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Anyone else office getting told they are getting flagged too many times (excessive back up acceleration or braking)

What are those SPM's for anyway?
Most everyone already knows all this but here ya go anyway.....

SPM's are sampling requests in the field that ask for us to scan flats and letters. We used to pay IBM about $30 million a year to do the sampling, but a PO brain surgeon decided carriers could do it more cost effectively.

When we get a sampling request, we are being asked to scan (check) what we deliver that day versus PO Informed Delivery, which gives the customer pictures of what's going through the DPS machine daily for delivery to their box. Those scans we provide should match exactly with Informed Delivery the customer gets. That's the audit part we are doing.

To avoid "oversampling" -- which means we scan more mail than the customer gets pictures of -- and therefore we fail the test -- we ONLY sample DPS from that CURRENT day, NOT anything from hot case, misthrows, leftovers etc. Again, that day's DPS ONLY is what we scan. Clerks mark up hot case mail with a yellow slash so we can identify it when out in the field. We created this process because we kept getting errors from district that we were scanning more than Informed Delivery showed.

IF you get a sampling request, you must respond. Sometimes they're on a different street, etc. and it becomes a saved work order that must be pulled up in your scanner when you reach that address and completed. Often the SPM request comes after you've passed the address, or there's no mail to scan, and as long as we indicate that in our response on the scanner, we've done our job. We get on the district bad list if we miss one.

Now's the time for y'all to make additions, corrections, deletions!!
 
Has anyone else had this issue? Our office got a big ole safety talk from our steward saying our district is watching us and that.

Well issue we find is several things.

#1 There is ZERO consistency in the excessive backing up.

Perfect example. 2 weeks ago, I had to back up of driveway on Thursday and Saturday. Both driveways are very similar length. I got flagged for one but not the other.

#2 Define excessive acceleration & deceleration?

They claim it is gaining 20 mph in XXXX ft which they won't define. Several of the places where people got flagged for this are impossible to get either but they have flagged us. One of our carrier got flagged for excessive acceleration going around a corner.

None of us are worried but it is getting super annoying.

ALSO THIS QUESTION

What's the most sampling request you have gotten in a day?

Couple days ago, I got 5 of them. 3 of them within 20 minutes of each other.
There is absolutely no consistency in excessive backing up. Some who don't get flagged. Some who do don't get flagged. As I've stated in other posts a number of times, the data going into the PO system for the most part is inaccurate or inconsistent, and to discipline anyone based upon it is absurd. It's not evidence. I could quote numerous examples cited on telecons, but management continues to stand firm by it's corrupt data.

Excessive acceleration is supposed to alert when the vehicle in which the scanner is riding exceeds the posted limit by 20 mph. We've gotten alerts when the LLV is stopped. We had one closing supervisor who daily exceeded the limits JUST to try to get the alerts, but gave up since he never got flagged!

Several of you here have voiced frustration that the PO uses scanners to discipline carriers, instead of actually doing things that would provide ease of use and information for carriers and better customer service..
 
Yep we get these reports a lot. Fortunately, I haven’t been hit on one in a long time. But I wanted to add that if they talk to you about an excessive backing/acceleration/deceleration, you need to write down the number of minutes in the remarks column of the 4240 and get paid 8127 time.

Oh yes I get the SPMs all the time. In fact almost 3-5 every day. So annoying; they break up my delivery rhythm lol!

When I have them, I feel enough credit for time required to complete task is nowhere near enough, most bar codes take several attempts to successfully record. Also it never fails that I also have a package to scan and I've either scanned it already (but not finished) and its now off the screen or I have to set the package that I was about to scan down so that I can scan the mail. Its at least a 15 second or more process when the above happens!
 
Most everyone already knows all this but here ya go anyway.....

SPM's are sampling requests in the field that ask for us to scan flats and letters. We used to pay IBM about $30 million a year to do the sampling, but a PO brain surgeon decided carriers could do it more cost effectively.

