Anyone Work For A Courier (PARCELFORCE, DHL,UPS ETC..)

ticmike

I have an interview for Parcelforce soon and one thing im a bit worried about is planning a route for multi drop delivery, just wondered if anybody works in this enviorment can offer some advice on how you go about planning your daily route.
How do you know where so start and where to go next, do you use postcodes???
Any help or advice would be appreciated as i have to plan a route in my interview.

Conor_3

When you start at first, ask people for help. There is always someone in every depot who seems to know every route inside out. After a week on the round, you'll start to get to know where the regular drops are and where the streets are so your ability to sort out your own gets better.

For your interview, use the postcodes as it means the addresses are in the same area. Postcodes go sequencially so you'd do YO15 0AA followed by YO15 0AB etc etc - the last two letters denote a street or part of a street whereas the first five denote an area.
BUT Remember to put the "Premium Services" FIRST. Premium services are "Before 9am" etc. Effectively it'll mean you end up with two routes covering the same area - one for the premiums and one for the rest - but all listed as one route. They may throw a timed delivery in there as well so quickly reckon which drop is likely to be prior to when the timed one is due then stick the timed one in, making sure you allow enough time to get there.

At the end of the day, the idea of the test is for the candidate to prove they can organise a list and prioritise some elements of that list.

ticmike

Thanks for that info, its really apprciated.
If you have anymore handy hints or tips, im all ears.

Again Thanks.:T

Mike

lonestar1

I thought these things were automated these days i.e. you follow the course the GPS sets for you

ticmike

Not sure lonestar, but for my interview i need to be able to organize a route with the address' they give me.
So was a bit worried about getting it wrong, as i really need this job, all this job hunting is driving me insane :mad:

Conor_3

lonestar1 wrote: »

I thought these things were automated these days i.e. you follow the course the GPS sets for you

Nope. And I've been at a pallet company last week. Basically they all arrive on the night trunk wagon and get laid out in runs and then it's up to the driver to alter that as required and load the vehicle in the correct order.

Woby_Tide

if you are 'local' and doing multi-drop then you should have a fair idea of which route you would take if you just had to do A-B-C etc. As Conor says though watch out for anything that may be timed. Years since I did it now but where possible we just tried to route from nearest to furthest for the drops, then work in reverse for the pickups so the last ones were nearest the depot, if you were running short of time, that way could always get someone to cover you if need be, if you left furthest pickups to last you were in trouble...

ticmike

I will be fine if the route is local to me as im used to delivering parcels with royal mail in my own town, but its highly unlikley i will be given my own town as i think parcelforce cover the whole greater manchester area.