• Everyone, please help make our jobs easier and choose the correct category. Thank you

Engineer's Final Report (Redacted)

C$$

Well-known member
I can't take credit. Another carrier got their FOIA request through and sent the released document my way.

It is interesting that their FOIA request was approved and mine was rejected. I don't know if it was timing of the request (before and after the new contract). Or if it simply depends on which FOIA official does the processing...

The document has been **heavily** redacted, but there is still some good information. Here are my thoughts as I read through. They are ordered by corresponding page number in the report.

2) *Panel's Report of October 31, 2017* looks to be another document worth having
3) "RRECS engineered standards have been validated and are fully documented and available electronically in a uniform structure and format. Systematic procedures for creating, auditing, and changing standards, and resolving standards dispustes are provided" Great, provide them to us too!
3) *Panel Recommendations for Improving RRECS* Another document worth having
4) "Potential roles for RRECS include: ... Justifying new USPS delivery initiatives to Congress." Can't say I follow the logic on that one
9) MTM1 some industrial motion time system. I haven't looked into this yet, but lots of interesting results for googling *MTM1 motion time system*
10) "RRECS also provides the basis for route optimization technology comparable to the ORION system of UPS." Yikes! Sounds like the long term plan is restructuring routes.
21) "technical advisor, Dr. John Bartholdi..." Hello! Who is this now?? There was a John Bartholdi at Georgia Tech, and I seem to remember Georgia Tech being involved with drive time calculations... But that Dr. Bartholdi passed away in 2019.
22) "...scan requirements are realistic, and *with proper training and compliance monitoring*, they can be consistently done correctly." Basically carriers struggle with the RRECS scans b/c, get this, their training was terrible. Raise your hand if you are surprised.
31) "... the large gaps between actual time and normal time observed in the statistical validation are largely the result of ... the shortcut procedure many carriers use in performing their work." People hurry, standards are cut, hurrying is the new standard. I swear we must be living in the 1920s, not the 2020s.
33) "The basic premise ... drive speed is governed primarily by the distance driven from one full stop to the next full stop." OK, interesting premise. But what data/research is it based on?
47) "parties will need to negotiate a reasonable rule for identifying these situations (e.g. single-box curb stops > 100; or single-box curb stops > 100 or 20% of total boxes...)" They are talking about coverage factor in this section. It *looks* like CBU coverage factor will be estimated based on curb boxes (ie if you stop at 80% of your curb boxes, your CBU coverage factor will be 80%). This has been, and probably still is, being negotiated. But potentially very important for you CBU heavy routes out there.
69) DUVRS is Delivery Unit Volume Recording System. Anyone ever heard of or used it?
75) "Will facilitate change management" WTF is 'change management' ???!!
76) "The system is not yet complete, and it is simply impossible to validate RRECS completely until it is." Still true.
76) "Most of the remaining data quality challenges are believed to be the result of carriers not following the standard procedures associated with using the scanners. This can be overcome with continued emphasis on training and follow-up." Sure, blame the carriers.

#### Glossary
Some surprising tidbits in here. Possibly they forgot to redact this part to match the rest of the report.
ESRI -- corporate supplier of geographic information systems
Poka-Yoke -- engineering design process to eliminate the possibility of making errors
Project Management -- team contracted from Deloitt coordinating development teams. Anyone heard of Deloitt? Know anyone that works there?
Retired -- a standard or data element that was numbered in RRECS development but no longer used. RRECS has taken so long even the data elements are retiring! :)
Solver -- Developed by Accenture. Anyone know that compnay? Know anyone that works there?

#### Appendix
We should file a FOIA request for every document here.

TLDR; It is the engineer's report, but heavily redacted. My thoughts are above. If you are bored, go to the usps foia site: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - Who We Are - About.usps.com and request all of the documents from the appendix.
 

Attachments

  • Final Determination RRECS.pdf
    4.8 MB · Views: 188
#4 is changing single box to multi point delivery. CBU or neighborhood drop locations including parcel lockers.. It's in the 10 year plan.
The standards can't be met because the software must constantly be updated and the time responses for interacting with new learned software is changing.
The plants had massive software updates created to view mail volumes and processing visibility. Unfortunately, no one bothered to code it for rrecs accessibility.
 
I can't take credit. Another carrier got their FOIA request through and sent the released document my way.

It is interesting that their FOIA request was approved and mine was rejected. I don't know if it was timing of the request (before and after the new contract). Or if it simply depends on which FOIA official does the processing...

The document has been **heavily** redacted, but there is still some good information. Here are my thoughts as I read through. They are ordered by corresponding page number in the report.

