WTF is a light touch revision?

[clashcityrocker]

I know it might be heresy to say it, but using a trolley isn't slower.

I've watched people "loop" off an HCT and I've never seen anything so ridiculously inefficient in my life.
To give an example:
On a straight road 1 - 101, they pushed the trolley to number 51, chained it up, took out the mail for 1 - 51, walked back to the start with the first bundle and delivered to houses they had just walked past. When getting to number 51 they then fiddled about getting the mail and packets for the next section and delivered 51 -101.
Then they had to go back and retrieve the trolley and walk to the next section of the duty.
Obviously they regarded their duty as completely impossible and no way could they finish it in the allotted delivery span.

The same goes for the use of the LWT.
The driver is inundated with parcels because rather than use the capacity of the 2 bags on a trolley, they use a bag over the shoulder.
The driver cannot complete his loops and the parcels, the walker is left standing about waiting - making the whole thing inefficient and unachievable.

I'm not saying there aren't badly planned duties and unrealistic delivery spans, but this idea that pouch is quicker than trolley isn't true.
Once you learn to use the trolley (because it will be slower while you are learning) it is a much better way to work.
I have never known anyone revert to using a pouch over their shoulder once they have enjoyed the experience of a weightless delivery.

[Postie45]

I know it might be heresy to say it, but using a trolley isn't slower.

It most definitely considerably slower for me using LWT. Returning to the point where you left the trolley rather than taking shortest possible route to next address (not talking about cutting across lawns) adds a lot of time to the duty. It could be the case of the type of houses being delivered to, Id imagine a row of terraced houses would see little difference in delivery time, however, larger houses who also have gates, means you dont always take the fastest route around because of having to return to trolley each time.

[clashcityrocker]

I know it might be heresy to say it, but using a trolley isn't slower.

It most definitely considerably slower for me using LWT. Returning to the point where you left the trolley rather than taking shortest possible route to next address (not talking about cutting across lawns) adds a lot of time to the duty. It could be the case of the type of houses being delivered to, Id imagine a row of terraced houses would see little difference in delivery time, however, larger houses who also have gates, means you dont always take the fastest route around because of having to return to trolley each time.

That's all very nice but it doesn't answer the question of your greater need for replenishment because a 16kg pouch doesn't hold as much as 2x16kg pouches.
It doesn't answer the capacity for taking parcels which are consequently then added to the driver.
And it doesn't answer the fact that not carrying a pouch is a lot less tiring than carrying one - over the course of a delivery and over the course of a career.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

I know it might be heresy to say it, but using a trolley isn't slower.

I've watched people "loop" off an HCT and I've never seen anything so ridiculously inefficient in my life.
To give an example:
On a straight road 1 - 101, they pushed the trolley to number 51, chained it up, took out the mail for 1 - 51, walked back to the start with the first bundle and delivered to houses they had just walked past. When getting to number 51 they then fiddled about getting the mail and packets for the next section and delivered 51 -101.
Then they had to go back and retrieve the trolley and walk to the next section of the duty.
Obviously they regarded their duty as completely impossible and no way could they finish it in the allotted delivery span.

I agree, that example would be an inefficient way of delivering by loops on HCT duties.

But if HCTs are pushed along the core road(s), only locked up to deliver loops by pouch on side roads containing upto ~40 delivery points, massive times savings can be made. Especially if these side roads are being done while the HCT is at its heaviest, early on delivery and just after replenishment.

I have colleagues who purposefully re-order their route to maximise efficiency savings by doing pouch loops away from their HCT, they have constantly saved >60mins delivery span over me on the same walk since our delivery methods revisions years ago (because they do not want the stress/agro of cutting off daily, or claiming the true overtime needed to complete)!

It is not just the time saving on the side road(s) itself though that comes into play, by not pushing the HCT everywhere, far less energy/stamina is used by the OPG. Their pace will remain relatively high throughout delivery, which is highly unlikely if you have been pushing a HCT everywhere containing >50Kg* (gross weight >85Kg) of mail for 5 hours (or more) plus meal relief time.

* Approx. mail weight leaving depot and after replenishment

[clashcityrocker]

But if HCTs are pushed along the core road(s), only locked up to deliver loops by pouch on side roads containing upto ~40 delivery points, massive times savings can be made. Especially if these side roads are being done while the HCT is at its heaviest, early on delivery and just after replenishment.

