Economy mail

[Manboat]

Think today’s the day ofcom can say if they agree with Royal Mails new economy mail product that they want to bring in in January. Junk Mail (not dsa mail, not sure what the difference is) can be held pretty much all week till more important/priority/1st class mail is available for an address. They’ll be able to make walks bigger due to this process, which surely means less staff needed more importantly, says mail will be held in the mail centre also. Frames will look empty all week till back end of the week when all the junk mails sent to the office. What’s peoples take on it.

[SpacePhoenix]

says mail will be held in the mail centre also.

Whoever said that can dream on, we won't have the room to hold it. It'll just get sent on to the DOs who will have to deal with the holding of it

[Manboat]

Was in there somewhere seen it yesterday, either way it’s got to impact on delivery duties and jobs

[Zicomurphy]

Sounds like a right pain in the backside. Let’s say you got 700 calls on your duty. Now you just have to pull out all mail for all addresses and band up the bundle. Under this system you would have to look at the mail for the first call, check if it has to be delivered that day and either place it back in the frame or hold it in your hand to bundle up. And then repeat 700 times. I can see a large percentage of any time saved on delivery being absorbed by longer prep time.

[Manboat]

The introduction of this new service is made possible by the implementation of a Delivery to Specification programme (DTS). This programme allows for the sequencing and holding of any letters at the IMC until potentially the last day they can be delivered. This increases the number of items being delivered per address while reducing the number of times we need to visit an individual address. The DTS programme requires IT investment. The investment has and will continue to go ahead regardless of whether the Economy Access service is mandated or not. However, if the service is not mandated then it will result in a lower take up of the service and any efficiency gains will be reduced.

Here is a paragraph from the Royal Mail letter to ofcom.

[sorefeet17]

Anyone living at awkward/time consuming address should be worried, can see their good mail being hidden within the crap.

[Zicomurphy]

The introduction of this new service is made possible by the implementation of a Delivery to Specification programme (DTS). This programme allows for the sequencing and holding of any letters at the IMC until potentially the last day they can be delivered. This increases the number of items being delivered per address while reducing the number of times we need to visit an individual address. The DTS programme requires IT investment. The investment has and will continue to go ahead regardless of whether the Economy Access service is mandated or not. However, if the service is not mandated then it will result in a lower take up of the service and any efficiency gains will be reduced.

Here is a paragraph from the Royal Mail letter to ofcom.

Ah ok. So any mail not to be delivered will be held at the Mail centre (I am assuming IMC means inward Mail centre) so all mail arriving at the delivery office will be for delivery that day. That would make more sense.

[glenfiddich]

sounds like you run it through the sequencing machine and if there's another letter for that address it pops it in if not it gets rejected to be run through the next day and so on

[SpacePhoenix]

The introduction of this new service is made possible by the implementation of a Delivery to Specification programme (DTS). This programme allows for the sequencing and holding of any letters at the IMC until potentially the last day they can be delivered. This increases the number of items being delivered per address while reducing the number of times we need to visit an individual address. The DTS programme requires IT investment. The investment has and will continue to go ahead regardless of whether the Economy Access service is mandated or not. However, if the service is not mandated then it will result in a lower take up of the service and any efficiency gains will be reduced.

Here is a paragraph from the Royal Mail letter to ofcom.

We don't have the room to be able to hold it. It'll be sequenced on the day it comes in and sent out to the DOs

[Manboat]

Our delivery frames will look pretty empty each day, hope the parcels keep coming to keep us in work

[Manboat]

Certainly sounds like that’s what their saying but probably better for us in delivery if it comes to us and sits in the frame, at least we’ll look like we’ve got mail to deliver

[SpacePhoenix]

Certainly sounds like that’s what their saying but probably better for us in delivery if it comes to us and sits in the frame, at least we’ll look like we’ve got mail to deliver

What we can probably be reasonably certain is that it's only going to be put through the sequencing once so you're going to have to go through your sequenced mail boxes every day anyway

[Alexei]

Sounds akin to the old process of leaving mailsort on a Saturday. Would certainly help with the absorption of oversized packets into duty time.

[Manboat]

Thing is if they were just gonna send it to the delivery offices as they do now then nothings changed but they are saying investing in new systems, it would be pointless investing in anything if it’s not gonna alter anything

[Alexei]

I can see a future where this is implemented with packet scanning technology in mail centres, along with sorting machines for first and second class to determine if we will go to a specific door that day. For example, No first or second class, but a packet for #10 Smith Drive = economy mail will go with the packet to the house. First or second class letter, but no packet = economy mail will go with normal letters.

Admitted I've not read anything in the agreement regarding this so am just conjecturing up an idea of how it could be implemented, and if I'm being honest I think it's a great idea. It's a complete waste of resource numerous posties walking up the same path. In my office we already have a system similar to this where we will often only take household for the doors we are already going to with addressed mail.