rmo/rso times · 2018-01-04 · rmo-rso times may 2017 english v.4.doc 3 news and general udpates...

RMO-RSO Times May 2017 English v.4.doc 1

RMO/RSO Times May 2017 – Vol. 3 - 5

WHAT’S IN THIS EDITION?

OUR TEAM HAS EXPANDED! ................................................................................. 2 A message from Natalie Bolton .......................................................................................... 2

A MONTH IN REVIEW .......................................................................................... 2 January, February, March, April High Level Recap ................................................................ 2

NEWS AND GENERAL UDPATES ............................................................................. 3 Celebrating 10 significant events for Canada 150 ................................................................. 3

Flexible Weekend Delivery – From pilot to production ........................................................... 4 Interesting concept from the competition! Why UPS drivers don’t turn left and you probably

shouldn’t either ................................................................................................................ 5

SAFETY TIPS ....................................................................................................... 7 Digital dirt: Why the data you leave in a rental car could threaten your privacy ....................... 7

INDUSTRY NEWS .............................................................................................. 10 Walmart introduces “Pickup Discount” .............................................................................. 10

TEAM NEWS ...................................................................................................... 11 Congratulations to Jack Zonneveld ................................................................................... 11

Service Awards! ............................................................................................................. 12

WHAT’S NEXT… ................................................................................................. 12 Next Issue .................................................................................................................... 12

The RMO/RSO Times is a monthly publication issued each month. This publication is intended to

support frontline Route Measurement employees in their day-to-day work. Find all of the latest

editions of the RMO/RSO Times in NROS and NROP in the Quick Links section. For more

information on this publication, please contact your Superintendent/Manager.


OUR TEAM HAS EXPANDED!

Effective April 2017, the RSMC route optimization officers, superintendents and managers are now

part of our team – welcome! I’m very pleased to have the RSMC and urban restructure teams

joined together. We share similar challenges, as well as a common goal, which is to support

Delivery Operations with efficient and feasible routes. This is the first newsletter where we are

including content for RSOs. So, if you have any suggestions for future content, please send them to

myself or your manager.

Natalie

A MONTH IN REVIEW

January, February, March, April High Level Recap

Restructure recap as of April - Urban Total of 30 volumes counts for the months of January through April

Total of 37 implementations in the first Quarter: January (1), February (11), March (25)

Financial results as of March year-to-date:

o Full time equivalent (FTE) routes complement decreased by 20.6 Letter Carriers

o We have absorbed 6,674 over-assessed minutes year to date

o Total savings to date is $187,000: $167,000 due to volume restructures and $20,000

due to sequencing restructures. This represents a total work content reduction of

3.9%

Restructure and Conversion activity as of April – RSMC Waterdown, ON restructure implemented on April 10.

No other restructures are planned for 2017, since we need the systems to be updated with

the new activity values that were negotiated in the last round of bargaining.

Focus for 2017 is on converting offices from RMS to Georoute. Conversions are important

since they allow us to save hours and kilometres in the office as Georoute optimizes the line

of travel.

Total of 32 RSMC conversions since April (out of a total 174 planned for 2017)


NEWS and GENERAL UDPATES

Celebrating 10 significant events for Canada 150

With so many stories to tell, we decided to focus on our modern history by celebrating 10 of the

most significant events since our Centennial year. The incredible accomplishments of our first

century paved the way for Canada to come of age and become a shining example to the rest of the

world.

So starting on April 27, we will unveil all 10 incredible stamps at separate events over a five-week

period. Each one will recognize a significant event or milestone in the last 50 years that helped

shape the Canada we know today. You can follow our progress on this site.

Some will be obvious. Some will surprise you. Each one will make you proud to call this country

home.

Each one deserves a special unveiling and that’s what we’re planning. We have called on an

impressive list of Canadians to help us celebrate these moments – including a world-renowned

architect, a Canadian country music star, community activists, legendary sports figures, a former

Prime Minister and even an astronaut.

The entire set will be unveiled by June 1. That’s the day they will be issued for sale across the

country. So please keep coming back to this site as we unveil each of the 10 stamps.

While we’re keeping the details under wraps until the unveilings, we can share one historic fact.

For the first time ever, each stamp will be the shape of the maple leaf. Telling Canada’s story

through postage started with a beaver, so it’s only fitting we call on the maple leaf to mark our

150th year.

On behalf of all of us at Canada Post, Happy 150th Canada!

Deepak Chopra

Canada Post


Flexible Weekend Delivery – From pilot to production

Delivering the holidays has always been important to our business, but with more and more

Canadians shopping online, it has taken on a whole new meaning. In order to meet the growing

volume demands and sharp increases in volume during the holidays, that now begin as early as

November with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals driving an early start to the our peak season,

we deliver during the weekend in most urban centers.

Sunday delivery is an adhoc process by which local team leaders will divide parcels, between

available drivers, based on a high level split per FSA/LDU or by combining several weekday routes

together to create static delivery areas. This process is hard on employees who are not always

familiar with the delivery area and it is especially demanding on the team leaders that manage this

process.

