Will there always be 'single' manned driving duties?

[themailman]

Now, I understand that TRUE fully rural deliveries are best to have a single driver for efficiency reasons, there's no point in having two people sitting side by side driving down a country lane with 1/2 mile between delivery points etc. However, one thing that I've noticed is that in our office anyways, there are plenty of walks still operating on a 1 person 1 van way of working, some of which have only the slightest bit of rural delivery on them. I did one of these walks a few weeks ago and was shocked how much less stress there was placed on the individual, which is a good thing in my view, but I can't help but feel that this is totally unfair on the rest of the workforce who are made to deal with all the quirks of having to work 4-5 hours a day with another, often random person. Thoughts?

[scoobydo79]

I agree with You.The single man rural deliveries in My office have frames half the size of everyone else’s and the guys on them are stress free. Bugger all calls,very few D2Ds to prep no hassle from a partner and very little walking.Id love one

[Jeppol]

Now, I understand that TRUE fully rural deliveries are best to have a single driver for efficiency reasons, there's no point in having two people sitting side by side driving down a country lane with 1/2 mile between delivery points etc. However, one thing that I've noticed is that in our office anyways, there are plenty of walks still operating on a 1 person 1 van way of working, some of which have only the slightest bit of rural delivery on them. I did one of these walks a few weeks ago and was shocked how much less stress there was placed on the individual, which is a good thing in my view, but I can't help but feel that this is totally unfair on the rest of the workforce who are made to deal with all the quirks of having to work 4-5 hours a day with another, often random person. Thoughts?

I'm a singleton, must admit it's nice being able to go at my own pace, take my break when I want to take it & listen to continuous 80's music in my van !

[Celgar]

I agree with You.The single man rural deliveries in My office have frames half the size of everyone else’s and the guys on them are stress free. Bugger all calls,very few D2Ds to prep no hassle from a partner and very little walking.Id love one

Numbers of D2D contracts given to walks are not based on whether they are rural or town walks but on market and other reasons such as what people in that area might be considered to be interested in buying. It can also be that some areas are more easily covered by other leaflet delivering services etc. Our DO is split into two postcode prefixes with my walk being a rural and has seven D2D leaflets for this coming week. The shared deliveries in our office have three leaflets this coming week. This ratio is fairly usual and it isn't uncommon for the shared deliveries to have weeks with no D2D leaflets to deliver. Nevertheless they still receive the twenty quid supplement every week. That was a bonkers idea from the union and an example of how life generally isn't fair. You just got to live with it & keep keeping on.
Town and shared deliveries can sometimes deliver to maybe half a dozen or more delivery points in the time it takes to do one address on a rural hence the disparity in numbers of address points.
Yes it will always be the case that single drivers will do rurals for the reason the OP suggested.

[LouBarlow]

I agree with You.The single man rural deliveries in My office have frames half the size of everyone else’s and the guys on them are stress free. Bugger all calls,very few D2Ds to prep no hassle from a partner and very little walking.Id love one

So what you suggest is give rural rounds the same number of calls as town rounds, despite the distance between calls sometimes being massive?

Interesting idea.

I am a day off cover duty holder, who does 2 rural rounds and one town (and has knowledge of about 10 rural rounds in the office, and frequently covers those too). The town round is always less stressful, though more demanding in terms of walking. Load up the trolley, plug the headphones in and go. It is a lot more pleasant an experience than dealing with rural duties, trust me.

The grass is always greener, as they say.

[themailman]

The main point I am getting at is that there are quite a few rounds that questionably meet the criteria for a single person delivery - even if they are hitting the 5 hour delivery time (when others are 4:15-4:30) they will still be chosen by the most senior members of staff due to the perks of working on your own.

[scoobydo79]

I agree with You.The single man rural deliveries in My office have frames half the size of everyone else’s and the guys on them are stress free. Bugger all calls,very few D2Ds to prep no hassle from a partner and very little walking.Id love one

So what you suggest is give rural rounds the same number of calls as town rounds, despite the distance between calls sometimes being massive?

