PDAs tracking Start and Finish times. Good or bad?

[work]

We fetch our PDA's with any specials, van keys log book etc around 8:30 to 9 & we log in just before we leave the office, how would the PDA know my start time? Does anyone actually get their PDA's & log in when they start work?

Will do now though.ta.
I only log out and collod consolidation scan when handing in keys/pouch/PDA/ coolod mail AFTER returning mis-sorts/ sorting returned p739'd parcels & Specials/ after returning HCT to basement AND after TAKING MY PAID BREAK if any left...(be it hot meal/ a piss and locker room uniform change/ or drying my kit with a brew BEFORE LOGGING OUT/BOOKING THIS TIME AS 'EXCESS'. If the PDA shows I'm in the building, the CCTV Shows I'm working/ brewing until booking out. BRING ON THE CLOCKING IN-OUT.
I worked as a night shift worker in a (predominantly eastern european workforce) UK laundry service and they had a fingerprint scanner...even for fag breaks...it works because it does not lie...or show favouritism. All duty timings/ shift pay and ANY Overtime (PREP/EXCESS) should be linked to the SITE gate (+ camera CCTV) and not just the outdoor work actuals. Not a great logistical leap of faith RMG. Security of your payroll revenue and costs. Time to move the culture to a fairer system, please. Modern D.O.'s are gated with your ID card as access (via swipe)...ours is open all hours and is a security risk. a fire risk in the basement especially. and a H& Safety nightmare: asbestos in the boiler pipes, revolting outside gents bogs, pigeon shite everywhere, and the yard is a transport clusterfeck...most vehicles are parking in council car parks nearby. personal rant over...
...just saying make the system fairer for all workers; in order to root out the nonsense that has become normalised - seeing as the favourites are effectively stealing money from the business AND ruining the job whilst the management look on 'limp' and coercive in this daily fraud

[twoloops]

Or is he doing this because he wants to go home earlier than his finish time?

No. This fella comes in an hour early so he can finish as early as possible, I got back early today around 20 past 1, & I was one of the last ones back?

[Cloudwatcher]

Interesting answers.

I agree with some of the posters that management are taking the mickey out of people who are not strong enough to stand up to them. I suppose that is the bullying culture they talk about.

If I go over with my hours now I send an email to my manager (they can't lose that like a scrap of paper or a word with them). Otherwise if I don't get paid for my overtime I come in at 9.15am and take the undelivered mail back to the depot at 2.18pm. The management got arsey with me for a while but I now think they are starting to get the message.

I still enjoy the job of being out and about delivering letters and parcels but dealing with management is a right pain. It is ridiculous that we have to fight so hard to get paid for the hours that we do and that they expect us to do unpaid overtime. We all need to pay the rent/mortgages/put food in mouths etc.

After 2 months in the job I was unsure about the CWU. Now I will support them 100%.

I can see how PDA's can be abused by management......... But too many people who are not as hardline as me are working for nothing at our depot for fear of the management. Its not right.

Maybe a simple log in and out at the sorting office and paid by that would be a better way of working overtime?

[Cloudwatcher]

We fetch our PDA's with any specials, van keys log book etc around 8:30 to 9 & we log in just before we leave the office, how would the PDA know my start time? Does anyone actually get their PDA's & log in when they start work?

