Royal Mail brief to managers : New ways of working in delivery, processing and distribution

kookoo32 · Post by **kookoo32** » 24 Mar 2020, 21:15

Postie45 wrote:
yellowbelly wrote:
kookoo32 wrote:Sorry for being a bit thick here, but I give my van-share partner a lift to work in the morning. Any idea if I can continue doing this? We spend more time travelling to and from work than we would if we were in a shared van.
I would imagine RM only stopped van share to prevent culpability in not implementing control measures to
prevent the virus spreading throughout the workforce - they can stop van shares.
If you and your colleague spread it by sharing a vehicle to work that's your lookout.
although the offical advice is not to meet up with anyone outside of your own household, sharing a car would breach that advice for sure.

This is where it all falls down for me. If I was to go to work using public transport I come into contact with more people than I ever would whilst sharing a car. The risk is so much higher.

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 24 Mar 2020, 21:20

So my brilliant idea of Royal Mail using drones to deliver letters and D2Ds to households was laughed at a while ago. Same goes for my clever idea of Royal Mail posties walking on stilts so they could step over gates without touching them. Laughed at. And what of my genius idea of using archery to fire letters and D2Ds through letter boxes? Sniggered at by Royal Mail management. Typical.

Look who's laughing now.

bishopoflove · Post by **bishopoflove** » 24 Mar 2020, 23:13

What a total balls up this is, 5 managers supposed to be in today, only 1 turns in, total lack of leadership, mixed messages, all RM is ever interested in is clearing the office what ever the cost, employee welfare none existent, you are made to feel guilty for lack of management leadership, lack of basic safety equipment, what more can I say an absolute shambles from top to bottom and where's Rick Bac in all this living the life of luxury while your risking your life for a bit of paper or a fridge magnet from China the source of this virus, get real and stand your ground your only here once, STAY SAFE THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN WELFARE NOT ROYAL MAILS PROFITS !!!!!!!!!

norris9 · Post by **norris9** » 24 Mar 2020, 23:31

How did the single man in a van go today? how the heck did that work out?

smok3y666 · Post by **smok3y666** » 24 Mar 2020, 23:36

bishopoflove wrote:What a total balls up this is, 5 managers supposed to be in today, only 1 turns in, total lack of leadership, mixed messages, all RM is ever interested in is clearing the office what ever the cost, employee welfare none existent, you are made to feel guilty for lack of management leadership, lack of basic safety equipment, what more can I say an absolute shambles from top to bottom and where's Rick Bac in all this living the life of luxury while your risking your life for a bit of paper or a fridge magnet from China the source of this virus, get real and stand your ground your only here once, STAY SAFE THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN WELFARE NOT ROYAL MAILS PROFITS !!!!!!!!!

So I presume you went in, told them F off and walked out?

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 24 Mar 2020, 23:37

norris9 wrote:How did the single man in a van go today? how the heck did that work out?

Basically what happened in most offices up and down the land is they got low level managers to ask posties in hushed voices to use their own car, hoping the postie would just do it, knowing that if the postie gets caught by

A) the police for not having proper insurance, it’d be the posties fault; or

B) senior management or the press, they can pretend it wasn’t a national strategy but instead just some rogue local manager/postie and it shouldn’t happen due to mail integrity.

It’s your typical RM stuff really.

norris9 · Post by **norris9** » 25 Mar 2020, 06:42

Too be honest, on the face of it, what do you do if you already have a lot of Posties off work, you can only put one postie in a van at a time........also there are plenty of Posties that don't even drive so that would have been an extra ball ache to manage. What do you do with the ones you have decided can't have a van as there aren't enough to go round....

-Do you tell them to walk to an area of the town or city which could take 30+ minutes to get to and keep dropping bags out to them? maybe if they cycle to work then a bike could be useful.

-Do you tell them to stay home and not even come in to sort if they live local and drop bags out to them?

-Do you just get them to do work in the depot all day, sorting, and request that some postie drivers deliver post in the morning and other postie drivers start work later and deliver post in the afternoon?

