Messenger Service: Manual of Service

Purpose

The purpose of this Manual is to give ethical and legal guidance on how to run the Messenger Services. This can be on matters such as when members wear which type of uniform or when to increase or lower the price of messages from its standard pricing of 15 New Sovereigns as well as how to deal with issues that were known about.
The manual has differing colour to those of the ledgers they use for the income of the service. The Ledgers are brown while the Manual of Service is burgundy coloured.

Document Structure

The Manual is set out in logical layout by topic category in alphabetical order each of these categories is called a clause. The contents of the books are written in dry legalistic language to make it clear on intention. If there are conditional words such as; and, or, as well as, instead, exception, the sentence containing these words are treated akin to a computer program or a strict rule set.

Clauses

The clauses or categories that are contained in the Manual are;

How The Service Runs

• Message Price - The standard price for a message is 15 New Sovereigns but can change in limited occasions such as in economic recessions (in which the price goes down) or in economic prosperity (in which the price goes up). This has limited scope and can’t be increased to be extortionate or decreased to the point the service is unsustainable.
• Uniform Standards - This relates to what the standard of uniform should be such as the colour of the uniform and how it is worn as well as what items are worn when. Apart from the obvious of don’t wear the cloak in Summer it details what the starting shift temperature dictates what should be worn, for example, a day starting temperature is below 10C (50F), then the cloak is worn. This also includes if it is windy as a temperature of 10C (50F) in wind will feel like 8C (46.40F) and if you include rain it will be lower still.
• Uniform costs and ethics - This covers obvious things like how much the uniform should cost. Ethics are things like when an employee or the Captain of the Messengers should pay for a uniform, for example when an employee wants a second set of uniforms, this clause will say whether or not the employee should pay for it.
• Working hours - This includes the working hours based on age and what type of messenger. For a Messenger that can be seen on the streets of Birdencaster will have longer hours than those who are working in the Captain of the Messengers Office doing administration. Those who are the external messengers or the Captain of the Messengers will have similar hours. Working hours tend to be 8am - 5pm or 7pm for messengers, 7am - 7:30pm for Captains and External messengers can work longer than the Captains.
• Delivery - For this section, the book has in italics “for pricing see Message Price”. This section deals with Delivery, these policies include the most famous rule of conduct to deliver a message to the closest Zone and Segment if the message is not for the Zone and Segment they are allocated to. The standard code of conduct changes if the messenger reports to an Office in Zone 2 Segment 10 their code of conduct has a slight change in which the line “Our Customers pay 15 New Sovereigns for every message including replies, no matter how far we have to carry it, so go fast.” gets a slight edit to the end which is “if you delivering the Mayor's Letter ensure you go differing routes.
• Reporting Structure and Customer Service - This includes things such as the messenger reports to the captain.
• And many more

Customer Service

This section of Clauses are about customer service while there are more many of them are common customer complaints.

• Opening times - This policy is that customers who visit the Office, are to only visit after 8:20 am for their safety as there will have a volume of foot traffic at 8 am but will see the captain only.
• Complaint hierarchy - This policy is about who should be seen by the customer. In the unlikely occurrence that both captains are not in then, the trainee captain will take charge and note down complaints, if this is not the case then the bottoms out case is for the most senior messenger to take complaints.

Publication Status

The book is published and can be found on the bottom floor of the Captain of the Messengers Office on the captain of the messenger’s Desk.
In the past, the Manual had many revised editions as it needed to be made more clear how to run the service and deal with complaints as well as making additions to issues that came up. As these have been cleared up the book no longer has revised editions but may have reprinted editions to replace old or worn-out books.

Public Reaction

General Public’s Reaction

The public reaction to the Manual is that they are in safe hands that any issue that the service gas will be resolved more easily and that they are in safe hands.

Employee’s Reaction

While it is only the Captain of the Messengers who looks up enteries in the book and shows the entry to the Messenger for honesty and clarity, the manual garners structure and stability.

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Messenger Service: Manual of Service

Service Policies

Message Price

• In times of Economic Boom, messages should be increased to and should not exceed 20 New Sovereigns
• In times of Economic Recession Messages should be decreased to and should not be decreased further than 10 New Sovereigns
• The standard price for messages, is 15 New Sovereigns

Uniform

Uniform Standards

Messenger uniform consists of red polo shirt, black cargo trousers and aprorate footware. In winter or other cold weather conditions, the uniform also includes a cloak and penannular brooch.