In light of this growing demand, the Corporation started testing a new suite of route optimization

and navigation tools (Vehicle Routing System or VRS) for the delivery of parcels on Sundays. This

first pilot took place in 2 delivery installations (Oakville and Brossard) during the 2015 holiday

season. Dynamic routing was accomplished via a process relying heavily on manual intervention,

by which parcel data was captured from the mechanized sort equipment, manually filtered and

passed on to a third party service provider that automatically created optimized routes for us based

on the volumes and stops provided. Once the routes are created, parcels are sorted to route and

over labelled with the route #, delivery sequence # and RPO information. Delivery agents were

provided with a paper manifest and a navigation tool providing turn by turn directions. The

feedback received from both the team leaders and employees was very positive.

Building on the success of this first pilot, the Corporation moved forward with a second pilot during

the 2016 holiday season, slightly changing and expanding the scope of the 2015 operation to now

focus on 7 depots within the Montreal region. This time, the project team was able to implement

and automate the data capture and data filtering and transformation process in order to eliminate

the need for manual intervention. This second pilot provided us with continued success and allowed

us to demonstrate that through stable integration with the VRS provider, we have the capacity to

produce dynamic routes based on our actual parcel data.

As the team was working to implement and stabilize the processes surrounding the 2016 pilot, an

agreement was reached during the 2016 contract negotiations with CUPW-UPO regarding a new

Pickup and Parcel Delivery Model operating outside of the regular daily network (Appendix JJ).

Given this development, the National Route Optimization team saw an opportunity to leverage the

successes and learnings of the holiday season pilots in support of the new weekend delivery

operations.

After additional planning was completed with the Montreal Operations team in early 2017, we

proceeded with the soft launch of a small Montreal Weekend Parcel Pickup and Delivery model

based out of Depot Ouest on March 19th, 2017. This new weekend operation is currently comprised

of 4 FSA’s belonging to different depots (NDG, St Michel and Pierrefonds) and provides the project

and deployment teams with a small, lab-type environment that will allow us to incrementally add

and test new activities and features such as dynamic customer pickups, delivery notification

windows to customers and user friendly tools for both the team leader and the delivery employees


while minimizing impact to the existing operations.

Routes produced by VR Systems are more representative of that day’s workload, supporting our

Delivery Agents and Team Leaders in the fluctuating and less predictable world of parcel delivery.

Multiple transportation and distribution companies are already reaping the benefits of their

association with VRS companies and now Canada Post is looking to benefit from a similar

partnership. As our work progresses and we move the Flexible Weekend Delivery Operation from

pilot to production, we hope to develop a sustainable and scalable Dynamic Weekend Operating

Model that could then be deployed to the greater Montreal region and eventually be replicated in

other major urban centers. So stay tuned… the future of routing is right around the corner!

Interesting concept from the competition!

Why UPS drivers don’t turn left and you probably shouldn’t either

It might seem strange, but UPS delivery vans don’t always take the shortest route between stops.

The company gives each driver a specific route to follow and that includes a policy that drivers

should never turn through oncoming traffic (that’s left in countries where they drive on the right

and vice versa) unless absolutely necessary. This means that routes are sometimes longer than they have to be. So, why do they do it?

Every day, along with thousands of other companies, UPS solves versions of the vehicle routing

problem. In these mathematical problems, you are given a set of points and the distances between

them, and you have to find the best route(s) to travel through all of them. Best is usually defined as the route with the shortest overall distance.

Vehicle routing problems are used to organise many things, from coping with more delivery trucks

in cities and hailing taxis to catching chickens on a farm. The concept was introduced by George

Dantzig in 1959. Over 50 years later, and despite a large body of scientific research, scientists are still looking for new ways to tackle the problem.

Vehicle routing problems involve finding the best route between points. Wikipedia Commons

UPS have moved away from trying to find the shortest route and now look at other criteria to

optimise the journey. One of their methods is to try and avoid turning through oncoming traffic at a

junction. Although this might be going in the opposite direction of the final destination, it reduces

the chances of an accident and cuts delays caused by waiting for a gap in the traffic, which would also waste fuel.


UPS have designed their vehicle routing software to eliminate as many left-hand turns as possible

(in countries with right-hand traffic). Typically, only 10% of the turns are left turns. As a result, the

company claims it uses 10m gallons less fuel, emits 20,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide and delivers

350,000 more packages every year. The efficiency of planning routes with its navigation software

this way has even helped the firm cut the number of trucks it uses by 1,100, bringing down the company’s total distance travelled by 28.5m miles – despite the longer routes.

It seems incredible that not turning left can lead to such significant savings. The TV series

Mythbusters tested this idea and confirmed that, despite many more turns, the policy of only

turning right does save fuel. In their one truck experiment they travelled further, but when you scale this up to a global level, UPS really does travel fewer miles in total.

The success of UPS’s policy raises the question, why don’t we all avoid turning left (or right,

depending on what country we’re in), as we drive around cities on our daily commutes? If everyone did it, the carbon savings would be huge and there’d probably be far less congestion.

The problem is that not every journey would be made more efficient by following this strategy, and most people are likely only to change their driving style if they personally benefit.

