Are walkers put upon this time of year.

[goldy]

Does anybody else think walkers are at a distinct disadvantage over the busy lead up to Xmas. Drivers just
"SEEM" to have it alot easier or is the grass greener on the other side
I.E Drivers doing just packets and not very much letters .

[Postie45]

maybe, but i think this job can be as tough as you make it, if you just work your hours at a fair pace i dont see anything too "hard" about that

[Ulysses]

On my 'typical' shared van, we swap between driver/passenger during the week. Driver normally walks a little less but has to deliver the oversize parcels and specials for both duties. Works well.

For months of December the oversize and specials are done by a seperate van.

This week has been interesting, showing that the driver loop times are certainly less than the passenger without the o/s packet deliveries.

[wacko74]

Is my office the only one that doesn't have this 'walkers and drivers' system?

We have P&L but none of the walks are set out to have a designated driver and designated walker. Any oversize pkts are just done from the van as we get to them when driving from one loop to the next.

[OnAFlyer]

Is my office the only one that doesn't have this 'walkers and drivers' system?

We have P&L but none of the walks are set out to have a designated driver and designated walker. Any oversize pkts are just done from the van as we get to them when driving from one loop to the next.

Most of our duties have shorter driver loops or an extra walker loop, but mine doesn't. I made it equal, we do the packets together, usually catching most of them on the way around except certain days when my partner will do the last two short loops together (25 minutes max) and I'll do some packets.

I've never seen the point in having fixed shorter loops, and a driver does those whether they have 2 large packets or 30. It's much better to work together flexibly.

[Dorset Plodder]

I've experienced working in quite a few delivery offices. No two walks are alike and neither are any two offices. Newer members seem surprised that there's so much difference between duties!

What really annoys me is any particular postie that spouts off about, "My system is the one you should be using, I don't know why people are doing this or doing that"! They've normally never worked on another duty, let alone worked in another office! If you've been on a particular duty for 20 years plus then Yes you probably could "Micro-Manage" that duty to death. However for the majority of the rest of us we just want a legible, logical and clearly laid out frame that you can throw off easily (that includes the Mech matched to the Frame). And a Duty that you can actually deliver without pages of instructions about where to leave mail (because they haven't got a letterbox)or where to pop up alleyways and nip through to deliver a bit of the next road etc.

One P&L one system I've used, which I think works well, is to leave the loop nearest the van in the back. Whoever gets back to the van first can do that loop. It stops that annoying habit some posties have of sitting in the van watching their partner working their way back to them in the pouring rain....cursing their colleague for being a lazy bastard! I also don't like the idea of your partner zooming around in the van to do odd bits of their loops while you're stood in the wind & rain waiting for him!

[toomuchcoke]

Is my office the only one that doesn't have this 'walkers and drivers' system?

We have P&L but none of the walks are set out to have a designated driver and designated walker. Any oversize pkts are just done from the van as we get to them when driving from one loop to the next.

Back when my office had a pair of shared van duties (before management randomly removed them for no readily explainable reason[1]), we didn't have a walkers/driver system either. Both of them generally had loops which where "I drop you at this end of the street, drive to the other end and walk back to this end. When you get to the far end, get in the van and drive it back here.". We used to split the packets up so roughly half of them got done each way.

Then later on, the person I worked most closely with on the round & I decided that given the growth in packets we where getting it was far more sensible for one of us to talk a mini-trolley for all of the first two loops whilst the driver got rid of as many packets as they could. Optionally the 3rd loops could be combined into one bag to give some more "packet delivery time", after which we had a neat stack of P739'd packets at the back of the van and only stuff that would probably go through letter boxes left in the remaining bags. It worked really well for us, and then management annoyed my friend & colleague so much that they quit. (It was one too many "Yes, we're aware that the rounds aren't equal and we're looking to do something about that in the new year" ... Two years later and there have been no changes (apart from removing the shared van) to the three rounds in question! )

[1] Not that I really mind, I've done one of them as an HCT round since and part from the long ~20 minute walk to the start of the delivery it's actually quite nice!

