RMCtv : Zareena 'Dolly Parton is my hero' Brown : Annualised hrs and child care

[TopperGas]

The introduction of auto redelivery absolutely destroys any ability to bank hours in summer to use in winter. Add say 10-15% of previous days parcels on to your existing workload and see how much time you can make!

As Tel said earlier this evening, the senior management at RM don't have a clue how they are going to introduce the changes they are proposing.

[BigSacks]

As more and more stuff gets sorted by machines then RM will know more and more of what DPs are getting what items.

You're missing the point.
Even in that scenario...
You won't know that until you run the machines.
You can't resource an office at 3am for that day.
Are you going to text people at 4am and tell them not to bother coming in?

No different to how it is for casuals

RM would just use some sort of variant of the DTS software. The DTS software has processed the data from the iLSMs, IMPs and T2K machines on what DPs have got mail by about midnight

You’re absolutely clueless mate.
You always make some attempt at clairvoyance/know it all bollocks about what’s going to happen in DO’s based upon your experience doing a central heated shift in a MC.

Last week you were saying when parcels were taken away you could resource a DO with 6 people doing all the walks

Tell you what, when you and your mates up in the hub can get their s**t together and send stuff to a DO that isn’t

-in a tray upside down
-in a tray mixed together like an Alsatians dinner
-in a tray without a label
-in a tray with the wrong label
-in a tray with the right label but to the wrong DO
-in tied bags
-in tied bags so tight you can’t get a pair of scissors in them
-in the wrong parcel york
-in the right parcel york but without proper H&S inserts

Then you can tell us what’s going to happen in a DO and how long it’s going to take.

[SpacePhoenix]

If we're all on zero hours contracts you wouldn't bother with all the hassle of building dynamic walks because you would only pay the employees for the hours they worked.

Doesn't matter how many staff you have in then or how long a duty takes in that scenario does it?

You're deluded if you think that RM will never look at dynamic walk generation. Sooner or later it will happen, any extra staff on a given day they'd send over to another office for the day that could do with the extra staff. The system would work out how many walks are needed on a given day. The DTS system is going to be extended to packets, it's not too much of a leap for them to expand on the scope of the system

-in a tray upside down

Once any letters have been through an IMP or iLSM upside down, they have to stay upside down. If they were put the right way up, an IMP or iLSM would be able to find the orange barcode ok but a CSS always expects the orange barcodes to be in the same corner and it'll reject ant letters were it isn't

-in a tray mixed together like an Alsatians dinner

It's probably a wave 2 batch, the walk sorting of wave 2 (no MCs walk sequence any of wave 2 anymore, it's the national workplan) is started before the iLSMs/IMPs have finished running the inward sort plan so if the batch covering your walk is an early one, it's quite possible to get a couple of trays of what's effectively manual. If you want it all walk sorted then we can push our final dispatch time back

-in a tray without a label

If it's one f then really new design trays, the labels just fall out of them so easily, the lugs at the bottom for holding the label in need to be a little bigger and run across the full width of the holder. Some trays the molding of the label holder is crap, we don't have time to be messing around trying to get a label into the label holder if the molding is crap. if it's flats on the final dispatch, we don't put labels in them at the end to save time

-in a tray with the wrong label

That's most likely to be a manual letters or a flats tray, probably a casual put a wrong label on the tray

-in a tray with the right label but to the wrong DO

That's probably happend at the end of the shift in the rush to get it all boxed up and out the door

-in tied bags

Apart from a few of the smaller oofices SDs we don't use bags

-in tied bags so tight you can’t get a pair of scissors in them

The ties for SD bags don't need scissors, they pull open using the tab on the tie

-in the wrong parcel york

You're going to get the odd parcel miss the correct sleeve, when the light ones go off course or fall short. If it's a direct york or sleeve from from the new hub or where it's been sorted by a machine then there's not much we can do

-in the right parcel york but without proper H&S inserts

If there's any item in a sleeve, then the inserts can't be used as the limit for them is 2Kg, we don't have the time to keep weighing items so we'll assume that there's at least item weighing over 2Kg and we never get any inserts through anyway. I believe the inserts can't be used with any PSM so as more MCs get PSMs in, there'll be even less sleeves with the inserts. The newest design of sleeve is designed to go all the way down

[Woody Guthrie]

You're deluded if you think that RM will never look at dynamic walk generation.

But.
Again.
Why?
And.
How?
And
Who's gonna do it?

It's alright saying you have a gut feeling but you have to do the working out SP.

It would have to be so last minute that you would have no time to react, no time to change resourcing levels, no time to communicate the change to staff, no time to manage your own sick absence levels never mind scope surrounding offices for potential places to put excess staff.

Who would deal with all that?
It would need a manager starting at 3am.
It would be a s**t show cluster f**k every single day, especially today where the electoral roll letters for every door seem to have made it through the entire distribution and processing network without anyone noticing.

