LTB 162/22 – Royal Mail & CWU Terms of Reference Scan to Route (Tracked Parcels) Trial

No. 162/22

6th April 2022

Dear Colleagues,

Royal Mail & CWU Terms of Reference Scan to Route (Tracked Parcels) Trial

Branches will be aware that Royal Mail faces an increasingly competitive landscape both in the letters and parcels market. It is recognised that customers may wish to have a more defined Estimated Delivery Window (EDW) than is currently offered by Royal Mail, to that which is offered by competitors.  Royal Mail and the CWU are committed to working at pace to undertake a trial of Scan to Route to support deployment of market leading EDW for Tracked items on Core routes.  Market leading EDW is an important enabler to improved customer satisfaction through increased First Time Delivery, which may create the opportunity for future commercial offerings i.e. live redirection validation, and enhanced in-flight redirections.

Additionally, there would also be a significant safety benefit of Scan to Route for delivery members, in the form of automatic hazard alerts on a PDA.  Where hazard data is contained within the HUE / WRAP system and the Scan to Route process has identified a delivery point (which correlates to this hazard), it will then be possible to alert the delivery colleague to the hazard before they attended the delivery point. This will also form part of the proof of concept trial and further learning.

This Proof of Concept trial therefore aims to gather further learning from Delivery OPG’s to understand the:

  • Redesign required to standard operating procedures (SOPs) to enable Tracked parcel items to be scanned to route at the delivery preparation frame

Royal Mail and the CWU propose to trial this new process and modifications to PDA indoor and outdoor applications, at Cranleigh Delivery Office.

Trial Scope

 

  • The trial will take place at Cranleigh Delivery Office (Guildford area) – to undertake User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on the PDA application functionality, and measure the operational and workload impact of Scan to Route within the Delivery operation
    • 18 Walks in total, mixture of shared pairs, singleton vans and HCT
    • Tracked Ready For Delivery scanning compliance +99.5%
  • The trial will focus on:
    • the identification of Tracked parcel items at delivery preparation frame
    • manually scanning the barcode label on the tracked parcel items at a delivery preparation frame, using the current PDA technology, with modified indoor and outdoor applications
  • The trial is scheduled to commence 11th April 2022 and will be completed no later than the end of May 2022
  • The trial details:
    • Up to 7 weeks with delivery colleagues undertaking the Scan to Route process i.e. identifying tracked parcel items at delivery preparation and scanning them with a PDA utilising modified indoor and outdoor applications on a PDA
    • Confirming PDA indoor and outdoor functionality is acceptable for trial
    • Confirming operational and workload impacts for the Scan to Route process in a Delivery Office

Health & Safety and Safe Systems of Work

It is reaffirmed that Health & Safety and SSOW are of paramount importance to both Royal Mail and the CWU, as such, the Delivery SAC1 will be reviewed and updated in line with any required indoor floor plan changes. Any issues arising in this respect will be proper to the relevant RM safety experts and the CWU National Health Safety, and Environment Department.

Review/ Summary

Royal Mail and the CWU both understand the importance of being able to offer consumers a first-class digital experience to enhance the trust that already exists on the doorstep.

These Nationally agreed Terms of Reference will be formally reviewed at the end of the trial period by RM and the CWU Nationally, taking full account of all experiences and the feedback gathered in the trial site. The review will also jointly determine next steps along with any further expansion or rollout program of the concept beyond the trial site which will be subject to further discussions and joint National agreement

Any questions of interpretation, implementation or application of this Joint Statement shall be referred to the signatories as a matter of urgency for resolution and any local issues will be subject to the industrial relations framework.

Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 540, email address: njones@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

 Mark Baulch                                                                                              

CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 162-22 – Royal Mail CWU Terms of Reference Scan to Route – Tracked Parcel Trial

Scan to Route Trial_Terms of Reference v2_20220324 doc cmb (00000002) 01.04.22