Auxiliary Carrier for 5 Years. What are my Options?

[HoosierDude]

Hello everyone,

I have been a an auxiliary carrier in a small office (3 rural routes, 2 city) for almost 5 years now. The office and community has been slowly growing being that we are within 30 miles of a major U.S. city. My auxiliary route is currently evaluated at 5.5 hours/day so 33 hours/week. The route is very parcel heavy, with new subdivisions currently being built which is adding deliveries. I am also allowed to cross craft in our office in unique instances so I average 40+/- each week.

4 days ago when we received our Amazon parcel pallets it was incredibly low (about 25% of our average daily volume) and has been so for the last 4 days. I asked a carrier in a neighboring town whether they had been experiencing the same thing and they concurred and noted they saw Amazon drivers now delivering their own parcels. A carrier in our office also found an Amazon parcel left at a mailbox post that didn't have a USPS, UPS, or FedEx scan on it. That pretty much confirmed my worries that Amazon has taken over their own parcel delivery in our zip code. I also understand that this is going to slash my route evaluation during the next mail count; I had high hopes it was going to grow to a full time H route in a few years.

I have grown to love and appreciate my career, and the customers that I serve. As my Post Master says "Bleed Blue". But at the end of the day, I can't afford to lose hours under my evaluated route. There isn't a great chance that the 2 full time rural carriers in front of me will move on anytime soon; they are both younger too. I hate to transfer to another office and start at the bottom. And unlike CCA's I'm not able to go to other offices to take mail off of other carriers, etc. They only want RCA's if they can start at the reporting time for the day and do the whole route. So does anyone have any advice on this situation? Could I potentially work in other offices (on a full time route) and turn down running my auxiliary route for that day? I.E. my home office would have to use a rural substitute or clerk to carry my route so I can get full time hours by subbing out to other offices. Or am I required to run my route everyday no matter what?

 

[blamethesub]

If you like what you're doing, don't change a thing. There are no scheduled mail counts on the horizon anytime soon. We don't even have a contract right now. Much can change between now and whenever something resembling a mail count happens in the future. You are in an area with some level of growth. Your route could grow enough on its own to convert, or pick up territory from the other routes in your office. You are working regular hours every day. Don't jump ship to another office where you'll start all over again with seniority, and you'll be bounced around on the schedule like a new RCA.

 

[oi veh.]

Agree with blamethesub.

And if a clerk runs a rural route, file a grievance. You'll get paid even though you didn't work it. (There is a subtle hint contained within this post. )

 

[wamailmom]

At only 30 seconds credit per package, it's not going to cut your route evaluation that much.... What really counts is the number of boxes you deliver to, and mileage.

 

[wamailmom]

As an example, we have a route in our office that is only a 43K, yet it is absolutely impossible to finish within evaluation. The new regular who got the route totally quit the post office within a couple months of becoming regular. So many packages to the door, and having to drive down private roads to get to them. 30 seconds, my ass.

 

[wfillbra]

At only 30 seconds credit per package, it's not going to cut your route evaluation that much.... What really counts is the number of boxes you deliver to, and mileage.

Very True. Try to find a current 4241A and review the volume factor on line 4. The formula can be found in the knowledge base to determine how many boxes it will take to increase the evaluated hours of the route. If you know how many homes are being developed on the route, you may be surprised at how quickly you can get to 42 hours for a regular route. I personally went from a 43H to a 46K in one year due to new development.

 

[Windindaface]

When you find a competitors item in the mail box take it out, from here there are options... Chuck it far into a remote part of the yard, move it to another box location on your route, keep it, or bring it back to the office and have a clerk do the postage due thing. Let the AZON carrying fool explain the scan ping at the mailbox to their management. I just back from vaycay from a small city of 1mil. Azon was doing drops twice a day in the hood I was at.

You mention sub divisions as growth potential. Most of these are Cluster Box these days. Not much time there under current standards or what the study recommends as time.

 

[Shafted]

Punt

 

[Gyros6875]

We only get 30 seconds for large packages (ones that you can't case) so I wouldn't really worry that much of your evaluation being lowered.

We had a count after Amazon came to our office and it only increased our K routes evaluation like 20-30 minutes a day each.