2) *Panel's Report of October 31, 2017* looks to be another document worth having
3) "RRECS engineered standards have been validated and are fully documented and available electronically in a uniform structure and format. Systematic procedures for creating, auditing, and changing standards, and resolving standards dispustes are provided" Great, provide them to us too!
3) *Panel Recommendations for Improving RRECS* Another document worth having
4) "Potential roles for RRECS include: ... Justifying new USPS delivery initiatives to Congress." Can't say I follow the logic on that one
9) MTM1 some industrial motion time system. I haven't looked into this yet, but lots of interesting results for googling *MTM1 motion time system*
10) "RRECS also provides the basis for route optimization technology comparable to the ORION system of UPS." Yikes! Sounds like the long term plan is restructuring routes.
21) "technical advisor, Dr. John Bartholdi..." Hello! Who is this now?? There was a John Bartholdi at Georgia Tech, and I seem to remember Georgia Tech being involved with drive time calculations... But that Dr. Bartholdi passed away in 2019.
22) "...scan requirements are realistic, and *with proper training and compliance monitoring*, they can be consistently done correctly." Basically carriers struggle with the RRECS scans b/c, get this, their training was terrible. Raise your hand if you are surprised.
31) "... the large gaps between actual time and normal time observed in the statistical validation are largely the result of ... the shortcut procedure many carriers use in performing their work." People hurry, standards are cut, hurrying is the new standard. I swear we must be living in the 1920s, not the 2020s.
33) "The basic premise ... drive speed is governed primarily by the distance driven from one full stop to the next full stop." OK, interesting premise. But what data/research is it based on?
47) "parties will need to negotiate a reasonable rule for identifying these situations (e.g. single-box curb stops > 100; or single-box curb stops > 100 or 20% of total boxes...)" They are talking about coverage factor in this section. It *looks* like CBU coverage factor will be estimated based on curb boxes (ie if you stop at 80% of your curb boxes, your CBU coverage factor will be 80%). This has been, and probably still is, being negotiated. But potentially very important for you CBU heavy routes out there.
69) DUVRS is Delivery Unit Volume Recording System. Anyone ever heard of or used it?
75) "Will facilitate change management" WTF is 'change management' ???!!
76) "The system is not yet complete, and it is simply impossible to validate RRECS completely until it is." Still true.
76) "Most of the remaining data quality challenges are believed to be the result of carriers not following the standard procedures associated with using the scanners. This can be overcome with continued emphasis on training and follow-up." Sure, blame the carriers.

#### Glossary
Some surprising tidbits in here. Possibly they forgot to redact this part to match the rest of the report.
ESRI -- corporate supplier of geographic information systems
Poka-Yoke -- engineering design process to eliminate the possibility of making errors
Project Management -- team contracted from Deloitt coordinating development teams. Anyone heard of Deloitt? Know anyone that works there?
Retired -- a standard or data element that was numbered in RRECS development but no longer used. RRECS has taken so long even the data elements are retiring! :)
Solver -- Developed by Accenture. Anyone know that compnay? Know anyone that works there?

#### Appendix
We should file a FOIA request for every document here.

TLDR; It is the engineer's report, but heavily redacted. My thoughts are above. If you are bored, go to the usps foia site: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - Who We Are - About.usps.com and request all of the documents from the appendix.

 
Rurals are going to need a UNION RRECS expert within each office. There's no way every carrier can learn, understand and then utilize this system without knowledgeable help.
but, there's this:

i have tried and tried and tried to educate the carriers in my office (both RMPO and APO).

they
do
not
care.

both regs and rcas just wanna run, run, run to get home by 1.

they may get their wish...
and their paychecks will reflect that desire.
 
69) DUVRS is Delivery Unit Volume Recording System. Anyone ever heard of or used it?
yup, never stopped.

no one in my office(s) does.

it's in the mail count guide.

let me go copy and i'll edit this post.

EDIT:
page 11

additionally, i have always measured my DPS, kept track of number of packages, to the door, signature packages as well as keeping all of my 3821s.

never know when that info may come in handy. :)
 
I can't take credit. Another carrier got their FOIA request through and sent the released document my way.

It is interesting that their FOIA request was approved and mine was rejected. I don't know if it was timing of the request (before and after the new contract). Or if it simply depends on which FOIA official does the processing...

The document has been **heavily** redacted, but there is still some good information. Here are my thoughts as I read through. They are ordered by corresponding page number in the report.

