ADVICE FOR NEW POSTIES

[neil2k]

Don't sweat it. Just go in and see how it goes and if it ends up more than you're willing to do, have a yarn with a manager. They employ us all on smaller contracts now then EXPECT us to work full time plus. Great job, pathetic company

Thanks mate I’ll see what the morning brings.

[Racingpostie]

First week as a postmen this week.
I'll start by saying this is a job I want and am grateful for getting, rough day to day of my working week and experiences and what i thought might/should happen.

Started with an online induction at home on the Monday(21st) which after completing my first week offered very little in what to actually expect in the job, why they don't incorporate the basics of how a frame looks like/how they operate and the basics of loading in sequence would save time for a start as well as what to wear as despite stating you can order uniform once assigned a pay number it becomes clear you can't until actually starting the job.

Tuesday- First day on the job, turned up with two other new starters who were already unhappy with the possibility of working Sundays(all new starters should expect this unless clearly stated otherwise),clearly understaffed as two of us got put with the same person. The person we got put with was very friendly in fairness and we spent 10 mins in the frame but no real time to take it in as they have a job to do. Off we set in our own cars as there is a chronic shortage of vehicles at present due to Covid etc, had no clue of the round ahead(no map or rough instructions as to where we would be going). The first couple of loops we shadowed and posted the odd bit with a very brief intro to the PDA, then we both got given a bag to do a couple of streets each. A steady first day in truth but minimal contact with managers as I would of expected on a first day and no real training more like a kid on work experience for a few hours.

Wed- One of the new starters had quit already I was informed due to Sunday shifts being a regular occurrence.
Different person assigned to me and different route, again really nice person and he had prepped everything off the frame so I literally grabbed a bag out the van in sequence and off I went, provisional overtime was booked in as he thought we would go over but to his surprise we had to take a 20 min break by 11am just to finish at the usual time. Good day, physically fine and nice to feel like we had completed a round inside the usual allotted time etc.

Thursday- Day off

Friday- Where to start... Got to the office to be informed person who I was going to be assigned with was busy with various duties so I am out on my own today, wasn't what I wanted to hear but I was happy to give it a go. Go to a frame on another different route and told it's only a cover route so 4 loops shouldn't be difficult etc. Started to load the mail in sequence into trays(at this point have not been given any bags) then told I am taking the parcels too(sounds obvious but literally told bundle the mail), I had not placed cards in between mail(like many posties do) or written down where they would fall as I was eager to get out and felt pressured as 90% of the office was already out delivering.
Next query how am I getting these trays of mail/parcels to my starting point as I am not allowed to carry them in my car, eventually a manager assigns somebody back to the office to pick it up and drop it off with a trolley for me. Get to the agreed drop off and was basically right chuck these in two bags(he got two new ones so i am grateful for that) and hang them either side of a light trolley, I had not numbered anything so wasn't sure which bundles where first and parcels were crammed in to the limit, ended up dead walking for a good 20-25% of the working day. Numerous parcels I was back and forth too as had not made a clear note/plan. All round a piss poor day that resulted in me delivering everything bar one small bundle of post and felt I had been chucked in the deep end a bit and wasn't efficient for the company or me.

Saturday- Got a text late Friday evening to say we start early on a Sat otherwise I would of been 35 mins late to start, new route, but gratefully assigned to(another new) person. Again a lovely colleague who was happy to show me the basics on a frame and sorted the bags in order and was happy to answer my questions. 7 bags each and numerous parcels this was bigger than any round of the week and clocked up 21,000 steps completing it, we went over by 20 mins but I honestly don't mind as in other days you will gain etc.

Arrived back at the Depo and found out there is a rota on the wall that tells you where/what route you will be doing the following week, as a new starter you basically cover others days off so I am on a different route every day. Now many will laugh at what I did next but I jotted the route numbers and for my next working day I scribbled down a note of the loops on the starts of the streets in each off the frame as everyone had buggered off by this point on a Saturday. Somebody clocked me doing this and clearly found this amusing(not that it bothered me), but the thought of just being assigned routes potentially on my own and not having loaded off a frame myself in any sort of competence yet I wanted to know where and how the route would go for efficiency etc.

