Anyone here worked a sunday on parcels?

[postiewhite]

Just asking as my other half has been rotared in for sunday delivery 12-5


If she is given loads of parcels then can she still work to time or will be expected to deliver the lot? shes not sure what type of stuff she will be delivering.
Was suggesting to her maybe small covid kits?

[yellowbelly]

Technically she can't that length of break at the end of the duty but what happens in the real world is another matter.

One of my colleagues did Sunday parcels and some of it was Covid kits but there was also other tracked stuff like flower boxes
but it was over a much wider area than she anticipated and because there were not enough volunteers she suspects
that more was dumped on each person who had volunteered!

[postiewhite]

Yeah I get that but the 30 min break still applies at some point in the day. I suppose she could sit in the van half way through the round and take it there then or have 10 mins in the van and 20 at the end then?!
She is concerned that if she is given too much on her route (given shes a brand new employee so bound to be a lot slower at first) then does she take stuff back even though they may be tracked if she simply runs out of time? The office is locked up at 5pm when she will finish the sunday parcels

[2yearpostie]

Unfortunately new starters have this written into the contract, At 4pm if she things she wont finish call the manager (dont matter if they dont answer you just need proof you called if they have an answer machine at the office leave a message) make sure she gets back before lockup and tells whoever is locking up that there are x amount of parcels left, shes covered herself then.

[TopperGas]

So how did it go for your partner, I'm guessing far too many parcels for her 5 hour shift with loads of Amazon parcels on new estates RON couldn't find? Compared to the usual Monday to Saturday service the Sunday service seems totally disorganised in my limited experience.

[Racingpostie]

Posted this on another thread but relevant so repost here.

So first Sunday shift today, good start told to report in at 11am and nobody was about until someone opened up the returns office. Pottered about loading up the yolks in the yard until 12. So folk arrive and lorry rocks up around 12.15, start to sort it into rough postcodes in the depo then are told another 6 yolks are on the way and nobody can start scanning until then as didn't want anybody going out and back again etc.

Other yolks finally arrive circa 1.15pm, start scanning items for the PDA's to optimize my route but already having problems as anything built within the last couple of years these PDA's don't think exist! so manually entering addresses wastes more time. Finally on the road at 1.45pm(a good hour behind schedule imo) follow the trusty PDA..... what a shower of shitte these are on these optimized routes, send you miles away from my postcode area and scrolling through the list it would of had me back and forth between villages.

So hop in the back of the van and put parcels into bundles of their respective areas, then spend 15 mins google mapping on my phone to make sure I can deliver several near each other as opposed to going end to end every other parcel like the PDA would have me doing. Followed the phone and got done at 6pm(would of been 5pm if out on time)

Absolutely baffles me that a huge organisation has tech that is not updated every quarter/half a year or even annually ffs, luckily I knew a couple of the villages well so could do half the drops no sweat but Christ god help anyone who is doing new build areas in unfamiliar territories.

I don't even mind a Sunday shift but it wasn't efficient and it got me wondering have they even asked staff are they prepared to work on a Sunday for this service or are they just rolling it assuming it will work? I ask this as we had 6 drivers today and 1 was agency and two from different depos so clearly its the former imo.

Roll on next Sunday

[SpacePhoenix]

start scanning items for the PDA's to optimize my route but already having problems as anything built within the last couple of years these PDA's don't think exist! so manually entering addresses wastes more time.

When was your DOs A+ last updated? The PDAs are probably going on what's on A+

[Racingpostie]

start scanning items for the PDA's to optimize my route but already having problems as anything built within the last couple of years these PDA's don't think exist! so manually entering addresses wastes more time.

When was your DOs A+ last updated? The PDAs are probably going on what's on A+

Pass, been here two weeks and I'm all on finding out what's going off with myself let alone what the companies devices are operating on

[SpacePhoenix]

start scanning items for the PDA's to optimize my route but already having problems as anything built within the last couple of years these PDA's don't think exist! so manually entering addresses wastes more time.

When was your DOs A+ last updated? The PDAs are probably going on what's on A+

Pass, been here two weeks and I'm all on finding out what's going off with myself let alone what the companies devices are operating on

A+ (think It's been renamed recently) is basically a massive database of every single last delivery point in the UK. When machine sort plans are written they go on the data stored in A+. For example if a walk gets say 100 new DPs added to it and the A+ (and therefore the machine sort plan) haven't had them added then there's two possible outcomes:

1) The machine has enough info to work out what walk it's for. This option is more probable when the new build is partway through a walk (it might get sorted to the walk sort section (mail between the yellow and blue cards on a CSS.)
2) The machine sorts the mail for the new build to the manual option (not enough info for it to know what batch to sort to).

Sometimes the iLSMs and IMPs have enough info available to sort items for new builds to a batch but possibly not enough info for a CSS which will then send them to stacker 20 (combined overflow/rejects selection).

It's possible that your A+ has been updated but whatever needs updating on the PDAs to add them hasn't been updated

[ArtG]

I work most Sundays. It makes a nice change from plodding around the streets on a normal duty. We never have a manager in so we have an efficient process from when the first yorks arrive at around 7:30 to getting out at 8:30 or so. Sometimes there’s a second wave which may mean going out twice but generally all done by 2, sometimes 12. The volume estimates are crap though and we’ve sometimes got double what we resourced for . No choice but to fail some in those circumstances.

[twoloops]

Double time for Sunday?

[Racingpostie]

I work most Sundays. It makes a nice change from plodding around the streets on a normal duty. We never have a manager in so we have an efficient process from when the first yorks arrive at around 7:30 to getting out at 8:30 or so. Sometimes there’s a second wave which may mean going out twice but generally all done by 2, sometimes 12. The volume estimates are crap though and we’ve sometimes got double what we resourced for . No choice but to fail some in those circumstances.

We don't get our delivery until 11.30 at the earliest, usual shift is 12-5pm. I keep asking for early starts but am told the lorry can't get here earlier. I don't mind the Sunday but really would appreciate a shift pattern like you've mentioned so we have the rest of the afternoon and not just an evening.

Regarding the volume estimates, I got told companies declare expected volumes then RM just split it by total Areas for an average rather than expected parcels for each area etc. We often get told to expect 850/900 items and it turns out its 6/750 etc

[ArtG]

I’d be less keen on doing it if we started as late as that. Apart from all the other advantages of starting earlier, I like to see the play of emotions on the customer’s face when they’re annoyed at being woken up on a Sunday but can’t say anything because you’ve brought the crap they ordered

[Db2012]

I work most Sundays. It makes a nice change from plodding around the streets on a normal duty. We never have a manager in so we have an efficient process from when the first yorks arrive at around 7:30 to getting out at 8:30 or so. Sometimes there’s a second wave which may mean going out twice but generally all done by 2, sometimes 12. The volume estimates are crap though and we’ve sometimes got double what we resourced for . No choice but to fail some in those circumstances.

How’s it work if your contracted hrs are 9-3 but then they expect you to work from 12 on a Sunday

[Blaine]

If you are contracted for Sunday make sure you receive the Sunday allowance of £5.83 per hour. It can be backdated as well. So many people I hear just getting the basic rate and line managers aren't even aware of it.