REX

[Andyajb277]

The guys who smash it will soon learn
Our depo dom makes you go on the belt if you back early
I think dom will get bonus as well so he or she will keep them in line

[jcwhite]

..

[iainwilson]

On my route it seems to work fine. I’m a bit all over shop like but I either fail a couple drops or finish 15/20mins early but always start and finish on time and take break.

[iainwilson]

Given that the 2nd hour off the working week is supposed to be paid for by efficiency, Parcelforce are shafting their employees as every route driver is a lot more efficient than auto Rex. Also Auto Rex is oblivious to health and safety risks it makes you deliver on right side of road even if it’s a dual carriageway and also increases the reversing you have to do. I’ve also seen on occasion the suggested break being reduced. Please CWU tell RM end auto Rex now before a serious accident happens

[jcwhite]

..

[iainwilson]

Also sends you to schools at school run o clock, to parking restrictions at parking restriction o clock, has you doing bulk collections in first few stops with already full van and doesn’t count non pre advised/adhoc collections into amount of stops.

[Jayisme]

REX does not work for drivers that know their route. It slows you down and makes you less productive. It only works for spare drivers or agency that don't know the routes well.

To add to the above post..
It'll send you to companies at say 4pm, when they've closed early on a Friday. Even though you know full well that they're going to close but you're 7 miles away.
It sends you to post offices to drop off a parcel AND collect, at say 10am.. as it did to me last week. The post office refused me to collect and told me to come back at 2pm which seriously delayed me.
It'll have you going back to the same road/area/industrial site twice or more throughout the day.

All this and not to mention the non pre advice that YOU need to fit in, thus delaying your departure and delaying you throughout the day. Last week I regularly had a entire first page of non pre. So how can they start adding timed slots when you need to fit a load of unrecognizable deliveries into your day.

REX system is flawed and entirely backwards in every way possible.

[Takeitforaride]

Think of Rex like this, you are not held to doing x amount of drops a day, no matter the geography or the time you leave the depot, it gives you a realistic rate of work to do in the time you have to do it. In the recent climate we’ve all got out late, we’ve all worked out arse off, we’ve all been frustrated at how it works, the obvious lies we were fed about it and just how bad the system actually is. We’ve all felt bad that we didn’t complete, we’ve all had customers say thanks very much for all your doing. We’ve had Covid traffic and whilst everyone was furloughed and on the G&T by 2pm we were great, but did you notice once the weather turned things changed, then Black Friday got poured on top, then xmas, then Bojo announced the xmas rules and last minute granny parcels went through the roof, then POL counters started selling AM for the same as 24, then another lock down happened this week and people have gone out for the day, not working, a day trip! Second attempt, “please leave in porch” your tier 4 you tool, be at home!!!

We and many like us have risked a lot for months, key workers kept chugging, kept people in big rolls and gin (and inflatable canoes wtf?!), fair enough some people are grateful and for that I am grateful, sometimes when it’s genuine, even proud of us, but, when push came to shove, the truth came out, not so much to that tired looking, dirty great grumpy f**ker on their doorstep, but to the cust service teams on the phones, some of the stories I’ve heard are pretty shocking and the guys on the phones need some recognition. (Threats, name calling etc)

If am honest I’m angry with the public. Key workers chipped away until we got the risk down to safe levels and every time the general population is released again, up up and away, because they want a night in the pub, or a party etc, which negates everything we’ve done for weeks in an instant and we’re back to square one.

This pattern will keep happening, the vaccine appears to only suppress symptoms in people, not stop transmission, many people refuse the vaccine, so without enough uptake on it, we’re all stuck in a loop.

Im having a bit of rant because I’ve had enough today. For months I’ve made every effort to play by the rules, play it safe with people I’ve delivered to for 20 years that at the moment are high risk, through illness or whatever, risked my job to keep them safe, gone outside of rex plan when I thought their parcel was meds/ parcel from granny for a birthday or something they were desperate for and from seeing my route today it’s all for nothing, they aren’t listen, don’t care or are just banking on another summer on furlough.

So, long story short (haha)

We are now all in need of a break, we aren’t going to get it. So follow Rex, slow down, drive dot to dot, forget how shite rex is, chill out, work without stress or worry, follow rex, go home at your finish time, collect your bonus, you all deserve it!

Keep plodding along, keep it between the ditches, we are Parcelforce, not Amazon, it could be worse ;-)

Happy New Year! Fingers crossed for snow!

(Sorry, had to get that off my chest, I suspect I’m not alone)

[iainwilson]

Followed Rex last 2 days had nearly 20 739s each day. Do it the way they want you to I’ve not booked any mon-fri OT in 12 months. When REX is s**t I am s**t. I do not care.

Happy new year

Nice post BTW ^^^^^^

[iainwilson]

Given that the 2nd hour off the working week is supposed to be paid for by efficiency, Parcelforce are shafting their employees as every route driver is a lot more efficient than auto Rex. Also Auto Rex is oblivious to health and safety risks it makes you deliver on right side of road even if it’s a dual carriageway and also increases the reversing you have to do. I’ve also seen on occasion the suggested break being reduced. Please CWU tell RM end auto Rex now before a serious accident happens

I was involved in a collision turning right across a dual carriageway only 6 days after this post

[Clifford883]

Think of Rex like this, you are not held to doing x amount of drops a day, no matter the geography or the time you leave the depot, it gives you a realistic rate of work to do in the time you have to do it. In the recent climate we’ve all got out late, we’ve all worked out arse off, we’ve all been frustrated at how it works, the obvious lies we were fed about it and just how bad the system actually is. We’ve all felt bad that we didn’t complete, we’ve all had customers say thanks very much for all your doing. We’ve had Covid traffic and whilst everyone was furloughed and on the G&T by 2pm we were great, but did you notice once the weather turned things changed, then Black Friday got poured on top, then xmas, then Bojo announced the xmas rules and last minute granny parcels went through the roof, then POL counters started selling AM for the same as 24, then another lock down happened this week and people have gone out for the day, not working, a day trip! Second attempt, “please leave in porch” your tier 4 you tool, be at home!!!

