200k + a year??

Today we had a stand-up and were required to watch a video outlining what is and isn’t allowed during load time and end-of-shift (EOS) duties. During the discussion, our OIC mentioned a conference call where it was stated that several rural carriers nationwide made close to $250,000 in a year.

I’m genuinely trying to understand how that would be possible. A maxed-out 48K route at Step 15 pays $100,053 annually. To more than double that, a carrier would have to be running multiple routes and working six days a week, essentially year-round. Both the math and the physical demands of that kind of workload don’t seem realistic to me.

I'm not saying district and about is lying but if this is true then props to those carriers. But if those numbers are accurate, it would only be possible because management allowed extreme and sustained route stacking or coverage. That's on management not the carrier.

15 RCAs probably don’t pull $250k combined. Sounds like they should hire RCAs instead of shelling out OT like they are M&Ms.

You can’t fix dumb.

PandaSharks said:

Today we had a stand-up and were required to watch a video outlining what is and isn’t allowed during load time and end-of-shift (EOS) duties. During the discussion, our OIC mentioned a conference call where it was stated that several rural carriers nationwide made close to $250,000 in a year.

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Could the OIC been talking about the NRLCA National Officer's complete benefits package?

I called shenanigans when those numbers were mentioned. They seemed surprised too, so they pulled up a screenshot from the presentation. One carrier was listed at $248K, reportedly out of Virginia, and there were about 10 carriers nationwide over $200K. Most were 48K routes, with one a 46K.

I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. Even if the numbers are accurate, it raises more questions than it answers. What’s the takeaway here? Are we being told there’s no overtime available? That this level of pay is somehow normal or expected?

If anything, it just highlights that something unusual was allowed to happen.

I heard about it. It was an error in timekeeping and payroll that was figuring the overtime hours incorrectly due to a number of factors but in my office they are changing the way regular carrier's are allowed to get overtime. Changes include not allowing regular carrier's to case in the morning on other routes and they must return to delivery unit before assisting other routes. I think they figured out that some carrier's were shorting the hours on their routes and it was grossly showing a lot of undertime on their routes and overinflating their overtime pay to the tune of about $300 an hour in some of the worst cases.

I believe it is possible. Some regulars are working nearly all K days plus assisting on other routes. Assist pay is based on how efficient you run your route and much under evaluation you are. If it was 300 an hour thats insane and they are running their routes in about 15% of the total eval so like 6 hours a week or less. But 90-100 an hour is definitely achievable without cheating the system

UnknownUser said:

I think they figured out that some carrier's were shorting the hours on their routes and it was grossly showing a lot of undertime on their routes and overinflating their overtime pay to the tune of about $300 an hour in some of the worst cases.

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But this suggests the carrier was doing something wrong. We cant just help on other routes willy nilly because we want to. We dont input hours into the system. I have seen heavy split route days that everyone (including clerks and managent) pitch in a little to get through it all. The regulars evaluation hours reflecting undertime isnt a thought considered. Just working together to get through the day is the thought. A regular goes to another route because we know most routes from being rca for so many years, then someone inexperienced (management or clerk) pops on the route to case in dps.. maybe parcel aux assist also happens and reg carriers left to pitch and ditch quickly through a couple routes. Glad they realized the error and corrected, but I find it hard to believe carriers could pull this off themselves.

U caught my attention said:

But this suggests the carrier was doing something wrong. We cant just help on other routes willy nilly because we want to. We dont input hours into the system. I have seen heavy split route days that everyone (including clerks and managent) pitch in a little to get through it all. The regulars evaluation hours reflecting undertime isnt a thought considered. Just working together to get through the day is the thought. A regular goes to another route because we know most routes from being rca for so many years, then someone inexperienced (management or clerk) pops on the route to case in dps.. maybe parcel aux assist also happens and reg carriers left to pitch and ditch quickly through a couple routes. Glad they realized the error and corrected, but I find it hard to believe carriers could pull this off themselves.

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Well another thing is, now they won't let us touch the mail until our official start time. So they were probably coming in early as well. We aren't allowed to be a few minutes early anymore. So idk if it happened in our district or somewhere else.

Did they forget that management does the time keeping? It is also management's job to set start times, restrict overtime, manage wasteful practices and hire enough carriers to get the work done. The spotlight should be on the management in an office with those issues, not the overworked carriers who are willing to step up.

That's nuts. Must've been a step 12 working 6 days a week, volunteering to work other routes after finishing theirs, and volunteering for Sundays. They picked a good year to do that with the "no tax on overtime".

nixie said:

That's nuts. Must've been a step 12 working 6 days a week, volunteering to work other routes after finishing theirs, and volunteering for Sundays. They picked a good year to do that with the "no tax on overtime".

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Yeah even working every single K day its like 135k max at 48k top step. The only way is working 4+ hours a day at 200 or more an hour every single day in assist pay on top of doing that

LouSainus said:

Yeah even working every single K day its like 135k max at 48k top step. The only way is working 4+ hours a day at 200 or more an hour every single day in assist pay on top of doing that

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Yep, there really is no way to make 250K as a rural carrier. Even working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, going over 2240, a carrier would not get to 250K. Even if you include their EMA they wouldn't get to that number. Someone must've been going home while still clocked in, then clocking out in the morning when they get back to the office and clocking back in a minute later

I don't believe it at all. Couple of years ago I worked nearly all my K days as a 45 K and barely got over 100K. I'm also Table one and would of been around step 2 or 3 at the time. If someone is going to make an outlandish comment of people making over 250K a year then you need to stop the OIC in their tracks and demand some proof. Otherwise it's such a laughable comment.

LouSainus said:

I believe it is possible. Some regulars are working nearly all K days plus assisting on other routes. Assist pay is based on how efficient you run your route and much under evaluation you are. If it was 300 an hour thats insane and they are running their routes in about 15% of the total eval so like 6 hours a week or less. But 90-100 an hour is definitely achievable without cheating the system

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There is somewhat of a limit on how high the assist pay can go. It was a few years back that weekly assist hours were limited to one third of actual weekly hours on the route, excluding the hours working your route on your day off. You could put it on the timesheet, I think the manager attempted to input, the pay would not include anything for help hours over one third of actual hours on your own route. Now I hear it’s a little more than one third, but nothing specific. I would guess $250,000, it’s the entire compensation benefit package, and the lucky few on their larger k routes that happened to be configured to receive the greatest benefit from rrecs, are helping about 7-9 hours per week on other routes, plus 3-5 hours every Sunday. They, to be in that lucky position, are most definitely in an office with a consistent shortage of help. They are doing their route in 5-6 hours on average through the year, and are assisting on other routes 6-7 hours per week, most every week of the year. In actuality, they are probably actually working more than 6-7 hours per week assisting other routes, but they are limited to how many of their help hours will be paid. At $120 per hour overtime rate, it’s easy to reason that doing a few extra hours per week, that your not getting paid for, in order to keep the office pleasant, and continue to receive the extra overtime, is time well worth it.

Wing said:

to be in that lucky position

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I dont consider it lucky at all. Who wants to work that much? I have way better things to do with my time on this earth than work extra.

Wing said:

At $120 per hour overtime rate, it’s easy to reason that doing a few extra hours per week, that your not getting paid for, in order to keep the office pleasant, and continue to receive the extra overtime, is time well worth it.

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yah, that's called working off the clock.

i don't go to work to "keep the office pleasant", i go to make money.
all the money, overtime or no.

Maybe this occurred in.....Minneapolis?