Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Scan In, Scan Out (SISO) in the Delivery Function –
No. 110/22
9th March 2022
Dear Colleagues,
Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Scan In, Scan Out (SISO) in the Delivery Function – Evaluation of PDA Solutions
As Branches will be aware one of the commitments contained within the ‘Key Principles Framework (Pathway to Change) Agreement’ at 2.5 Technology, was the introduction of SI/SO for employees to log in and out when an individual starts/finishes work.
Whilst Royal Mail, with CWU involvement has deployed Scan In, Scan Out (SISO) for the processing functions, the company are now looking at device and other solutions for the Delivery Function.
Consoles were the preferred option in Mail Centres and Regional Distribution Centres, as these are overall relatively uniform buildings and have the required space without impacting on the Operation. However, it is recognised that the wider use of consoles within Delivery Units may not be suitable and prove to be difficult in a number of locations due to the diversity of Delivery Units, space constraints and other limitations. In response to this, we have agreed to undertake a limited evaluation process to explore a possible PDA based solution which has the same inputs and outputs as found in the Processing Function, whilst not impacting on the layout of the Delivery operation.
Within this initial evaluation process the PDA will have the SISO Application. The barcode scanner will be activated when the user selects either Attendance Start or Attendance Finish. The Holder (mount) will be affixed to the signing-on desk (See Annex for images of the Static PDA solution).
Evaluation Objectives
The primary objective is to gather feedback from the selected Delivery Units as to whether the PDA solution is fit for purpose and is a user-friendly application.
Royal Mail and the CWU will evaluate the PDA solution within six Units which have been jointly selected in order to gain first-hand feedback:
Plymouth
Plympton
Plymouth North
Plymouth West Park
Dumfries
Newark
The Units selected contain different ranges of delivery options (e.g. Town, Rural, HCT etc). The details of the evaluation process will be briefed within the selected Units.
OPGs within these Units will have the opportunity to test the process using the PDA solution by being asked to select the ‘Start / Finish’ option, and then scanning via their name badge.
OPGs will also be asked about the PDA solution around ease of use: –
Are you able to select Start / Finish easily on the PDA screen? If no, what was the issue?
Was scanning your ID card easy? If no, what was the issue?
Both parties have agreed that the data produced from Scan In/Scan Out will not be used for any resourcing practices or operational aspects during the evaluation within the six selected Units. The evaluation is limited to whether the PDA solution is fit for purpose only.
The evaluation will be carried out over a 2-week period for the 6 Units from week commencing 14th of March 2022. At the end of the evaluation, feedback will be jointly secured from the Units (including direct feedback from the Local CWU Representative and DOM) on this initial evaluation process by the relevant Royal Mail and CWU national leads.
Review and Next Steps
Royal Mail and the CWU will review the feedback nationally from this evaluation exercise, which will determine any future equipment and deployment programme. Additionally, the evaluation will also determine the next steps and jointly agreed activities necessary, which may include future trials or pilots before consideration of any further or wider National roll out of SI/SO within delivery units.
Following the completion of the evaluation process the units involved will remove the PDA solution application subject to further national discussion and wider agreement around SISO.
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