When we get a sampling request, we are being asked to scan (check) what we deliver that day versus PO Informed Delivery, which gives the customer pictures of what's going through the DPS machine daily for delivery to their box. Those scans we provide should match exactly with Informed Delivery the customer gets. That's the audit part we are doing.

To avoid "oversampling" -- which means we scan more mail than the customer gets pictures of -- and therefore we fail the test -- we ONLY sample DPS from that CURRENT day, NOT anything from hot case, misthrows, leftovers etc. Again, that day's DPS ONLY is what we scan. Clerks mark up hot case mail with a yellow slash so we can identify it when out in the field. We created this process because we kept getting errors from district that we were scanning more than Informed Delivery showed.

IF you get a sampling request, you must respond. Sometimes they're on a different street, etc. and it becomes a saved work order that must be pulled up in your scanner when you reach that address and completed. Often the SPM request comes after you've passed the address, or there's no mail to scan, and as long as we indicate that in our response on the scanner, we've done our job. We get on the district bad list if we miss one.

Now's the time for y'all to make additions, corrections, deletions!!

To avoid "oversampling" -- which means we scan more mail than the customer gets pictures of -- and therefore we fail the test -- we ONLY sample DPS from that CURRENT day, NOT anything from hot case, misthrows, leftovers etc. Again, that day's DPS ONLY is what we scan. Clerks mark up hot case mail with a yellow slash so we can identify it when out in the field. We created this process because we kept getting errors from district that we were scanning more than Informed Delivery showed.

Never heard of this and sorry it's not going to happen, I case all mail and I'll be damned if when having to complete SPM's I'll be looking for specially marked mail to not scan. Nope not going to happen, I'm already under compensated for this task!
 
Yeah, me neither.... never heard of that at all.... I scan Flats then letters.. everything I got.... no worry about whether it was only DPS or not.... :unsure:

Once peeps start fudging what they scan, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the whole damned process??? :rolleyes:

Btw, it's BS and a safety hazard and distraction anyways... js.... :oops:
 
To avoid "oversampling" -- which means we scan more mail than the customer gets pictures of -- and therefore we fail the test -- we ONLY sample DPS from that CURRENT day, NOT anything from hot case, misthrows, leftovers etc. Again, that day's DPS ONLY is what we scan. Clerks mark up hot case mail with a yellow slash so we can identify it when out in the field. We created this process because we kept getting errors from district that we were scanning more than Informed Delivery showed.

Never heard of this and sorry it's not going to happen, I case all mail and I'll be damned if when having to complete SPM's I'll be looking for specially marked mail to not scan. Nope not going to happen, I'm already under compensated for this task!
We case all our mail, all of it, DPS, flats, raw mail, hot case, backers, coverage, everything. But just when we get an SPM request IF there's a letter with a yellow mark we don't scan it. Takes no more time, we don't make the marks, we case everything, again, actually saves us time as we scan maybe one fewer piece. The clerks who make the marks take time but not us. Perhaps y'all misunderstood? I was explaining how SPM works, why we do it, as the question originally was asked. How we stay within compliance.

We don't scan packages or flats. If we see a letter with the yellow mark we don't scan. It was explained by District to we Rural Carriers, in the beginning of the SPM requests of rural carriers, what the purpose was, which is to test Informed Delivery. Since the system only captures letters from the DPS run, we scan LESS pieces, thereby taking us LESS time. We actually do less work by doing it our way, I believe? One of the reasons we investigated the SPM system in the beginning was because rurals weren't PAID for doing the work. We minimize the work we do.

Help me understand why what our offices do is more work?

We aren't "fudging" on the system, we received information from District at the start that they only captured DPS, so that's all we do. All are aware of what we do.
 
Just to let you know...pretty sure you may be the only office with clerks coloring on random mail. The rest of us have commingled mail if not taken directly to the street.

And the headquarters instructions were to scan all flats then letters for today's mail. Not hold mail or held over mail. Although it is linked with informed delivery, the actual business purpose of the SPM is to verify the anticipated delivery window. Basically replaces ODIS tests.
 
