Royal Mail Modernisation: Golf Trolleys Versus Bikes.

[drb]

I am still attempting to work out how we can ignore the packet growth. Any rep collectively bargaining for their office will firstly have to admit that the mail stream has changed. Without this their credibility is gone.

[Roy Mayall]

Yes it's really about vans, but that line about this all being to do with weight off shoulder is clearly absurd, since with a bike you don't have any weight on your shoulder.

I like you Roy,i really do but i don't know how many times we have to go over the same ground,it was about taking weight off the shoulder....for those who had it on the shoulder...75% of us.
The issue of weight on the shoulder did not relate to bikes,it never did,the fact that in some communications it was trotted out in relation to bikes owes more to Royal Mail's poor communication strategy than anything else.
The reason bikes are going is simple...packet growth and Royal Mail's solution to packet growth...shared vans.You might not agree with their solution but it's how it is so we have to move on.

That doesn't stop me having an opinion on the matter though does it? And meanwhile there were a number of other solutions to the packet problem than getting rid of the bikes in the 25% of offices that do use them. How about electric bikes for example? Or small motorbikes? Instead of that we've had to put up with this wholesale disruption to a perfectly good working method in the name of some idiotic "modernisation" programme that - mark my words - we'll ditch again in 10 years time... if the Royal Mail are still in existence that is.

[drb]

I think mail,(postal) is dying Roy. It scares me as a unit rep to see what time our delivery people are ready to go every single day. However as a union to secure a non-compulsory job agreement is good. How we build on this is another issue. The big question is do we get involved?

[cheffie]

plain and simple bike is quicker. i'll race anybody from my office to my first drop.

[Darren Bent]

I would thought bike is better.

Cheaper to buy than a van
No running cost of bike
Cheaper repairs than a van
environmentally friendly.

I am sure Royal Mail could get someone to design a better bike capable of carrying the packets
reduce dead walking.

I would like to try doing bike duty but our delivery office doesn't do it.

[Roy Mayall]

What I don't get is why, if this is about stopping people using their own vehicles, and taking weight off the shoulder, the bikes were scrapped. People using bikes never used their own vehicles, nor did they carry weight on their shoulder. Why get rid of a proven system which works and replace it with a system we are now discovering is less efficient? And if this is about polluting packet rounds, why replace two packet duties using vans, with thirty vehicles doing Park & Loop? The more I think about it the less sense it makes.

[Brandy]

Surely, this should be Vans versus Bikes.

It is the van, not the lightweight trolley, that has replaced the bike. It is the van that carries the postie to and around his duty. It is the van that transports the mail. It is the van that provides a safe means of storing all the mail that the postie is not carrying about his person at any given moment.

When we consider the change in the type of items that we now carry, the ever increasing quantities of packets, the days of the bike as a suitable method of delivery have pretty much drawn to a close. There will always be certain individual sets of circumstances whereby the bike will still remain the best method in a very tiny number of cases but these will be so far and few between as to be negligible.

As for the lightweight trolley, well I never understood its purpose? It has all the disadvantages that led to the bicycle’s demise. It is unsuitable for stepped deliveries. It has no increased carrying capacity over the bicycle. Mail cannot be left on it unattended. Furthermore, it has even more disadvantages than the bike that it has replaced. It’s unwieldy and cumbersome to use and has be regularly erected and dismantled.

- - - And please don’t spout the “weight off the shoulder” hogwash. This is repeated like some enlightened mantra at every opportunity by our union officials. Drumming “don’t overload your bags” into our thick skulls could have been just as effective. I cannot think of any circumstances where you could leave mail on a trolley that you couldn’t leave on the bike. You have to do the same amount of manual carrying whether you are using a trolley or a bike.

Was the lightweight trolley part of the means of selling 2010 & Beyond to the mug members or was it just a salve for the union’s conscience?

And one last thought, a lightweight trolley makes you look a complete twat in a way that a bike never did!

Rant over.

Well said and your last thought is so funny but completely true

[Mr Rush]

I understand where former bike users are coming from, but for those of us who delivered by shoulder bag and now use the LWT, the principle of weight off the shoulder has been realised. If the LWT and existing pouch box network could be used together instead of shared vans, I'd jump at the chance to go back to working independently - but for colleagues whose walk is predominantly tenements the shared van as a mobile box is the only way to reduce bag weights to what they should be (other than HCT use within 1 mile of the office). As a tenement walk is my best hope on my seniority, I wouldn't deny anyone a working spine later in life.

[drb]

I wouldn't deny anyone a working spine later in life.

[cyclemech1]

I understand where former bike users are coming from, but for those of us who delivered by shoulder bag and now use the LWT, the principle of weight off the shoulder has been realised. If the LWT and existing pouch box network could be used together instead of shared vans, I'd jump at the chance to go back to working independently - but for colleagues whose walk is predominantly tenements the shared van as a mobile box is the only way to reduce bag weights to what they should be (other than HCT use within 1 mile of the office). As a tenement walk is my best hope on my seniority, I wouldn't deny anyone a working spine later in life.

Of course there are duties where it makes more sense to use LWT/HCT rather than bikes, but for RM/CWU to put an almost total ban on using bikes is a nonsense.

I used a bike for all of the 14 years that I worked for RM and I'm pleased to say that I have no issues at all with joint/back pain etc.

95% of the duties in my office were bike duties but only about 15% of us actually used them, the rest preferring to use their own cars. This is where the problem of 'weight on the shoulder' began.

Lets face it the idea of Park and Loop was thought up by some Uni Graduate with no idea of the real world. I agree with Roy in that, a few years down the line someone will have the brilliant (and green) idea to use bikes on most delivery routes, and they'll probably get a nice bonus out of it too!

[AAddict]

I've had more back pain than ever before since starting van shares with the stupid golf trolleys. Awful design that involves you twisting from the lower back all the time. I'm pretty sure carrying a bag did less harm.

[genesis]

I understand where former bike users are coming from, but for those of us who delivered by shoulder bag and now use the LWT, the principle of weight off the shoulder has been realised. If the LWT and existing pouch box network could be used together instead of shared vans, I'd jump at the chance to go back to working independently - but for colleagues whose walk is predominantly tenements the shared van as a mobile box is the only way to reduce bag weights to what they should be (other than HCT use within 1 mile of the office). As a tenement walk is my best hope on my seniority, I wouldn't deny anyone a working spine later in life.

Just to enhance this view,I would like to point out that in our very large town there never has been usage of bikes,and at present there is no use of LWT.There is hardly any use of golf trolleys despite the office having completed the revision a while a go . Rest assured there are shared vans ,But trolleys on the main cannot be used because there are so many hills,thus leading to vans acting as mobile pouch boxes but the loops are smaller allowing for less weight in our pouches.The obvious problem for this method is its taking longer to do the rounds than is presumed by geo route etc and for some of us we cannot finish in time.
From my point of view ie my postal round has steep parts ,lanes,steps,steps straight into the road, roads with no pavements,I would say a golf trolley is in parts dangerous,and do not use it.

[TeeferTiger]

I quite liked my LWT and HCT... but then again, I've only got little legs and enough weight to carry around I had to use a trolley after my AOD because the bag rested on the hip I injured and it also threw my gait out which made the pain worse. DOM's answer as to "how can I keep the mail secure if I have to leave the golf trolley to go upstairs to deliver?" was "take the bags in with you" Knob.

Oh, I wasn't as keen on my HCT when trying to push it through the snow.

[fishtank]

People using bikes never used their own vehicles.

95% of the duties in my office were bike duties but only about 15% of us actually used them, the rest preferring to use their own cars.