And that brings me to the most important point, why would they go through all that?
What's this hidden treasure of savings you think is unlocked by dynamic walk generation?

Surely there's an easier solution to variable workload than giving yourself the headfuck of tearing up deliveries then rebuilding and resourcing them every single day?

I don't know, something like annualised hours and flexi-time?
Just saying but I've a "gut feeling" that's the way they would rather go.

[fb1969]

I think I have a gut feeling that probably what maybe going to happen could be that perhaps possibly .......

Same old s**t stirring trolling bullshit from SP

United workforce

[SpacePhoenix]

You're deluded if you think that RM will never look at dynamic walk generation.

But.
Again.
Why?
And.
How?
And
Who's gonna do it?

It's alright saying you have a gut feeling but you have to do the working out SP.

It would have to be so last minute that you would have no time to react, no time to change resourcing levels, no time to communicate the change to staff, no time to manage your own sick absence levels never mind scope surrounding offices for potential places to put excess staff.

Who would deal with all that?
It would need a manager starting at 3am.
It would be a s**t show cluster f**k every single day, especially today where the electoral roll letters for every door seem to have made it through the entire distribution and processing network without anyone noticing.

And that brings me to the most important point, why would they go through all that?
What's this hidden treasure of savings you think is unlocked by dynamic walk generation?

Surely there's an easier solution to variable workload than giving yourself the headfuck of tearing up deliveries then rebuilding and resourcing them every single day?

I don't know, something like annualised hours and flexi-time?
Just saying but I've a "gut feeling" that's the way they would rather go.

There's nothing special about electoral role letters, they get sequenced along with the rest of the mech letters.

One way or another RM are bound to get their way with later starts, probably around 08:00. If RM do split GLS off, they're going to be looking for every last saving that can be made, no matter how small.

Staff would come in and be given a list of what they're covering for the day, any not needed would be sent to another office (they can already do that as it's in many people's contracts)

Why do you think RM are looking at getting barcodes on even more items? It gives them more and more data about what each walk is getting, there's no other reason why they're putting barcodes on more items

The communcating the change to staff is easy, text message, email or a we page.

Staffing has been done by budget for many years

[Woody Guthrie]

Staff would come in and be given a list of what they're covering for the day, any not needed would be sent to another office (they can already do that as it's in many people's contracts)

You haven't answered the question, where is the saving?

[Dexydog]

DO's are run on a wing and a prayer.
By managers who would do anything for an easy life.
So dynamic walks won't work- not only because of the above, but also the fact the computer will always be wrong because when crap is put in (unachievable workload), crap comes out the other end ( walks won't get completed as there's far too many variables on delivery for even an achievable workload on an ordinary day- no traffic, guy walking at pace, weather, speed of partner, the list goes on).
People in MC's don't have a clue about how all this affects how long a walk takes.
Sure they might try it, but as above their nirvana is annualised hours because then they won't need to.

[BigSacks]

If we're all on zero hours contracts you wouldn't bother with all the hassle of building dynamic walks because you would only pay the employees for the hours they worked.

Doesn't matter how many staff you have in then or how long a duty takes in that scenario does it?

You're deluded if you think that RM will never look at dynamic walk generation. Sooner or later it will happen, any extra staff on a given day they'd send over to another office for the day that could do with the extra staff. The system would work out how many walks are needed on a given day. The DTS system is going to be extended to packets, it's not too much of a leap for them to expand on the scope of the system

-in a tray upside down

Once any letters have been through an IMP or iLSM upside down, they have to stay upside down. If they were put the right way up, an IMP or iLSM would be able to find the orange barcode ok but a CSS always expects the orange barcodes to be in the same corner and it'll reject ant letters were it isn't

-in a tray mixed together like an Alsatians dinner

It's probably a wave 2 batch, the walk sorting of wave 2 (no MCs walk sequence any of wave 2 anymore, it's the national workplan) is started before the iLSMs/IMPs have finished running the inward sort plan so if the batch covering your walk is an early one, it's quite possible to get a couple of trays of what's effectively manual. If you want it all walk sorted then we can push our final dispatch time back

-in a tray without a label

If it's one f then really new design trays, the labels just fall out of them so easily, the lugs at the bottom for holding the label in need to be a little bigger and run across the full width of the holder. Some trays the molding of the label holder is crap, we don't have time to be messing around trying to get a label into the label holder if the molding is crap. if it's flats on the final dispatch, we don't put labels in them at the end to save time

-in a tray with the wrong label

That's most likely to be a manual letters or a flats tray, probably a casual put a wrong label on the tray

-in a tray with the right label but to the wrong DO

That's probably happend at the end of the shift in the rush to get it all boxed up and out the door

-in tied bags

Apart from a few of the smaller oofices SDs we don't use bags

-in tied bags so tight you can’t get a pair of scissors in them

The ties for SD bags don't need scissors, they pull open using the tab on the tie