I have colleagues who purposefully re-order their route to maximise efficiency savings by doing pouch loops away from their HCT, they have constantly saved >60mins delivery span over me on the same walk since our delivery methods revisions years ago (because they do not want the stress/agro of cutting off daily, or claiming the true overtime needed to complete)!

It is not just the time saving on the side road(s) itself though that comes into play, by not pushing the HCT everywhere, far less energy/stamina is used by the OPG. Their pace will remain relatively high throughout delivery, which is highly unlikely if you have been pushing a HCT everywhere containing >50Kg* (gross weight >85Kg) of mail for 5 hours (or more) plus meal relief time.

* Approx. mail weight leaving depot and after replenishment

Nice scenario.
For anyone that has a core road with lots of side roads of less than 40 delivery points, this might be a good way of organising the duty.
I doubt any time can be saved on a side road of 20 delivery points each side of the road. By the time you have chained up your trolley and got the mail out, half the street could be completed. The saving of 60 minutes seems wildly optimistic.
It smacks of someone just not wanting to do the job properly.

Scenario:
Planner: We estimate this duty will take 4hr 30.
Postie: No - if I loop off the HCT I can knock 60 minutes off the duty.
Planner: OK. We'll add another hour to the duty.

Win - win is what I say.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Nice scenario.
For anyone that has a core road with lots of side roads of less than 40 delivery points, this might be a good way of organising the duty.
I doubt any time can be saved on a side road of 20 delivery points each side of the road. By the time you have chained up your trolley and got the mail out, half the street could be completed. The saving of 60 minutes seems wildly optimistic.
It smacks of someone just not wanting to do the job properly.

If you can do 20 detached houses in the time it takes to lock HCT to a lamppost, open a HCT and pull out two mail bundles plus ~6 attendance call parcels, you should have been a professional athlete and not a postie!

The delivery span difference of >60mins is not just the locking/looping, other non-protocol stuff like I listed earlier is going on too, like the other common time saver of filtering the next address' mail while walking (a few seconds per delivery point mounts up over 500+ calls, especially if you have not nested D2D)... I've yet to see another OPG in my place stand still while filtering.

I've worked both ways on the same walk with comparable workloads, I've seen the incredible time savings it made. The trouble is ever since I changed my ways through forum knowledge, HCT users that deliver anything close to "by the book" stand out like a sore thumb, through both considerable cut-offs of ~25% and considerable overtime claims of >60mins outside Xmas pressure and the quietest summer weeks.

[clashcityrocker]

[

If you can do 20 detached houses in the time it takes to lock HCT to a lamppost, open a HCT and pull out two mail bundles plus ~6 attendance call parcels, you should have been a professional athlete and not a postie!

How are you fitting a bundle of mail and six shoe box size packets into a pouch?
How long is it taking you to do this street and are you now also breaching the mail security by leaving the trolley unattended for too long?

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

[

If you can do 20 detached houses in the time it takes to lock HCT to a lamppost, open a HCT and pull out two mail bundles plus ~6 attendance call parcels, you should have been a professional athlete and not a postie!

How are you fitting a bundle of mail and six shoe box size packets into a pouch?
How long is it taking you to do this street and are you now also breaching the mail security by leaving the trolley unattended for too long?

An attendance call parcel has to simply be bigger than the letterbox, or require a signature, plenty of silly "Victorian" style letterboxes still in operation causing issues for parcels far smaller than adult shoe boxes. I've not used a pouch on a HCT duty for at least a couple of years, but sadly a majority of my HCT colleagues are working like this daily now, just like they were and I did when I knew no better.

Length of time to deliver a street depends upon the workload, but usually ~10mins at a minimum to ~20mins on a busy day, these are detached houses with ~5-10m pathways off the pavement. As far as mail security goes, last I heard/read was that HCTs must be back within sight within 10mins, easily complied with by locking up HCT at the end of the side street facing the "return leg loop." Heading back towards trolley, it can be seen locked to immoveable object.
High/medium/low security risk 2/5/10mins out of sight rule was conveniently changed in the last couple of years, strange how that matches up with when many revisions were done.

[rick184]

Walk are planned giving time using the right equipment, not taking short cuts across gardens etc. meal reliefs are planned in to the duty. Too many people are doing this stuff to make a few minutes at the end. This just gives management the wrong impression that the walks are too light and do we can absorb a bit more. No one can get in to trouble for using the right equipment or taking their meal relief.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

WTF is a light touch revision?.

Going by reports on here its missing a few words its full title may be

"light the blue touch paper revision?