Seasonal Uniform Variations

• During when it is cold in the perception of the messenger, they can switch to wearing a winter uniform.
• This is the same for when changing from cold to hot weather conditions

Within summer conditions:

• Men are not permitted to wear shorts neither women are not permitted to wear skirts.

Uniform Ethics

• Two sets of uniform of both uniforms, can be given free of charge, the third onwards must be paid for.
• If the messenger is being relieved of duty due to them being reassigned an Extra Employment Role, then the uniform or uniforms must be surrendered.

Working Hours

Standard working hours in the Messenger Service depend on the role, personnel have, for youth hours, See Youth Working Hours.

Messengers

There are five rules of conduct that when asked a messenger should be able to recite, are:

1. When a customer gives an oral message, repeat it back to make sure you have it right.
2. Always wear a red cape or polo shirt so people can identify you.
3. Our Customers pay [whatever the current price of a message in New Sovereigns for every message including replies, no matter how far we have to carry it, so go fast.
4. Deliver the message only to the person it’s meant for.
5. Only take the messages to the nearest Zone or Segment

• In regards to point 5 above refer to delivering messages from City Hall refer to Message Delivery
• When a messenger is not on duty, such as at lunch and needs to go to Zone 4 to buy lunch. The Messenger is required to change from the red polo shirt or not be wearing the cape, so as to not be confused with a messenger on duty.
• Messengers work from 8:00 to 17:00 but can work as late as 19:00.
• In winter Messengers should work in shifts and should come back to the captain of the messengers' office, regularly and then be sent out to other stations
• The first half an hour of their shift will be delivering mail.
• To ensure that their enough Messengers, during lunch hours for the citizens' lunch breaks will be separated into two groups.

• Group A - 12:30 to 13:30
• Group B - 13:30 to 14:30

• Messengers must have a minimum of 20 minutes lunch, but must not go over 1 hour.
• Messengers who work later are known to be able to work late.
• Messengers who are medically unfit to work long hours should not be forced to do so.

Captains

• Captains are promoted from the most senior messenger
• Before the current Captain retires the most senior messenger is tutors under them.
• The working hours for a captain is 7:00 - 19:30
• However there are two captains per office.
• There should be at least one captain at work at a time, these times can should reflect the one above

External Messengers

Standard working hours for an external Messenger are an hour after sun up to 3 hours before sundown.

Youth Working Hours

Youth refers to anyone who is below the age of 18.

Messengers

Messengers must only do one shift a day but must do all days, unless unwell. A shift is either the morning or the afternoon or the evening.

Message Delivery

• When written messages are to be delivered they should be taken to the closest Zone or Segment, that is in the direction of where the message needs to go.
  • For example if a message is going to 3 11 and the messenger is 5 6 the most appropriate the messenger can do is deliver the message to a messenger in 4 6.
  • For example if a message is going to 3 6 and the first messenger is in 3 12. The most appropriate course of action is to carry the message to Zone 2, then on to Zone 1 and though to 2 6.
• When delivering messages from City Hall, messages should be delivered using different routes.
• This includes going right and taking a longer route when left would be beneficial.
• When delivering a message to someone's abode, and they are not present, the local messenger should know where they can possibly be found, asking around is also acceptable.

Reporting Structure

• A Messenger reports to the captain
• A Captain in training reports to the current or a captain

Opening Times

• The Captain of the Messengers' office should be open at 7:30 to allow for messenger briefing and allocation of their stations.
• The Captain of the Messengers’ Office should be closed at 19:00 to allow for an hour at the end of the operational day to close properly.

Complaint Hierarchy

When a complaint happens from a customer the below list is who the complaint should go to, if the person in the list is not there, then continue down the list until there is someone on the list.

• Captain Of The Messengers
• Trainee Captain Of The Messengers
• Most Senior Messenger
• Messenger

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Type
Instructional Legalistic Manual
Medium
Cloth Bound Paper Paged Book
Dimensions
A4 and 7 cm thick
Parent Location
Captain of the Messengers Office
Affiliated Organisation
Messenger Service.

Article Contents

Further Resources

References

Acknowledgements

Diannika
Diannika's Author Page

Elikwake
Elikwake's Author Page

Kahuna the Elder
Twitch
Kahuna The Elder's World Anvil Author Page

Lethann
Lethann’s World Anvil Author Page

moonflower_writer
Moonflower’s World Anvil Author Page