We and many like us have risked a lot for months, key workers kept chugging, kept people in big rolls and gin (and inflatable canoes wtf?!), fair enough some people are grateful and for that I am grateful, sometimes when it’s genuine, even proud of us, but, when push came to shove, the truth came out, not so much to that tired looking, dirty great grumpy f**ker on their doorstep, but to the cust service teams on the phones, some of the stories I’ve heard are pretty shocking and the guys on the phones need some recognition. (Threats, name calling etc)

If am honest I’m angry with the public. Key workers chipped away until we got the risk down to safe levels and every time the general population is released again, up up and away, because they want a night in the pub, or a party etc, which negates everything we’ve done for weeks in an instant and we’re back to square one.

This pattern will keep happening, the vaccine appears to only suppress symptoms in people, not stop transmission, many people refuse the vaccine, so without enough uptake on it, we’re all stuck in a loop.

Im having a bit of rant because I’ve had enough today. For months I’ve made every effort to play by the rules, play it safe with people I’ve delivered to for 20 years that at the moment are high risk, through illness or whatever, risked my job to keep them safe, gone outside of rex plan when I thought their parcel was meds/ parcel from granny for a birthday or something they were desperate for and from seeing my route today it’s all for nothing, they aren’t listen, don’t care or are just banking on another summer on furlough.

So, long story short (haha)

We are now all in need of a break, we aren’t going to get it. So follow Rex, slow down, drive dot to dot, forget how shite rex is, chill out, work without stress or worry, follow rex, go home at your finish time, collect your bonus, you all deserve it!

Keep plodding along, keep it between the ditches, we are Parcelforce, not Amazon, it could be worse ;-)

Happy New Year! Fingers crossed for snow!

(Sorry, had to get that off my chest, I suspect I’m not alone)

Its hard to forget how bad rex is when you, say...

Go to 32 high street and make a delivery then, make another 10 or so drops and then find yourself back on the high street but this time number 34 high street.

Or attending your daily collections at 11:45am as you're following rex to the dot only for them to tell you to return back between 3pm and 4pm to this remote village that takes 20 minutes to reach.

Follow rex = adds a minimum 1 hour to your workload.
Follow your own way (if you know your route) = reduces your workload up to 3 hours.

The problem we have is, most drivers want to get home as early as possible. They skip their lunch to try make that happen as well. I guess thats another story for another day though.

[oolley1980]

Just wanted to ask you other guys, at our depot which I'm not gonna name, the managers are forcing the rex order but saying for the drivers to ignore the times and to get ahead, basically meaning do more drops. I'm one of the few that refuses and follows it all to the letter in order to protect myself from any comebacks that may come from this in the future. Yes, I could do more but only if the order of the drops was decent.
Does your depot tell you to follow times and order or is it like ours here? Just wanted to see what other drivers at other depots are being pushed for, cheers.

[ariadne]

Just wanted to ask you other guys, at our depot which I'm not gonna name, the managers are forcing the rex order but saying for the drivers to ignore the times and to get ahead, basically meaning do more drops. I'm one of the few that refuses and follows it all to the letter in order to protect myself from any comebacks that may come from this in the future. Yes, I could do more but only if the order of the drops was decent.
Does your depot tell you to follow times and order or is it like ours here? Just wanted to see what other drivers at other depots are being pushed for, cheers.

At my depot we were told the same, follow the sequence but ignore the times up until Monday 22 Feb.
We were then told all deliveries and ad hoc collections must be done in order and in the time windows provided.
No provision is made for bulk collections or deliveries, all time windows are fixed by REX.
Needless to say parcels are now failing daily because the system ( and the management ) are so inflexible.

[oolley1980]

It makes me laugh this rex. The point is follow the order and the times to give the customer exactly what they are expecting via the text or email right?
From what I read we are all experiencing that fault with the system where it repeats drops, never completes an area at one time, the order is terrible etc......
The thing I think is madness is that I was pulled up just last week to ask why I failed 20 drops. My reason that I gave was that I ran out of time, I hit 100% both on order and rex and had a break for 42 mins which was my lunch.
My manager then says its my fault I failed and its all because I'm following the window times.
Surely if I beat the window times I'd loose the bonus, all be it tiny, for hitting the times. So in effect I'd be giving customers incorrect I information and a poor expsri9with the company but also be doing more drops for a pay cut as they'd take the bonus from me.

[White Van]

REX is a delight on a new route or as a reserve but old hands are having issues especially with the introduction of the PRB, no more lining it up on the floor to load in drop order once optimised. I (rural route) load to areas in the van so even if I have to dive for a parcel I'm generally within a couple of feet of it and not having to scan to route is good but there are issues.

The half hour buffer in the drop window is too short for rural routes because it's difficult to make up time, I failed a few today because my last few drops were at the beginning of the window and I'd been solidly right in the middle all day, I will feed this back in the morning because it shouldn't be a tool to clear the floor.

Dangerous navigation is also an issue with continually crossing busy roads being something else to be fed back daily if you can as well as frankly daft decisions about drops in towns/villages that don't make sense, again feed it back.

Collections are Ok as long as you don't have massive bulks to collect and ad-hoc POLs that come through when you are miles away need to be called back in and refused on your podium with the reason why.

Generally I enjoy the system because the route doesn't get stale, clearing local to depot lapsed routes to make up your numbers is an arseache but it is what it is I guess.