[trevjim]

Does anybody else think walkers are at a distinct disadvantage over the busy lead up to Xmas. Drivers just
"SEEM" to have it alot easier or is the grass greener on the other side
I.E Drivers doing just packets and not very much letters .

I am a driver on packets for the next few weeks and I would much prefer to be a walker. We are swamped with parcels, and I know the walkers are too, but they all seem to be able to get round in a good time, whilst I am always one of the last back. I dont mind as such as I like the O/T however in terms of whats easier, normal walking dutys are, in my office anyway.

[jimmynailsalive]

Does anybody else think walkers are at a distinct disadvantage over the busy lead up to Xmas. Drivers just
"SEEM" to have it alot easier or is the grass greener on the other side
I.E Drivers doing just packets and not very much letters .

I am a driver on packets for the next few weeks and I would much prefer to be a walker. We are swamped with parcels, and I know the walkers are too, but they all seem to be able to get round in a good time, whilst I am always one of the last back. I dont mind as such as I like the O/T however in terms of whats easier, normal walking dutys are, in my office anyway.

Last year I done the driving with packets and in my view the driving it 100 times better than walking, just a case of dividing your van up to areas and working your way through them with the radio blaring.

One thing I done last year was refuse to go out at 7am with packets on a Saturday but I agreed to start later and finish later as unlike school days when you can leave them with neighbours when you see lights on, nobody got out their bed on Saturday's plus you couldn't try neighbours before 10am or I wouldn't.

[Ozzvaldo]

Is my office the only one that doesn't have this 'walkers and drivers' system?

We have P&L but none of the walks are set out to have a designated driver and designated walker. Any oversize pkts are just done from the van as we get to them when driving from one loop to the next.

My unit is exactly the same as yours and many pairings randomly grab whichever of the two loops is at hand each time they set off because our deliveries were set up with roughly even loop sizes for the most part. We were one of the very first offices to undergo transformation, and to be honest it was all very hit and miss, some things worked, some didn't. Having puzzled over the driver and walker loops thing when it's being discussed on this forum, I've always assumed that this specific division of loops was introduced as some kind of perceived improvement when the guinea pig offices were monitored. Maybe not, because it's never even been mentioned at my unit.

[Barbel]

I am a walker on the only HCT round in the office, I've also been a driver, both rural rounds. I prefer to be the walker to be honest, there is no limit to how many parcels you take when you're a driver. When you've got a trolley there's only a certain amount you can take and I don't normally take any longer than those who drive.

[Theghost]

I'm a walker and it grates on me.
My partner has just over 1 hour less walking than me.
In the summer he can have maybe 2 -5 large packets to deliver in that extra hour,He doesn't help me out,Just sits in the van and waits.
In the winter/Christmas when we are hammered and we have no chance of completing,He speaks to the manager,Comes back and says we should be ok now WE don't have to take the large packets,Makes no odds to me atall as that's his job,It just means he sits in the van while I carry on delivering my normal duty and we still go over,The managers are that dumb they don't see whats going on.
I cant say anything as It will cause confrontation between me and my partner and I cant be doing working in an atmosphere.

[mark.cup]

Walkers roll is much easier and nowhere near as stressful...

On our delivery all loops are practically the same apart from 10 minutes on 1 yet as driver I'm expected to do on average 45 minutes of packets alone come re pick time I'm going for a walking job that's for sure

[piranha]

In my office driver loops are shorter so they can do the bigger parcels, drivers definitely have it easier with number of calls to deliver to but this time of year have loads of extra parcels. Depends how fast your driver is at walking though some people I've worked with are so slow we have to drive round and do the packets together

[dave72]

Walkers roll is much easier and nowhere near as stressful...

On our delivery all loops are practically the same apart from 10 minutes on 1 yet as driver I'm expected to do on average 45 minutes of packets alone come re pick time I'm going for a walking job that's for sure

In our re-pick drivers (those who had done the change over) weren't allowed to pick walking duties Yet day off cover staff could pick either