Interesting idea.

I am a day off cover duty holder, who does 2 rural rounds and one town (and has knowledge of about 10 rural rounds in the office, and frequently covers those too). The town round is always less stressful, though more demanding in terms of walking. Load up the trolley, plug the headphones in and go. It is a lot more pleasant an experience than dealing with rural duties, trust me.

The grass is always greener, as they say.

I’m not suggesting anything.Im telling the OP what the deliveries are like in My office

[matthew68]

Now, I understand that TRUE fully rural deliveries are best to have a single driver for efficiency reasons, there's no point in having two people sitting side by side driving down a country lane with 1/2 mile between delivery points etc. However, one thing that I've noticed is that in our office anyways, there are plenty of walks still operating on a 1 person 1 van way of working, some of which have only the slightest bit of rural delivery on them. I did one of these walks a few weeks ago and was shocked how much less stress there was placed on the individual, which is a good thing in my view, but I can't help but feel that this is totally unfair on the rest of the workforce who are made to deal with all the quirks of having to work 4-5 hours a day with another, often random person. Thoughts?

In our office we now have 5 single van duties and only 5 shared duties and none of theses are rural! The Dom has separated people as he says more gets done in a single van

[themailman]

Now, I understand that TRUE fully rural deliveries are best to have a single driver for efficiency reasons, there's no point in having two people sitting side by side driving down a country lane with 1/2 mile between delivery points etc. However, one thing that I've noticed is that in our office anyways, there are plenty of walks still operating on a 1 person 1 van way of working, some of which have only the slightest bit of rural delivery on them. I did one of these walks a few weeks ago and was shocked how much less stress there was placed on the individual, which is a good thing in my view, but I can't help but feel that this is totally unfair on the rest of the workforce who are made to deal with all the quirks of having to work 4-5 hours a day with another, often random person. Thoughts?

In our office we now have 5 single van duties and only 5 shared duties and none of theses are rural! The Dom has separated people as he says more gets done in a single van

At a cost of at least 2 more vans that's pretty amazing that it's been sanctioned.

[SpacePhoenix]

If RM get their way and any packet that won't go through a letter box and all Tracked go via the hubs instead of DOs, could RM then make a lot of walks in many places HCT walks with a van dropping off the trolley and postie?

[Route1]

If RM get their way and any packet that won't go through a letter box and all Tracked go via the hubs instead of DOs, could RM then make a lot of walks in many places HCT walks with a van dropping off the trolley and postie?

Probably a no.

HCT trolley? Too awkward & heavy to get in a Peugeot Partner van. Has any one else tried putting one of the HCT's in a van? Pretty sure we would get disciplined if we are caught trying.

LWT? Wouldnt hold enough mail for a duty.

[smartecosse]

If RM get their way and any packet that won't go through a letter box and all Tracked go via the hubs instead of DOs, could RM then make a lot of walks in many places HCT walks with a van dropping off the trolley and postie?

Probably a no.

HCT trolley? Too awkward & heavy to get in a Peugeot Partner van. Has any one else tried putting one of the HCT's in a van? Pretty sure we would get disciplined if we are caught trying.

LWT? Wouldnt hold enough mail for a duty.

Unless we are double lapsing ( which is actually quite often at the moment when I get a van) my walk is an HCT one that takes about 20 minutes walking to get to the start of do it's usual to chuck the trolley and the bags into the back of a van and get dropped off.

The HCT does fit in the smaller vans as well.

[Mr Rush]

HCTs can be loaded into vans, as per a training video I recall around 2010 for the revisions, but I think it's uncommon. Firstly because HCT duties are supposed to be within 1 mile of the office, and secondly because HCT duties are juicy lapsing targets - close to the office, frees up the support van that covers their oversized packets, avoids creating an additional solo van duty by splitting a P&L pairing, recovers dead walking time to get to and from the duty. If a trolley duty has to be driven out beyond a mile, they'll argue it might as well be made P&L. Got to pinch those pennies if we want the shares to stay above 200p