A wheel of a time

In the fourth part of our series charting principal engineer Jan Kojro’s remarkable 50-year career at Royal Mail, we described his time in Leeds in the 1990s following his return from the Middle East.

Today, in part five, it’s a busy new millennium. ‘The 2000s started with me spending more time in London,’ said Jan. ‘I’d been appointed to a national role that was an extension of my former divisional capital investment portfolio. With each division operating autonomously the allocation of capital had become uneven so this needed to be addressed and funds prioritised. 

‘One of my specialisms was spatial planning and working environment efficiencies, so if you lost your nice office and had to move into open plan working it was probably down to me, I’m afraid! Working life had changed, the comfort and routine of the divisional days where teams were generally office-based and everyone knew each other had gone. 

‘Networking was the new buzzword, we travelled more with our laptops in our backpacks, and email ruled our lives. In fact, if this sounds familiar today, it’s probably the most durable change in the working life of a manager that’s stood the test of time over the last 20 or so years.

‘It was around this time that the realisation of managing declining mail volumes started to emerge. Whereas much of the investment of the 90s was based on increased postings. the flow had started to dry up so consolidations and merging properties became the focus and the signal for another reorganisation.

‘I hadn’t not worked in the core of the engineering function for 20 years or more and I along with many other trained engineers had dispersed into non-technical roles throughout the business, a good idea I thought. However, the proposal was that a centre of excellence would be created, and all technical resources would be managed through the engineering function. So, I brought the baggage of my many years of experience working in operational supporting services into the engineering environment, the idea being that I would be offered up to support business centre initiatives as an ‘engineering implant’.

‘The first project was the blueprint for future deliveries. This involved looking at new ways of working to take weight off one’s shoulder, remove the practice of private cars being used on delivery, and address the changes in the type of mail we were handling; less letters, more parcels and bulkier pouches were becoming an issue even then. It was different to the work I’d done previously, but my experience in remodelling the estate for such projects as ‘single daily delivery’ and my long involvement with equipment and assets came in very useful. 

‘I had engineering resources to call on and we did a lot of testing and evaluation of equipment for deliveries, some weird and whacky but some of the e-Trikes, e-Bikes, e-Scooters and powered trolleys actually made it onto the streets for live operational trials. I must admit we had a lot of fun, but the final outcome was the shared vehicle arrangement that you see today. The project was to carry me through to the close of yet another decade and beyond.