Overall I feel it's a job I will enjoy and it's only the learning of routes that will be problematic in the early days naturally, I've been lucky that most folk are very friendly but can't help but feel nobody has enough time to properly induct you and teach you the basics in the first week or so. I don't know what the usual timeframe is for new starters to be expected to just craic on but I did expect more of a thorough shadowing of all aspects from loading to posting and more information of actual routes. The Sunday shifts don't bother me but I know they will provide me with a vehicle for this as it is parcel only yet I can already envisage for weeks/months I will be in my vehicle through the week and getting dropped off with trollies etc.

[neil2k]

I started on the 21st as well.
First week was a total s**t show, no communication from management, no training, no locker, no id, no logon for the pda etc etc and got stuck on the most difficult round with someone who wasn't a trainer and didn't want to be. Next week I'm working 6 days and every day is different. I'm on a 20hour contract and my hours next week will be at least 40.
Took part time for a reason yet they could not give one solitary f**k about this. Despite all this delivering Saturday solo gave me an insight into what a great job it could be.

I'll persevere for now but for the love of God I hope it improves.

[HTPostman]

Snip

Welcome to Royal Mail. First of all ignore any colleagues who laugh at you, I’m one of the most experienced here but still get laughed at over some of my techniques, I don’t care, it makes the job work better for me.

It still amazes me how the induction is so useless and bears no resemblance to a typical day on delivery. That and why they have new starters doing new rounds every single day. Even rotating you between 3 or 4 rounds would be better as you’d get a feel for each round and develop your confidence. Instead you’ll constantly get moved around. Within a week of me starting I’d been on 3 round, within a month something like 15 and within a year about 30! The only good side to all that is you don’t get bored trudging the same street day after day.

I’d absolutely urge you to rethink using your car. I know you’re in your probation period and don’t want to rock the boat but just come up with a white lie, say your partner needs the car for work from now on Trust me on this, use your car and you’ll be pushed around and taken for granted, probably even sent to other depots. That might happen anyway but at least then they will have to provide you with a van. And by the way I speak as someone who used to use my own car.

Also if you do finish 20 minutes over don’t forget to book. Don’t go down the route of working for free.

[HTPostman]

I started on the 21st as well.
First week was a total s**t show, no communication from management, no training, no locker, no id, no logon for the pda etc etc and got stuck on the most difficult round with someone who wasn't a trainer and didn't want to be. Next week I'm working 6 days and every day is different. I'm on a 20hour contract and my hours next week will be at least 40.
Took part time for a reason yet they could not give one solitary f**k about this. Despite all this delivering Saturday solo gave me an insight into what a great job it could be.

I'll persevere for now but for the love of God I hope it improves.

I hope it improves for you too, sadly I don’t think much will change - you’ll eventually get sorted with login, ID etc but you’ll come to realise everything at Royal Mail is done day to day. There’s zero forward planning. They could leave you on a round for a few weeks as you find your way round, which to me is a long term gain, but instead they panic as soon as someone goes off sick and then you’re put in their place without a clue - it just becomes a short term sticking plaster.

Are you working 6 days through choice - have they asked you to work your day off? The contracts are a disgrace, they put you on such a small contract but when you read the T+Cs it says you’re expected to do OT.

If you really don’t want to do the extra hours, again like I said to the other guy above you, you’ll have to tell a white lie. Saying you only want to work your hours because that’s what they employed you on only puts a target on your back. Saying you can only work your hours because you need to pick a kid up from school or care for an elderly relative and they should back off.

It shouldn’t be like this but it is. Like you say though once you’re out there and you’ve learned the route a bit it is a good job.

[neil2k]

Passed my driver training today, out on LAT's tomorrow supposedly from 14:00-19:00. Had no training whatsoever so should be an interesting way to spend an afternoon.

[neil2k]

Well predictably the LAT run went badly.
Nice lad showed me how to create a route on the PDA and helped me load it into trays, gave me the keys to a huge hired transit van (so over the top big!) and sent me on my way. Left at 14:30 and route time was calculated at 5 hours so I knew there was no way I'd be back by 7 (don't worry I'll leave the gate open he said).
First drop on a fast 60 mile an hour road PDA takes me to a spot where there were no houses whatsoever. Spent a good twenty minutes driving up and down, knocked on doors asking people until I finally gave up. Getting flustered at this point not the start I wanted.
Couldn't get the PDA to go to the next stop (no-one had showed me this) so resorted to my phone until I figured it out much later on.
Had numerous stops where the PDA took me to the wrong place all afternoon or stopped working altogether and the van being so huge was a nightmare to manoeuvre in some places. All in all managed to deliver 17 drops out of 27 and didn't get back to the depot until 8pm so just locked up the van and posted the keys.
Now have a day off today and feeling really demoralised.
I found it really hard, numbered houses were fine as google took me there eventually but house names were a struggle as when your on a fast road you just can't safely look for them.
I don't know how Amazon delivery drivers etc manage I really don't.