-I guess the simple answer should be, hire a lot more vans, the posties that can't drive will need to be designated a round near the depot or if there are no rounds for them close to the depot, keep them in the depot to sort etc.

blobneb · Post by **blobneb** » 25 Mar 2020, 06:47

norris9 wrote:

-Do you just get them to do work in the depot all day, sorting, and request that some postie drivers deliver post in the morning and other postie drivers start work later and deliver post in the afternoon?

Right now, this is the only answer I can think of being feasible. We should have been contacting businesses the moment we got essential worker status to let them ease off on non essential mail and reduce our volumes so we can continue delivering essentials uninterrupted.

norris9 · Post by **norris9** » 25 Mar 2020, 07:00

blobneb wrote:
norris9 wrote:

-Do you just get them to do work in the depot all day, sorting, and request that some postie drivers deliver post in the morning and other postie drivers start work later and deliver post in the afternoon?

Right now, this is the only answer I can think of being feasible. We should have been contacting businesses the moment we got essential worker status to let them ease off on non essential mail and reduce our volumes so we can continue delivering essentials uninterrupted.

Yeah it's just whether you can get posties to agree working the afternoon instead. I assume many would not want to, but maybe you'd have to incentivise afternoon working in some way, (if that is allowed). Maybe afternoon workers don't have to come in to sort and just come in to pick up their round meaning they work 1-2 hours less. Those that don't drive can sort the mail.

blobneb · Post by **blobneb** » 25 Mar 2020, 07:05

norris9 wrote:
blobneb wrote:
norris9 wrote:

-Do you just get them to do work in the depot all day, sorting, and request that some postie drivers deliver post in the morning and other postie drivers start work later and deliver post in the afternoon?

Right now, this is the only answer I can think of being feasible. We should have been contacting businesses the moment we got essential worker status to let them ease off on non essential mail and reduce our volumes so we can continue delivering essentials uninterrupted.
Yeah it's just whether you can get posties to agree working the afternoon instead. I assume many would not want to, but maybe you'd have to incentivise afternoon working in some way, (if that is allowed). Maybe afternoon workers don't have to come in to sort and just come in to pick up their round meaning they work 1-2 hours less. Those that don't drive can sort the mail.

If it's a choice between that or sorting in a cloud of Covid 19 every morning then I'd jump at it but I get what you're saying, not everyone is like me. I don't have children either so morning slots should be for those with kids at school. Although from the sounds of it we should have as few kids as possible at school anyway, they don't want us using spaces for non essential jobs.

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 25 Mar 2020, 07:13

Problem with RM and a lot of companies right now is they are trying to carry on “business as usual”; or chasing profit rather than restricting themselves to only essential work.

iHateD2Ds · Post by **iHateD2Ds** » 25 Mar 2020, 07:18

Yesterday I was told ,if I do not want to van share (leaving the decision upto me) only take one walk ,then next day, take the other.
Oh ,but can I clear all tracked items on both walks?

So , I am penalised for looking after my welfare by having double mail to take out today!
Needless to say,lots of people carried on van sharing.
F*** that, I’m working to time ,on my own!

blobneb · Post by **blobneb** » 25 Mar 2020, 07:42

Van sharing is not a matter of choice. Tell people that they are knowing flouting precautions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It's selfishness of the highest order.

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 25 Mar 2020, 08:13

blobneb wrote:Van sharing is not a matter of choice. Tell people that they are knowing flouting precautions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It's selfishness of the highest order.

I prefer to call them killers.

LaggyBand · Post by **LaggyBand** » 25 Mar 2020, 08:15

iHateD2Ds wrote:Yesterday I was told ,if I do not want to van share (leaving the decision upto me) only take one walk ,then next day, take the other.
Oh ,but can I clear all tracked items on both walks?

So , I am penalised for looking after my welfare by having double mail to take out today!
Needless to say,lots of people carried on van sharing.
F*** that, I’m working to time ,on my own!

Taking double post is not being penalised. Like you said work to time.

Actually it’s an easier day as it’s less walking.