Driver’s dilemma

As with anything related to reducing climate change, if everybody else did it then things would get

better and you wouldn’t have to change your lifestyle at all to benefit. But it only needs a few people to not cooperate and the whole system breaks down.

This is a good example of the prisoner’s dilemma, the famous game theory problem. If everybody

cooperated then the system as a whole would be much better, but the best thing for an individual

when everyone else is cooperating is to be uncooperative and reap the rewards of everybody else’s sacrifices.

So, if you cannot persuade people to always turn right (or left) for the benefit of everyone, it might

be down to governments to encourage or even enforce the strategy. For example, we could plan

roads that make it more difficult to turn through the traffic. It would take a brave city planner to

implement this, but if UPS can save 10m gallons of fuel, how much could a whole city or even a whole country save?


SAFETY TIPS

Winter Safety Digital dirt: Why the data you leave in a rental car could threaten your privacy - Information not deleted from onboard infotainment systems in vehicles is a 'considerable problem'

By Catherine Harrop, CBC News Posted: Jan 26, 2017 6:00 AM AT Last Updated: Jan 26, 2017 2:10

PM AT

Catherine Harrop loves a good story. She has been a journalist for more than 25 years.

Larissa Reinders plugs her phone into her rental car the moment she gets in and often has to

delete information from previous drivers that pops up on the screen.

The Fredericton woman admits it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be leaving behind her own

digital fingerprint when she returns the vehicle.

"You do the quick check," she said.

"Unplug your phone and then you make sure there's no Tim Hortons cups and then you leave. I

never think to delete that phone information. Ever."

Reinders isn't alone. CBC checked several cars in Fredericton and found contact information on

both rental and pre-owned cars, leaving breadcrumb trails of information visible to the next person

who sits behind the wheel.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/cbc-news-online-news-staff-list-1.1294364


Drivers often pair their phones with the infotainment system in cars. (Catherine Harrop/CBC)

Its information car rental companies and resellers are often not deleting, leaving a digital footprint

that can threaten the privacy of those unsuspecting drivers.

"It's a considerable problem, actually," said Rajen Akalu, an assistant professor at the University of

Ontario Institute of Technology.

"Most people don't realize the amount of information that they leave behind when they pair their

phone, for example, on any rental car."

The rental experience

CBC News paired a phone to a Toyota Camry rented from Enterprise Car Rental in Fredericton.

Three names and numbers were stored on the screen.


A 'my contacts' list can easily become an 'other people's' contact list if it's left behind in a car that's

rented or sold. (Catherine Harrop/CBC)

When each number was called, each person who answered was surprised. All three wanted to

remain anonymous, and most thought the car rental company should have done what they hadn't.

"There's nothing stopping them from deleting them if we haven't done it," said one businessman.


INDUSTRY NEWS

Walmart introduces “Pickup Discount” http://postandparcel.info/79447/news/walmart-introduces-pickup-discount/

US retailer Walmart has announced that, from 19 April, it will be offering discounts on eligible

goods which customers buy online and pick up from a store, rather opting for home delivery.

In a blog post on the retailer’s website, Marc Lore, President and CEO, Walmart U.S. eCommerce,

said that the new service – called Pickup Discount – will initially be available on about 10,000 items

and will then roll out to more than one million items by the end of June.

Lore said that Pickup Discount builds on the “ethos behind Jet’s Smart Cart“. As previously

reported, Walmart bought the online retailer Jet.com last year and rolled it into its e-commerce

division. The Smart Cart system has developed a number of techniques for incentivising customers

to pick more cost-effective shipping options.

In a statement published today (12 April) about the Pickup Discount launch, Mark Ibbotson,

Executive Vice President of Central Operations – Walmart US – also highlighted some of the other

recent enhancements to its Pickup service. These include: the “Pickup Today” same-day service; a

feature in the app which allows customers to notify the store when they are on their way so items

can be readied for their arrival; and the expansion of the “Pickup Tower” (a click and collect parcel

locker which uses Cleveron technology) into more stores.

http://postandparcel.info/79447/news/walmart-introduces-pickup-discount/


TEAM NEWS

Congratulations to Jack Zonneveld

Congratulations to Jack Zonneveld RSO superintendent for Huron _Rideau for 35 years of service

with Canada post as of May 10th. Jack started his career in 1982 as a mail handler in Kitchener, his

career expanded into the GTA area where he worked at Gateway as a clerk, then P05 then

supervisor. He returned to the Kitchener area, and worked in Kitchener C&D as a supervisor. This

then lend him to a position in RSMC rural safety. As delivery safety expanded, Jack became a RSO

in the realignment group and then superintendent RSO re-alignment for Huron Rideau. On behalf of

Canada post and your re-alignment team thank you for all your contributions over the last 35

years.

Service Awards!

Marc Amyot 15 years

Ben Lalande 10 years!


WHAT’S NEXT…

Next Issue June 15, 2017: June 2017 – Vol. 3 – 6

rmo/rso times · 2018-01-04 · rmo-rso times may 2017 english v.4.doc 3 news and general udpates...

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