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. 
5 Responses to 'The Future Of the Letter Carrier'
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on November 28th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
They always have USED the start times in order to manipulate rurals. In the typical ploy they will threaten that: “your start times will have to be moved forward if you can’t________________________”
i.e., If you don’t come in off the record ,assist each other off the record , shave off hours, add in bogus breaks, run short-service duty, do route chores at home, take additional parcels as you leave, and show good numbers , then we’ll have to inconvenience you by making your start times later.
It’s the SAME OL ‘GAME…IT HAS NEVER BEEN CHANGED!
Their game is, as you guessed, to play the margin…widen the undertime gap…then CLOSE IT… Widen…close…WIDEN…CLOSE…FRAUD…EXPLOIT!!
on December 1st, 2005 at 8:23 pm
Carriers in our office are being told that if they aren’t within plus or minus 20 minutes of the official route time established by the latest count, that they must take DPS to the street.
on December 2nd, 2005 at 8:54 pm
The times they are using to determine if we are +-20 minutes are from the last February count, which is one to the 2 lowest revenue months, (that and July,) of the year. The start time uses the formula based on taking mail straight to the street, transferring the time you would have used in the office to the street, (adding one hour or so to your street time.) In other words, if you can’t case the mail in the time allotted for all but DPS, then you have to take it to the street. We are being told our district is mandating 8:30 start times, which doesn’t make sense in the rural craft especially during standard time when afternoon daylight hours are less. For safety’s sake it would make much more sense to let us come in earlier, case the mail as long as we are not idle, then get back off the street earlier so we are not delivering mail after dark when accidents are more likely to happen and accuracy delivering is much higher.
on December 2nd, 2005 at 9:01 pm
One more thing, we were sold P.M. casing based on the idea that we would only have to case about 1-2 feet of flats in the morning, then hit the street. Since then they have curtailed clerk hours used to spread the P.M. helicopter flats, increasing that 1-2 feet of morning flats up to 4-10 feet of morning flats or more, and expect us to be consistent with our departure times. (Not much respect for us as a unit of working class people.)
on December 22nd, 2005 at 11:13 am
WE HAVE NO UNION! The February mail count is being taken during the weakest two weeks of the weakest month of the year. Why not take it the two weeks after Thanksgiving? Where is the UNION in rebutting management’s timetable? A respectable and fair compromise should be determined between the two parties but it is not. Our UNION LEADERSHIP is made up of people that took a standardized speed test to get a job. Their background in Labor Negotiation tactics and strategies might not be that “professional”. Maybe it’s time to actively look for another Union to represent us. One that has a history of competency. How about the Teamsters? There is a relationship between the jobs they represent and ours. Essentially you get what you pay for. We have carriers that aren’t even in the so called Union. They aren’t even required to pay an agency fee yet enjoy the same benefits. Everyone need to pay a lot more attention to what is involved and to what your union dues are going into.