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I wonder why we were never told it was only that day's DPS. :rolleyes:
Never heard that either.... why does the yellow marked letter not need tracked from origin thru delivery.... seems like this should be reported to someone.... is there something, somewhere, in writing that says DON'T scan letters delivered.... can we get that reference???? :unsure:
 
We case all our mail, all of it, DPS, flats, raw mail, hot case, backers, coverage, everything. But just when we get an SPM request IF there's a letter with a yellow mark we don't scan it. Takes no more time, we don't make the marks, we case everything, again, actually saves us time as we scan maybe one fewer piece. The clerks who make the marks take time but not us. Perhaps y'all misunderstood? I was explaining how SPM works, why we do it, as the question originally was asked. How we stay within compliance.

We don't scan packages or flats. If we see a letter with the yellow mark we don't scan. It was explained by District to we Rural Carriers, in the beginning of the SPM requests of rural carriers, what the purpose was, which is to test Informed Delivery. Since the system only captures letters from the DPS run, we scan LESS pieces, thereby taking us LESS time. We actually do less work by doing it our way, I believe? One of the reasons we investigated the SPM system in the beginning was because rurals weren't PAID for doing the work. We minimize the work we do.

Help me understand why what our offices do is more work?

We aren't "fudging" on the system, we received information from District at the start that they only captured DPS, so that's all we do. All are aware of what we do.

Accurate delivery of mail in the Informed Delivery system already has a disclaimer stating that all pieces are only in the mail stream and may not arrive today. So is there any real advantage to having the system, its like saying that the bill you know is coming, is out there somewhere and you will get it when delivered!

So all I was saying was that its a waste of time doing something I will do but don't want to and getting compensated for fraction of the time it takes!
 
Never heard that either.... why does the yellow marked letter not need tracked from origin thru delivery.... seems like this should be reported to someone.... is there something, somewhere, in writing that says DON'T scan letters delivered.... can we get that reference???? :unsure:
I'll ask PM and District and see if I can get something at least via email. I may have a paper copy of the original SPM rollout training, have to delve into my archives of junk. Now that I'm aware it's done differently in other areas, I'll see what concrete I can uncover. Thanks!

We don't scan the marked letters from hot case because Informed Delivery, which our customers see a picture of each day's mail to be delivered, is a picture ONLY of DPS letters, so that's all the SPM system is checking. Yellow marked from hot case are misthrows from previous day from 3M case, because the city carriers bring misthrows back at the end of their day. (Any misthrows from Rural carriers get recycled into current days' casing, so the only ones with yellow marks are letters from the 3M brought back by city carriers the day before)

The whole reason we did this was because the PM kept getting grilled for oversampling, which meant we were scanning letters that weren't in the que. We scanned more letters than they said we had to deliver.
 
Accurate delivery of mail in the Informed Delivery system already has a disclaimer stating that all pieces are only in the mail stream and may not arrive today. So is there any real advantage to having the system, its like saying that the bill you know is coming, is out there somewhere and you will get it when delivered!

So all I was saying was that its a waste of time doing something I will do but don't want to and getting compensated for fraction of the time it takes!
Yes, I'm aware of the disclaimer. Neither you nor I created this ugly thing, that's for sure! Apparently the Post Office thinks it has some value.

I think we do LESS work though....which is better, right? We aren't paid enough for what we do so if we scan fewer pieces per SPM, that's good!
 
I wonder why we were never told it was only that day's DPS. :rolleyes:
I'm going to ask some questions of PM and he can ask District. Maybe things have changed, but either way it would sure be nice to have some sort of fact and documentation for this. I'll see what I can uncover and report back.

I thought maybe everyone was doing the same thing. I learn every day!
 
Just to let you know...pretty sure you may be the only office with clerks coloring on random mail. The rest of us have commingled mail if not taken directly to the street.

And the headquarters instructions were to scan all flats then letters for today's mail. Not hold mail or held over mail. Although it is linked with informed delivery, the actual business purpose of the some is to verify the anticipated delivery window. Basically replaces ODIS tests.
Maybe, O.F.'s office is the only one doing it right.... and the rest of us are doing it wrong.... :unsure:
 
I'll ask PM and District and see if I can get something at least via email. I may have a paper copy of the original SPM rollout training, have to delve into my archives of junk. Now that I'm aware it's done differently in other areas, I'll see what concrete I can uncover. Thanks!

