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Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

A forum for our Mail Centre, Processing and Distribution colleagues.
terry2972
Posts: 482
Joined: 17 Jan 2014, 15:26
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by terry2972 »

I am working at a parcel centre and we haven’t cleared last weeks tracked/2nd class parcels and it will start arriving for this week shortly anyone actually cleared?
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 12098
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by SpacePhoenix »

terry2972 wrote:
06 Dec 2020, 15:55
I am working at a parcel centre and we haven’t cleared last weeks tracked/2nd class parcels and it will start arriving for this week shortly anyone actually cleared?
We've mostly cleared the last couple of nights but I believe it's only been quieter due to there being a s**tload of stuff caught up in backlogs in the pipeline
paulus103
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 216
Joined: 19 Jan 2018, 01:55
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by paulus103 »

The lack of yorks is getting absolutely amazing
Stuff on pallets all over the place :)

Processed and unprocessed being stored anywhere.

We are clearing 1st class but not second and nights keep failing.

Today to be fair the volume for nights has dropped a bit packet wise - same with the 2c
BUT
the numbers of 2c and inward H&L is going through the roof. We are diverting H&L like no tomorrow - our nearest psc has said no more :)

The network is on its knees - we are struggling with lorries, yorks and sleeves. The amount of collapsed pallets/cardboard is huge.
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 12098
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by SpacePhoenix »

We're also running out of usable boxes. The only place where there's the room to store them is out in the yard so when it pisses down with rain, hey get soaked. I don't think it'll be too long before the entire network seizes up
Grumpyoldmailman
Posts: 810
Joined: 24 Nov 2019, 22:29
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by Grumpyoldmailman »

For all you Mail Centre guys/girls. Have the management in the centres got a plan of how they are going to get out of this mess and start clearing out? The Dom here said a couple of day back that there is a million items (parcels I guess) backed up in the system and it’s getting added to daily, does that sound right?
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 12098
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by SpacePhoenix »

Grumpyoldmailman wrote:
12 Dec 2020, 21:22
For all you Mail Centre guys/girls. Have the management in the centres got a plan of how they are going to get out of this mess and start clearing out? The Dom here said a couple of day back that there is a million items (parcels I guess) backed up in the system and it’s getting added to daily, does that sound right?
We could start sending the parcels and Tracked to DOs on pallets, to free up yorks for other mail but that's the only thing we can do different, don't know about the other shifts but I believe we're running at just about full capacity. Normally we'd have double the amount of letter frames which we can't do this year because of covid. We also can't have any extra packet roads/crashes (as needed) this year, again because of covid.

Apart from when SDs get sent to us in sleeves or packets in sleeves (not unusual for packet sleeves/yorks to have Tracked mixed in and Tracked sleeves/yorks to have packets mixed in), everything is mixed together on the inbound yorks. There's also not the capacity to sequence all the mech mail that comes in on a given day (just be glad that they've not yet told us to send any left-overs to DOs as manual - think that'll happen before Xmas day)
Lockardian
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 419
Joined: 29 Oct 2015, 06:19
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by Lockardian »

Yes, our MC is prioritising packets, mainly because of space. Most inward flats and some manual letters are getting processed the following morning. We are seriously short of space, even with a temporary outhouse, and the pallets make it worse. It also takes time to unload the pallets into Yorks for processing.
Grumpyoldmailman
Posts: 810
Joined: 24 Nov 2019, 22:29
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by Grumpyoldmailman »

How are the mail centres looking now chaps are things starting to look abit clearer or are we going to have a crap Xmas eve on delivery with a final push?
midegarelu
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 414
Joined: 12 Sep 2009, 07:09
Gender: Male
Location: somewhere over the rainbow

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by midegarelu »

Sorry mate - you're going to get rammed.

Happy Christmas!

:roll: :roll: :roll:
"We employ you so we can sack you"
Lockardian
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 419
Joined: 29 Oct 2015, 06:19
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by Lockardian »

I worked last night (23rd) and it was dead, particularly after 4am. Artics were arriving with less than 20 Yorks on them. A few days ago we were failing 50-100 Yorks of Tracked and letters/flats a night. Angard went home about 4am and everyone else was away well over half an hour early.
websnail
Posts: 4
Joined: 08 Apr 2014, 11:48
Gender: Male

Re: Are mail centers prioritising parcels?

Post by websnail »

Just on the back of this I was wondering if anyone could spare the time to explain what's been happening with RM24 and RM48 large letter and letters and general non-tracked RM24/48 packets being despatched from the Barnsley/Sheffield postcode area (S74).

We've found a massive amount of delays in outgoing post sent on account, particularly large letters, but somehow everything incoming has had hardly any delays. All of which has made it incredibly difficult to explain to recipients when they've been getting packages from other areas within days while stuff from this area has taken 2-3 weeks.

Appreciate you're all beyond busy but was hoping someone could provide some insight into how/why things have been going sideways for our own reference. Thanks in advance...