-in the wrong parcel york

You're going to get the odd parcel miss the correct sleeve, when the light ones go off course or fall short. If it's a direct york or sleeve from from the new hub or where it's been sorted by a machine then there's not much we can do

-in the right parcel york but without proper H&S inserts

If there's any item in a sleeve, then the inserts can't be used as the limit for them is 2Kg, we don't have the time to keep weighing items so we'll assume that there's at least item weighing over 2Kg and we never get any inserts through anyway. I believe the inserts can't be used with any PSM so as more MCs get PSMs in, there'll be even less sleeves with the inserts. The newest design of sleeve is designed to go all the way down

Some epic stuff in there.
All split into the two categories of “It wasn’t our fault” or “We don’t have the time”

Yet you appear to think that a delivery office has infinite resource and is capable of all sorts of wonderful, magical things.

You think this same company that look to save every minute of time allow DOs unlimited scope to compensate for the daily MC arrival shitshow when you don’t have the time to put a label on a tray?

[richietns]

All it takes is for one or two people to ring in sick that day at 8.00 - 8.30 and it's a domino effect by the time staff get sent over from another office if they even do its way to late they will end up taking two bags out and coming back and that's just one example the data the company gets never tally's up with real world conditions.

[Pidleypoo]

You're deluded if you think that RM will never look at dynamic walk generation.

But.
Again.
Why?
And.
How?
And
Who's gonna do it?

It's alright saying you have a gut feeling but you have to do the working out SP.

It would have to be so last minute that you would have no time to react, no time to change resourcing levels, no time to communicate the change to staff, no time to manage your own sick absence levels never mind scope surrounding offices for potential places to put excess staff.

Who would deal with all that?
It would need a manager starting at 3am.
It would be a s**t show cluster f**k every single day, especially today where the electoral roll letters for every door seem to have made it through the entire distribution and processing network without anyone noticing.

And that brings me to the most important point, why would they go through all that?
What's this hidden treasure of savings you think is unlocked by dynamic walk generation?

Surely there's an easier solution to variable workload than giving yourself the headfuck of tearing up deliveries then rebuilding and resourcing them every single day?

I don't know, something like annualised hours and flexi-time?
Just saying but I've a "gut feeling" that's the way they would rather go.

Can you remember the bench merging/ optimisation shite ? Sounds a lot like this and when they did their studies they found that the saving they would make vs the cost to implement it was non existent.

Most of what they’ve proposed wouldn’t work and even if they tried , it would takes years to implement.

Annualised hours alone wouldn’t ever be able to begin until any given financial year and they don’t even have a system in place to collate any “banked” hours.

[SpacePhoenix]

In the end it doesn't matter what any of us think, they'll bring it in anyway

[norris9]

They'd be better off just bringing back 'job and finish' rather than have annualised hours. Just clear your job, no lapsing, once you have finished you can go home.

Benefits of job and finish to them:

-Less work for managers. No hassling to clear, no hassling to take lapsing, no worries about clearing any post left behind or brought back.

-The office is much more likely to be cleared.

-No overtime to pay. No overtime to manage.

-Posties won't drag the round out, use extra fuel to drive longer routes back to the depot to waste time.


Benefits for Posties:

-No hassle from management.

-Can go home when you are done instead of worrying about being sent out again on the shorter days.


I get there are also issues with this idea such as Posties may end up having ridiculous work loads if Royal Mail gets more work and we may end up working more hours than the pay we earn. Maybe an annual bonus should be in place to reflect that.

Also, for Part Timers they may come into empty frames.... so to stop that you'd have to either make everyone full time or make part time rounds smaller, but part times would come into empty frames.


The whole annualised hours idea will just make Posties drag out the shorter days so they don't have to work longer days in the winter.

[Fannybaws]

Mmmmm looks like OPG's will walk in to their DO and get told that the computer says they have 5 hours of delivery that day and this is how they've to do it. No if's no but's the computer said.

Starting to smell a lot like Amazon deliveries.

Which is fine but what happens after the 5 hours if you've still got, say, 10% of your round undelivered, I can't see anybody is going to complete their round in their own time.

I can see a lot of conversations with managers because "the computer said you could do it. And then there's that old chestnut of annualised hours.

Just saying it as I see it based on what has gone on with other courier companies this past decade. They've automated the cr@p out of their jobs and RM want to do the same.

Although how's a computer going to calculate what Met post, hand sorted post and Tracked and non Tracked packets and parcels is due to be delivered on each round?

Barcodes on everything which is then fed into the system once it hits an MC and out pops a delivery route at the DO's computer at the other end.

How long is anyone's guess but I think that's their endgame.

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

[Fannybaws]

dynamic walk generation.

Don't always agree with you but on this I do.

The 1-3 hour later start times at DO's would give them the time needed at MC's to get data into the system from the barcodes and then generate the walks.

Endgame, yes.

Will it work, heaven knows but you can be sure they think it will and bring big savings over the next 5-10 years.