Will do now though.ta.
I only log out and collod consolidation scan when handing in keys/pouch/PDA/ coolod mail AFTER returning mis-sorts/ sorting returned p739'd parcels & Specials/ after returning HCT to basement AND after TAKING MY PAID BREAK if any left...(be it hot meal/ a piss and locker room uniform change/ or drying my kit with a brew BEFORE LOGGING OUT/BOOKING THIS TIME AS 'EXCESS'. If the PDA shows I'm in the building, the CCTV Shows I'm working/ brewing until booking out. BRING ON THE CLOCKING IN-OUT.
I worked as a night shift worker in a (predominantly eastern european workforce) UK laundry service and they had a fingerprint scanner...even for fag breaks...it works because it does not lie...or show favouritism. All duty timings/ shift pay and ANY Overtime (PREP/EXCESS) should be linked to the SITE gate (+ camera CCTV) and not just the outdoor work actuals. Not a great logistical leap of faith RMG. Security of your payroll revenue and costs. Time to move the culture to a fairer system, please. Modern D.O.'s are gated with your ID card as access (via swipe)...ours is open all hours and is a security risk. a fire risk in the basement especially. and a H& Safety nightmare: asbestos in the boiler pipes, revolting outside gents bogs, pigeon shite everywhere, and the yard is a transport clusterfeck...most vehicles are parking in council car parks nearby. personal rant over...
...just saying make the system fairer for all workers; in order to root out the nonsense that has become normalised - seeing as the favourites are effectively stealing money from the business AND ruining the job whilst the management look on 'limp' and coercive in this daily fraud

I agree with you. The old school system is fine for the old timers because they know how to play the system and have much better terms and conditions. And a lot of them go home early. But for all the new fellas and lassies being brought in on part time hours it doesn't work and people are being intimidated to work unpaid hours which is shite. Thats worse than bloody sports direct. It is creating a two tier system and that will only create resentment and disharmony.

Time to make things fair. Time people when they get into and leave the sorting office. Paid for the work we do (including meal breaks and all the bits and bobs we do around the job) and removes favouritism and arguing over time.

[davecc5]

DON'T work for nothing. You aren't helping anyone, just masking things. A mate of mine at retirement reckoned he'd given RM around £20k in free time - ridiculous. Even the 'best Analysts' (and I use that term loosely) at RM can't calculate anything correctly with individuals throwing in free time left, right & centre.

[Woody Guthrie]

It doesn't matter when you log in or out of the PDA.
PDA data only relates to outdoor performance.

RM are using physical location data to measure outdoor time. It starts when you leave the office and stops when you re-enter the office.
Thats one of the reasons the union has an issue with it.

[Celgar]

It doesn't matter when you log in or out of the PDA.
PDA data only relates to outdoor performance.

RM are using physical location data to measure outdoor time. It starts when you leave the office and stops when you re-enter the office.
Thats one of the reasons the union has an issue with it.

We need a clocking in and out system that cannot be fiddled or questioned afterwards and is secure. It would be better than the current system where a lot of work is completed unpaid.
If RM want to go the internet based technology route then they would have to alter the PDA software so we clock in on the PDA as soon as we enter the building then again just before we leave to go home.
If they want to stick with paper then get the DOM to stand at the door and write times down and both parties initial it as correct. The current signing in sheets are never filled in correctly and occasionally not at all so they are utterly useless.
An internet based system, whether just PDA based or combined with the proposed but currently broken AHDC system, would be better as payment could be aligned to time worked and all work would be paid.
I don't see a problem with using PDA data to define walk length as if you carry the PDA to each doorstep that is the length of the walk in footsteps. There is not any data more accurate than that. The union does not have that much input when walks are redesigned anyway. They usually refer to posties who have done most of the walks to iron out any wrinkles and it mostly goes fine. It is not easy to make every walk precisely the same length though especially as you don't really want to split up roads as that causes missorts on the IPS.
In short bring on an accurate clocking in system ASAP!

[Celgar]

It doesn't matter when you log in or out of the PDA.
PDA data only relates to outdoor performance.

RM are using physical location data to measure outdoor time. It starts when you leave the office and stops when you re-enter the office.
Thats one of the reasons the union has an issue with it.

The union apparently still has issues with the AHDC system which would measure the indoor work completed prior to leaving for delivery. I dont know what their reasons were. Aside from that the equipment designed for the AHDC system was not collecting correct data especially in smaller DOs or where the frames were too close together. As far as I know this is still the case. So the free work regime continues. Good for Rico although he would never admit it.