[yellowbelly]

I don't know how Amazon delivery drivers etc manage I really don't.

Not all of them do.....number of times I get asked on a rural 'Where's Greendale Farm mate?' or such like.
When I was expecting an Amazon parcel I actually tracked the driver online going round our estate 4 times
to different houses - no efficient plan at all.

Also what you experienced was pretty normal considering you don't know where you were supposed to be going,
try not to worry too much about it, if you're not trained on a route or locations they can't expect you to know
where to go.

[neil2k]

Down for 6 full days again next week for the second week in a row. On a 20 hour contract.
Another new round today which I will be throwing out and delivering tomorrow solo. Nice.

[Grumpyoldmailman]

Had numerous stops where the PDA took me to the wrong place all afternoon or stopped working altogether

Royal Mails mapping software is absolutely garbage,forget trying to use it for anything built in the last couple of years.

A tip for next time u get parcels, ask for a 2nd PDA. Sign in as you on the one your going to scan the parcels as delivered. The 2nd one use for planning your route, u will need another persons log in to do this though, make sure you write these login details down for when the pda inevitably kicks you out. Also make sure the van you are using has a pda cradle (red fleet only).

[neil2k]

Had numerous stops where the PDA took me to the wrong place all afternoon or stopped working altogether

Royal Mails mapping software is absolutely garbage,forget trying to use it for anything built in the last couple of years.

A tip for next time u get parcels, ask for a 2nd PDA. Sign in as you on the one your going to scan the parcels as delivered. The 2nd one use for planning your route, u will need another persons log in to do this though, make sure you write these login details down for when the pda inevitably kicks you out. Also make sure the van you are using has a pda cradle (red fleet only).

Thanks for the tip. I still don't have a log in for the PDA as yet and they seem to always be sending us out in huge Movano type Thrifty hire vans which are a nightmare to park/manoeuvre and have no cradle. I'll ask for a RM van on Sunday for my LAT round and see what they say. I seem to have more joy using google maps (this obviously fails when you have a house name and no number most of the time).

[Racingpostie]

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

[TopperGas]

You sense it's being rolled out on the basis it will work! Although it seems totally disorganised compared to the usual Monday to Saturday service, almost like they don't care what the quality of the service supplied, even though the customers are paying a premium for Sunday deliveries.

As far as RON is concerned I'm surprised you are suggesting it didn't supply the correct route as usually I have no issues, although with an route planner it's always going to send you the quickest route rather than what looks the shortest. News builds are no better on Google maps although given the sizeof RM you wonder why they don't produce their own mapping app to include new builds and house names given there are apps out there already which do just that.

[neil2k]

Arrived at 10:15 for my LAT round today. Lorry arrived at 11:30...
Sorted the route, 33 drops at 4 hours 15 mins took me until 5pm which wasn't bad I guess but only because I knew the area well. 115 miles driven.
I like the LAT round but only in an area I know otherwise it's a lottery with the PDA.

[Racingpostie]

You sense it's being rolled out on the basis it will work! Although it seems totally disorganised compared to the usual Monday to Saturday service, almost like they don't care what the quality of the service supplied, even though the customers are paying a premium for Sunday deliveries.

As far as RON is concerned I'm surprised you are suggesting it didn't supply the correct route as usually I have no issues, although with an route planner it's always going to send you the quickest route rather than what looks the shortest. News builds are no better on Google maps although given the sizeof RM you wonder why they don't produce their own mapping app to include new builds and house names given there are apps out there already which do just that.

Somebody on another thread has mentioned the PDA's potentially could be running on an old system. The ones we have in my depo clearly are and even scanning for routine addresses it throws the street addresses and numbers of houses in the wrong boxes so again manual adjustment needed. I strongly disagree about google maps, it's far more to date than the PDA's. Long story short I've downloaded an app that does what the PDA should do so will see how that goes this Sunday.