Are we preparing for Christmas?

sindba · Post by **sindba** » 06 Sep 2020, 23:02

Celgar wrote:Deliver til it gets too dark, which is typically about 1600, then bring the remainder back and go home. It's almost a certainty we will be in full lockdown before then though so most Xmas shopping will be delivered by us except the food and alcohol. It's going to be really bad.

Yep. Real bad. Brace, brace.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 06 Sep 2020, 23:04

If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them

sindba · Post by **sindba** » 06 Sep 2020, 23:12

SpacePhoenix wrote:If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them

You're gonna have to find extra york room in your MC mate. Seen a Delivery Office recently?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 06 Sep 2020, 23:24

sindba wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them
You're gonna have to find extra york room in your MC mate. Seen a Delivery Office recently?

All the extra work room is already in use because of covid. If fact when we're having to process inward and outward at the same time over Xmas pressure we'll actually lose some space. Like it or not it might end up with us just having to send it to DOs anyway

sindba · Post by **sindba** » 06 Sep 2020, 23:41

SpacePhoenix wrote:
sindba wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them
You're gonna have to find extra york room in your MC mate. Seen a Delivery Office recently?
All the extra work room is already in use because of covid. If fact when we're having to process inward and outward at the same time over Xmas pressure we'll actually lose some space. Like it or not it might end up with us just having to send it to DOs anyway

Fair enough.

It won't be delivered though.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 07 Sep 2020, 00:08

iirc one day last year during Xmas pressure we put through over 500,000 through our machines as sequenced. We're a small MC compared with other MCs. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the really large MCs had the odd night sequencing over 1 million letters in a day between all their machines. If Xmas cards end up being much heavier than last year then our iLSMs will be running outward plans for a lot longer, leaving them less time to help out with wave 1 sequencing

Cedar_Room · Post by **Cedar_Room** » 07 Sep 2020, 15:47

Curious as to why folk are saying we’ll be back in full lockdown before Xmas? I’m not disagreeing with you,it just seems that this inept government are determined to get back to normal,ASAP,no matter what. Boris the Bastard didn’t want to go into any sort of lockdown in the first place if reports are to be believed. Struggling to see him going back there

Wild Rover · Post by **Wild Rover** » 07 Sep 2020, 19:00

SpacePhoenix wrote:If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them

Are we expecting a full lockdown?

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 07 Sep 2020, 20:15

Wild Rover wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:If we do end up in a full lockdown by Xmas we might see an increase in xmas cards. Hopefully they let us roll over whatever we don't have time to run through the machines each night. If they don't then deliveries will be screwed with the amount of manual we'll end up sending them
Are we expecting a full lockdown?

I think it'll be more local full lockdowns, then regional full lockdowns if it's bad over to big an area and only a nationwide full lockdown if it gets too bad over too much of the UK.

We've had 2 days in a row with nearly 3k of cases. I've seen mentions on the news that we might be 2-4 weeks behind France

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 07 Sep 2020, 20:44

koolishy67 wrote:All other companies hermes dpd amazon start recruiting and preparing for Christmas we know this year is going to be very very busy with parcel what royal mail doing to handle all this parcel volume?

Stockpiling it and expecting the postie to do double the workload for tomorrow?? Give it another month and we will see Royal Mail's policy change to loads of causals being allowed to turn up and take parcels on the evening shifts. I wonder if Royal Mail will still be losing a million quid a day in November-December?

Post by **HTPostman** » 07 Sep 2020, 23:26

Rumours in our office that all PT staff will be starting at 12.30, no exceptions. We will see.

There has to be a plan though. It’s clear as usual we won’t get extra vans or staff.

I think if they decide to go with 12.30 starts for PTers it should only be packet deliveries. Some of us have had to wait until 2pm for a van, imagine starting a round at 2.30pm knowing in an hour it will be dark. It’s not so bad if you’re only doing parcels.

Hopefully there’s no election material this year as well!

Sir Henry · Post by **Sir Henry** » 08 Sep 2020, 13:38

HTPostman wrote:Rumours in our office that all PT staff will be starting at 12.30, no exceptions. We will see

Surely it would depend on the individual contracts whether folk are obligated to start work at that time or not?
Run it by the rep.

Britvic55 · Post by **Britvic55** » 08 Sep 2020, 14:23

No doubt they will take on more Christmas Casuals to do parcels on night shift without thinking about the extra space needed to ensure social distancing!

Post by **Jack1960** » 08 Sep 2020, 14:26

We have raised Christmas with our DOM, he isn't faintly concerned, we are a small D.O with 19 walks but we won't have the space to process the parcels that will come in.
Clearly this year will be like no other and unless they put extra hours in and recruit more LAT duties it will be chaos

Post by **HTPostman** » 08 Sep 2020, 19:32

Sir Henry wrote:
HTPostman wrote:Rumours in our office that all PT staff will be starting at 12.30, no exceptions. We will see
Surely it would depend on the individual contracts whether folk are obligated to start work at that time or not?
Run it by the rep.

I agree.....However my contract says I’m to be available to work 7am until 7pm, Mon to Sat (including bank holidays if required!!). I’m going to assume the contracts of my PT colleagues who all started at a similar time to me are all similar.

In short, I’ve not got a leg to stand on if I’m told to start at 12.30.