The Future Of the Letter Carrier
They are controlling Rural Carrier start times, why? My best guess is they wish to lower the daily hours it takes to do our routes to lower the time standards. I’m sure somewhere they have been mandated to create a new “BUMP�? to prove we don’t deserve the pay we receive now. They also wish to control Christmas overtime.
It seems ludicrous that they would interfere with a rural route as long as that route is not exceeding 2080 hours per year. Older carriers who use more annual leave will in no way come near a 2080 problem.
Folks, they already have us at higher time standards than the city routes, (I.E. we have to case 10 flats per minute vs. city’s 8 flats per minute.) We have to work 20% faster and harder than our city counterparts and we are paid less per hour for the trouble.
City Craft:
8 Flats per minute.
480 Flats per hour.
4.8 feet per hour, (depending on density of flats per foot.)
City can negotiate daily volumes and cut mail or hand off a swing.
Rural Craft:
10 flats per minute.
600 flats per hours.
6 feet per hour, (depending on density of flats per foot.)
Rural Regulars have a clean case policy, (all mail goes daily.)
Uneven mail flow.
City gets penalty overtime, (aka double time,) where our overtime is built right in.
They are trying to milk the rural craft of everything possible while giving the city craft every benefit. We have momentum working in our favor, that is to say, we would like to finish our routes and go home, not having the clock hanging over our head, if we get done early we can go home. I’m sure there are some managers who look at that and wonder why they cannot use us when we are done on our routes, to carry a swing on another overburdened route.
Our route evaluations are determined by a count in the lowest revenue month of the year if you check the Postal Financial pages. This translates into the lowest mail volume, lowest parcels, lowest special class mails and lowest ad month of the year.
I was jokingly =) telling a fellow carrier that the next step in the evolution of the Post Office would be to drop the daily mail load in front of each carriers house the same way that the paper company does. I have no doubt this is in the future of the P.O. when blended flats become a reality. 
St. Petersburg FL - 7
Add your comments to the article listed below where 7 St. Petersburg Letter Carriers were fired for honoring their customers whishes to not deliver ad mail to their mailboxes, (customers who have the right to refuse any mail they receive.)
_http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/11/Southpinellas/Mail_carriers_fired__.shtml_
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/11/Southpinellas/Mail_carriers_fired__.shtml
The Guiding Light
What is it you don’t like about a football team when it seems they can never follow through with a win? Some examples would be the 49ers, the Buccaneers, Arizona, and for that matter Philly. They get an early lead and then by the time the game is over they are 21 points behind. What are they missing?
What is the NRLCA missing when we have the most motivated craft in the USPS and we can’t negotiate a decent contract or get union support from National? We can’t get the relief craft to provide a full day of relief. Is there some element that we don’t have control over? Is there something that works its way between the regular and the relief? The only things I can think of are supervisors and Postmasters.
Bottom line, we don’t have an integrated team. Management expects far more from the regular than the relief making teamwork impossible and frustration levels elevated to new heights. I feel like the laughingstock of the Post Office and I’m sure I have a ton of company in that regard. We’ll get no sympathy from the City Craft, because they have a whole set of their own crosses to bear.
We are in a transition, between the city craft and the rural craft. Management has to cut budgets and we are easy to divide and conquer. Take a look around, and tell me what you see. Feel that strong support from national? Feel that hand to lift you out of the darkness?