We don't scan the marked letters from hot case because Informed Delivery, which our customers see a picture of each day's mail to be delivered, is a picture ONLY of DPS letters, so that's all the SPM system is checking. Yellow marked from hot case are misthrows from previous day from 3M case, because the city carriers bring misthrows back at the end of their day. (Any misthrows from Rural carriers get recycled into current days' casing, so the only ones with yellow marks are letters from the 3M brough9t back by city carriers the day before)

The whole reason we did this was because the PM kept getting grilled for oversampling, which meant we were scanning letters that weren't in the que. We scanned more letters than they said we had to deliver.
Are you scanning flats (first), as requested by the SPM squawk??? I've never seen a flat shown in my Informed Delivery email.... if it's all about Informed Delivery, why are we even scanning flats???? :unsure:
 
Most everyone already knows all this but here ya go anyway.....

SPM's are sampling requests in the field that ask for us to scan flats and letters. We used to pay IBM about $30 million a year to do the sampling, but a PO brain surgeon decided carriers could do it more cost effectively.

When we get a sampling request, we are being asked to scan (check) what we deliver that day versus PO Informed Delivery, which gives the customer pictures of what's going through the DPS machine daily for delivery to their box. Those scans we provide should match exactly with Informed Delivery the customer gets. That's the audit part we are doing.

To avoid "oversampling" -- which means we scan more mail than the customer gets pictures of -- and therefore we fail the test -- we ONLY sample DPS from that CURRENT day, NOT anything from hot case, misthrows, leftovers etc. Again, that day's DPS ONLY is what we scan. Clerks mark up hot case mail with a yellow slash so we can identify it when out in the field. We created this process because we kept getting errors from district that we were scanning more than Informed Delivery showed.

IF you get a sampling request, you must respond. Sometimes they're on a different street, etc. and it becomes a saved work order that must be pulled up in your scanner when you reach that address and completed. Often the SPM request comes after you've passed the address, or there's no mail to scan, and as long as we indicate that in our response on the scanner, we've done our job. We get on the district bad list if we miss one.

Now's the time for y'all to make additions, corrections, deletions!!


Hhhhhaaaaaaaa, this is the first I’ve heard this one, clerks marking through hot cased mail..... even IF I’d heard this before now, I’d still scan each and every thing the box is getting. Do we really have time at the box to pick and choose what is dps or raw? I don’t think so. If I get an spm, I’m scanning everything, wether it’s today’s, yesterday’s, last weeks, it’s getting scannned. Unless, of course, “already passsed” which is what I click most often. I’m sorrry, if mail is in the box already (which is most often when I get hit with spm), then so sowwery, I’m already passed.."......
 
To @Old Fart 's point tho.... my old PM told me they get some sort of report that shows how many scans were expected, and how many were actually made... they said it almost never matched.... but, what the hey. .. not our problem to fix.... go figure, a USPS system with some glitches in it.... can anyone say lookahead.. . :rolleyes:
 
To @Old Fart 's point tho.... my old PM told me they get some sort of report that shows how many scans were expected, and how many were actually made... they said it almost never matched.... but, what the hey. .. not our problem to fix.... go figure, a USPS system with some glitches in it.... can anyone say lookahead.. . :rolleyes:
Lookahead??? Isn’t that where we’re looking for the deer to cross the road? Or the momma bear with 3 baby cubs (yes, I saw that a few weeks ago, unfortunately they was about 1/4 mile ahead, and crossed really fast, so I couldn’t get pics)
 
Lookahead??? Isn’t that where we’re looking for the deer to cross the road? Or the momma bear with 3 baby cubs (yes, I saw that a few weeks ago, unfortunately they was about 1/4 mile ahead, and crossed really fast, so I couldn’t get pics)
Deer?

Where?
 
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