Voice Extra

CWU Outdoor secretary Mark Baulch:

Further to the article in the previous edition of The Voice regarding the Delivery Methods trials as part of the 2018 Guiding Principles Agreement and the agreed Terms of Referencea two day National Review meeting took place on Thursday 18^th and Friday 19^th October which was broken down into two parts, day one consisted of joint feedback presentations and reports from each unit, whilst on day two discussions took place between the Department and the Royal Mail Delivery Director and Project Leads on the immediate next steps for the trial offices along with how the outputs, information and experiences generated from the trial would be reviewed overall and the process for this.

As above, on day one, reports were jointly presented by the local Royal Mail project manager and the CWU Postal Executive member who supported each of the 8 trial units. In addition, comprehensive reports were prepared from RM’s National managers which are responsible for Safety, Health and Environment, Ergonomics, Security, Quality and Customer and Industrial Engineering and a summary overview of each of these was presented during the course of the day.

The scale of data and information contained within the above presentations and reports is difficult to put into context; however the fact that the slides equate to a total of 183, should give some recognition of how detailed the respective reports are on all of those subject matters, and that there is a huge amount of data that needs to be jointly worked through and reviewed in line with all of the key metrics and success criteria contained within the original Terms of Reference.

The key themes outputs were as follows:

In respect of Walk Sequencing there has been a clear improvement on the percentage of wave 1 mails, the challenge however remains that there are certain days of the week when the operation or pipeline means that the consistency of the percentage is still a concern and there also remain issues relating to bulk postings and the impact on the sequencing percentages. In addition there have been improvements on the presentation of walk sequenced mails, but there is still further work to do in regards to missorts, seasonal challenges, commercial constraints linked to mailmark and also IT/technology solutions to redirections.

In regards to Door to Door, whilst there have been positives in some of the trial units relating to the items being processed through an automation/collation solution being supplied, the trial however has not proved or resolved in a number of metrics how the product could be delivered or controlled adequately in a no “cold calling” method. In addition, what the bundle sizes need to be and the quality of service and safety elements of a second bundle has not been adequately resolved. Furthermore, key to any proposed new delivery method is Royal Mail’s future strategy regarding this product, both in relation to its delivery specification and also the future automation strategy and investment for D2D, however presently this very much remains unknown and unclear.

In respect to Efficiency, there have been studies undertaken by RM’s Industrial Engineers relating to the methods they witnessed in terms of actual observations on the revised ways of working, indoors and outdoors and then as a result of the core tasks of preparation of sequenced mail and D2D being avoided, what the overall efficiency implication was.

At present the headline across the variations of the five different concepts being trialled throughout the eight sites has shown potential “savings benefits” however the CWU view is that these overall values are still open to question. This is particularly so regarding some of the additional ancillary tasks now being generated as part of the trial and the time of year and seasonal effects and impact of weather conditions is also a factor for the delivery methods, conditions of the mail when wet etc and the times and ease for carrying out the tasks, something which RM have accepted as further points that need to be considered.

In addition, one of the key metrics for consideration as part of the efficiency consideration during the trial was whether any method change should be simple to carry out and easy to understand based on the designated equipment to be used, and whether it will be appropriate to be deployed nationally and embedded across all future delivery routes, balanced alongside what the potential cost implications will be for training, equipment and revision planning.

In relation to this aspect what the trials have sadly proven yet again, as this seems to be a common theme, is that the project team has to go into the units to establish and fix the base data and address the day to day operational failings. In fact more focus, energy and time has been consumed with this during the trial in some cases than actually evaluating and conducting the trial itself. Therefore without a major spotlight and resource focused on delivery units, many operational managers simply manage chaos and are not capable of embedding or managing change.

In relation to Safety across the trials there remain areas that are a concern to the department. It is clear there needs to be further work on behalf of RM to engage with their respective Area Safety Advisors to be engaged in the trials and ensure all elements of the revised ways of working have been considered.

At present it seems they are only in a position to provide a subjective view based on theory and not via evidence of seeing the changes in a live environment to be able to provide factual views. In addition there are other factors around perceived risks, heightened potentials for increased accidents and also the lack of IT/technology solutions to address the hazards which are experienced through delivery walk logs and identified/controlled via the prep frame and any revised method needs to ensure those areas are addressed.

In relation to Ergonomics, there have been as part of the studies undertaken, areas that have been identified that at present the full multiple bundle method i.e. 3 bundles isn’t recommended for deployment alongside the existing delivery equipment. In relation to the 2 bundles concept, there are also areas that have been identified that are areas of concern both in terms of the back to back method, but also across all of the concepts as there is an increase in the mental fatigue and physical demands being reported which has had negative impact on individuals’ overall wellbeing. This is a particular concern as one of the biggest reported causes of sick absence currently is mental stress and anxiety; many of those individual members taking part in the trial said that they personally experienced this.

All of the above are the overarching points that came out of day one of the National Review.

As part of day two it was clear that following discussions that both parties agreed that there were concerns with continuing with certain aspects of the trial and the fact the offices were awaiting guidance from the National Review. However there are some areas that both parties wished to jointly explore further in order to refine the methods and understand how to address issues observed in the trials and understand whether there are any of the concepts that can be further worked on to consider as part of any wider deployment/roll out.

As such, both parties agreed the a Joint Statement based on the those discussions and all of the units which continue with the method have managed to obtain the required number of volunteers and we have agreed with RM that the same principles of support will continue between the SMEs and CWU Leads overseeing the trials, and also that given the smaller concentration of individuals continuing, it will allow a greater focus from the other key metrics i.e. Safety, Ergonomics etc to try and close down the number of areas that remain a concern.

We have agreed that this next phase of joint trial work will be expected to continue until January 2019. In addition, this will allow all of the learning and data to be considered in parallel with discussions and development of the New Delivery Agreement that will also be taking place over the coming months and further updates will be reported in due course.