2) *Panel's Report of October 31, 2017* looks to be another document worth having
3) "RRECS engineered standards have been validated and are fully documented and available electronically in a uniform structure and format. Systematic procedures for creating, auditing, and changing standards, and resolving standards dispustes are provided" Great, provide them to us too!
3) *Panel Recommendations for Improving RRECS* Another document worth having
4) "Potential roles for RRECS include: ... Justifying new USPS delivery initiatives to Congress." Can't say I follow the logic on that one
9) MTM1 some industrial motion time system. I haven't looked into this yet, but lots of interesting results for googling *MTM1 motion time system*
10) "RRECS also provides the basis for route optimization technology comparable to the ORION system of UPS." Yikes! Sounds like the long term plan is restructuring routes.
21) "technical advisor, Dr. John Bartholdi..." Hello! Who is this now?? There was a John Bartholdi at Georgia Tech, and I seem to remember Georgia Tech being involved with drive time calculations... But that Dr. Bartholdi passed away in 2019.
22) "...scan requirements are realistic, and *with proper training and compliance monitoring*, they can be consistently done correctly." Basically carriers struggle with the RRECS scans b/c, get this, their training was terrible. Raise your hand if you are surprised.
31) "... the large gaps between actual time and normal time observed in the statistical validation are largely the result of ... the shortcut procedure many carriers use in performing their work." People hurry, standards are cut, hurrying is the new standard. I swear we must be living in the 1920s, not the 2020s.
33) "The basic premise ... drive speed is governed primarily by the distance driven from one full stop to the next full stop." OK, interesting premise. But what data/research is it based on?
47) "parties will need to negotiate a reasonable rule for identifying these situations (e.g. single-box curb stops > 100; or single-box curb stops > 100 or 20% of total boxes...)" They are talking about coverage factor in this section. It *looks* like CBU coverage factor will be estimated based on curb boxes (ie if you stop at 80% of your curb boxes, your CBU coverage factor will be 80%). This has been, and probably still is, being negotiated. But potentially very important for you CBU heavy routes out there.
69) DUVRS is Delivery Unit Volume Recording System. Anyone ever heard of or used it?
75) "Will facilitate change management" WTF is 'change management' ???!!
76) "The system is not yet complete, and it is simply impossible to validate RRECS completely until it is." Still true.
76) "Most of the remaining data quality challenges are believed to be the result of carriers not following the standard procedures associated with using the scanners. This can be overcome with continued emphasis on training and follow-up." Sure, blame the carriers.

#### Glossary
Some surprising tidbits in here. Possibly they forgot to redact this part to match the rest of the report.
ESRI -- corporate supplier of geographic information systems
Poka-Yoke -- engineering design process to eliminate the possibility of making errors
Project Management -- team contracted from Deloitt coordinating development teams. Anyone heard of Deloitt? Know anyone that works there?
Retired -- a standard or data element that was numbered in RRECS development but no longer used. RRECS has taken so long even the data elements are retiring! :)
Solver -- Developed by Accenture. Anyone know that compnay? Know anyone that works there?

#### Appendix
We should file a FOIA request for every document here.

TLDR; It is the engineer's report, but heavily redacted. My thoughts are above. If you are bored, go to the usps foia site: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - Who We Are - About.usps.com and request all of the documents from the appendix.
I think I'll forward this to my congressman
 
This is pretty hilarious. I have seen released government documents about all number of things that had less redactions than this.

How USPS Rural Carriers get paid shouldn't be some gigantic secret. It's not like there is some competing rural carrier mail delivery service that is going to steal our trade secrets.

And this is all for a system that doesn't even work and was supposed to be implemented in like 2015.
 
This is pretty hilarious. I have seen released government documents about all number of things that had less redactions than this.

How USPS Rural Carriers get paid shouldn't be some gigantic secret. It's not like there is some competing rural carrier mail delivery service that is going to steal our trade secrets.

And this is all for a system that doesn't even work and was supposed to be implemented in like 2015.
They're redacting it to avoid embarrassment ..... it's so funked up beyond all recognition (FUBAR).... :unsure: šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļøšŸ˜²
 
I've been slowly resorting to a balance of not giving a crap and maximizing RRECS results leaning mostly towards not giving a crap.

My idea is that if/when RRECS ever is implemented I will probably take a hit and I'll need to remedy that for the next 6 month evaluation. It's just so frustrating doing all the extra crap and it never gets utilized. Meanwhile, I'm already delivering ~15,000 parcels for free each year and picking up another ~10,000.

It's all so tiresome...
 
I've been slowly resorting to a balance of not giving a crap and maximizing RRECS results leaning mostly towards not giving a crap.

My idea is that if/when RRECS ever is implemented I will probably take a hit and I'll need to remedy that for the next 6 month evaluation. It's just so frustrating doing all the extra crap and it never gets utilized. Meanwhile, I'm already delivering ~15,000 parcels for free each year and picking up another ~10,000.

It's all so tiresome...
I've changed my attitude and have been doing the same since the last kicking of the can down the road about RRECS.
 
Back
Top