the new capabilities associated with it. Both parties understand this development is likely to be deployed in late 2020 and as such, have agreed these discussions will also take place parallel to the New Delivery Agreement outlined in section 19.3 Guiding Principles Agreement.

Current Status

The current status of the programme means that GeoRoute will be upgraded for Deliveries and will use the latest outdoor values taken from the nationally agreed exercise for the observation studies that took place in 2017. The current A-Plus and Road Network Maintenance systems will be combined into a new system called Route Manager, and large amounts of data will be automated in the new systems. Delivery will transition from the Pegasus platform onto Route Manager. The move to current technology will also assist with integration with other platforms which are also subject to further discussions between Royal Mail & the CWU.

Next Steps/Notifications

A technical cutover of the A-plus system has now been completed. This means that units are unable to make changes to the underlying data until the new system goes live on a staged basis from w/c 29th July. To manage the initial load on system resources, a managed ramp up will be planned. Preceding go live further communications will be shared, advising units when they can access the new system.

A key aspect of the new system is the notifications function which advises Champions and Unit Managers of any changes in Route Manager either for information or review and action. Units should expect an initial peak of notifications in the immediate period after going live. Managers will need to review the level of items to action, agree a plan to clear these down and schedule sufficient time for their Champions to complete these and this needs to be considered at future weekly resource meetings. It is important to note that Route Manager changes will not impact on workload at route level in release 1; it is purely an administrative task.

Post Go Live Review

Both Royal Mail and the CWU are keen to understand how the new system supports both business as usual and revision activity in the future. Further National discussions regarding the delivery revision programme along with a joint agreed revised revision process to support revision are continuing and further joint communications will be issued in due course.

In issuing the attached Final Mile Optimisation (FMO) Joint Launch Communications and as set out above, Branches and Representatives are advised however that a Nationally agreed revised revision process to reflect and capture these system upgrades has not been reached yet and talks remain ongoing in this area, including the need to pilot the revised revision process to ensure it is fit for purpose against the upgrades made to Route Manager and Georoute.

Equally, the Outdoor Department has been clear to Royal Mail from the outset that any planned or currently ongoing revision activity within Delivery Offices must be planned to factor in the 1-hour SWW reduction due this year and in line with the National Guiding Principles (Four Pillars and Pay) Agreement.

This position reflects current developments concerning the National Point of Principle Disagreement and Honouring the Four Pillars and Pay Agreement (LTB 456/19 issued by the DGS(P) Department referred and is attached).

As such, Branches and Representatives are advised that in the case of Delivery Offices currently involved in revisions or where revision activity is planned that disagreement should be registered via the IR Framework where Royal Mail does not accept that the 1-hour SWW reduction is planned in as part of the revision outputs.

Further updates will be provided in due course.

Any enquiries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 230.03, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch

CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 458.19 – FMO Joint Launch Communication https://emails.cwu.org/t/d-l-puiitky-jtfltzjh-d/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

19LTB456-UPDATE-HONOURING-AND-DEPLOYING-THE-FOUR-PILLARS-AND-PAY-AGREEMENT https://emails.cwu.org/t/d-l-puiitky-jtfltzjh-d/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FMO Joint Launch Communications https://emails.cwu.org/t/d-l-puiitky-jtfltzjh-h/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

View Online https://emails.cwu.org/t/d-l-puiitky-jtfltzjh-k/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 29 Jul 2019, 17:50

wasn't the CWU against this ? or am I wrong .

leolion855 · Post by **leolion855** » 29 Jul 2019, 18:02

eh? in english please, is this a pda update

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 29 Jul 2019, 18:53

Looks like walk sequence plans will be more up to date, if i'm reading this correct the data used to compile the walk sequence plans for the machines will be kept up to date automatically. You can tell some DOs don't keep theirs up to date when you get a bulk posting like council tax forms or electoral register and you get a load get rejected on the 1st pass

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 29 Jul 2019, 21:18

Within all this gobbledegook sounds like a rather discreet recipe for Royal Mail to make loads of changes purely based on PDA actuals.

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 29 Jul 2019, 22:13

postslippete wrote:Within all this gobbledegook sounds like a rather discreet recipe for Royal Mail to make loads of changes purely based on PDA actuals.

which is what the cwu wasn't going to allow them to do

wasn't it .

hans solo · Post by **hans solo** » 30 Jul 2019, 13:54

exactly imagine agreeing to this when were in dispute with same agreements
you couldnt make it up

Thailand1 · Post by **Thailand1** » 30 Jul 2019, 16:11

Please can someone explain the consequences of all these changes in layman's terms and what it means for deliveries.....Thanks.

citypostie · Post by **citypostie** » 30 Jul 2019, 16:33

Thailand1 wrote:Please can someone explain the consequences of all these changes in layman's terms and what it means for deliveries.....Thanks.

At a guess, longer deliveries and timing how long it takes you to do each bit and needing to have excuses ready if you say you can't get it done or will need overtime because the actuals and the systems in place will say you've got time

red666bear · Post by **red666bear** » 30 Jul 2019, 19:45

I thought the cwu were basing everything moving forward on the basis of the 37 hour week being implemented in October?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 30 Jul 2019, 20:01

Possibly more frequent revisions with bits automatically being shifted between walks?

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 31 Jul 2019, 16:04

Route Manager will probably show that duties are not as long as previously thought.
If they do revisions using this a lot of hours will probably be lost in Delivery Offices.

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 31 Jul 2019, 16:43

why f***ing worry what they want to do or try to do as you have a start and finish time and that's it.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 31 Jul 2019, 16:51

worktotime wrote:why f***ing worry what they want to do or try to do as you have a start and finish time and that's it.

If they introduce a performance standard alongside it, it might just be a case of

for a lot of staff.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 31 Jul 2019, 17:44

clashcityrocker wrote:
worktotime wrote:why f***ing worry what they want to do or try to do as you have a start and finish time and that's it.
If they introduce a performance standard alongside it, it might just be a case of for a lot of staff.

But how can they?? The problem we got in Royal Mail is that we have an ageing workforce. There aren't many posties under the age of 30 in our office. There are many posties who simply cant walk super fast because of certain health conditions. We always work safely first.

And the only performance standards Royal Mail have apart from working safely is that we focus on the quality of service; not the quantity. Its something I often tell rookie managers who are still a bit wet behind the ears. Its things like scanning collection boxes or scanning packets with barcodes or its ensuring that we slip packets when customers are not in or even leave with neighbour only if its safe and reliable to do so. Managers tend to look at things like customer complaints and PDA scanning failures first.