Had my first crappy day today.....and ready to rant

[lbpd16]

My regular is on vacation so I started running his route on saturday.  Needed help to finish. Had Amazon on sunday and actually enjoyed it.  It was nice to not have to fool with mail.  I always wanted to work FedEx or UPS but had no interest in starting out loading/unloading trucks for years before I got a chance to deliver.  Monday I ran the route again and made it back before dispatch time without any helpHad tuesday off.After a successful monday and some time off yesterday I was looking forward to doing even better today.  I got in and got my missorted stuff cased, but more kept coming and coming.  Then there was a ton of presorted flats that seemed to never end.  Today also had alot of junk mail that almost everyone on my route had to get.  Then I had 4 full containers of DPS (Usually only 3).  Then a ton of parcels.  Many other issues came up during this time as well.  My regular should adjust his case.  There is ample room at the top to make more room between the 5 rows I have.  Since its not adjusted I have to either put my mail down to bend the flats in half to get them cased, or, leave them at full length, then use 2 hands to put additional flats in the slots because the tops fold over to the next address thus blocking access for those flats.  The regular also does not block Holds or Vacants so I'm wasting time casing mail I don't even have to deliver.  I also have several 2-address slots which makes me spend more time on those as well.  Also today, the processing plant has issues where mail gets stuck.  Several times in my DPS I got black rubber residue on the mail and letters out of order, more time wasted.  Since the route change of a few weeks ago the presorted flats still come sorted for the old routes.  More time wasted getting rid of stuff that don't belong to me, and then later in the morning getting stuff of mine that other carriers had at their case, that I now need to case.  I start off 0730 and am supposed to be out by 1030.  Today I didn't get out until 1230.And of course on the road there were problems as well.  A stop listed and getting mail on my case that the  employees said does not get mail any longer.  A stop where I normally don't dismount but had to to collect 59 cents and of course, the employee had to ask around for change while I'm waiting.  Several parcels that would not fit in mailboxes that required me to deliver to the door.  CBU's that are full of mail and CBU parcel lockers not emptied in days...requiring me to one again drive through a neighborhood and deliver to the door.  Also a signature required with no answer at the door.  Today was also garbage day, so many boxes in one neighborhood were blocked by trash cans I had to drive and back out around.  Also a few country parcel deliveries to houses without numbers so I had to go back to the box to do a 3849 a few times.  I forgot to close out a couple scans on the spot and got down the road to do another scan of a package only to find that one of the prior scans required a signature.  Since I wasn't sure which one it was I just deleted those entries and kept moving, so I guess the parcels will not show they were not delivered, but they made it to the customer's front door.  Once I reached my 3/4 way of the route I finally made the call 45 min before dispatch time.  I got some help and got back by about 1715.  Then I spent another half hour dealing with my Holds and the IA and NSN mail from the boxes that should be blocked on my case.I said alot of bad words to myself today and had a couple beers when I got home.  Hopefully today was an abnormality and not the norm.We REALLY need more people.  My regular is out as is a RCA on medical leave.  We have 3 routes not manned by a regular that must be filled every day.I was thinking that if there was a way to let people on routes only deliver mail and let others only do packages that may be a better solution, but I'm sure if it was that would be taking place.If this volume is light, I cannot imagine what the holidays will be like.  Should I expect to work 12 to 16 hours days during the holidays?  If not, I cannot imagine  how the mail and parcels will be delivered.Its just extremely frustrating to see where I'm wasting my time and where the inefficiencies are but there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.  If I have my own route my case would be set up for efficiency.Please give me some ideas or your take on my situation/problems I've mentioned.Ok, rant over, I'm going to bed.

 

[Gotrope]

From your rant, I gather you are relatively new to the USPS. We all have bad days. The first year is usually the worst since you are constantly learning new routes/territory. If your regular has bad habits they are unlikely to change. They made it this far not doing part of the job. If you need to use case blockers to indicate vacancies or other, just be proactive and start doing it.Things will get better with repetition. Hang in there. Things could be worse, my avg is 7 trays dps+ 2 coverages+8foot of flats+ 230+scans per day. Most don't fit in the small locking boxes...

 

[lbpd16]

I'm sure things can be alot worse.  I'm moving non stop and pretty much have the case down.  I'm just frustrated because I can see where i'm wasting my time but can't do anything about it.Also forgot to mention several parcel lockers are broken, again causing me to make deliveries to the door.  I've reported the broken lockers a couple of times but nothing has been done.Things would not be so bad if they said "come back when you are finished", without a time required to be back.  I would actually take a break if that was the case.  The post office should also restrict flats to a size that can comfortably fit in the case.  Lots and lots of time wasted trying to jam those oversized flats in those tiny pigeon holes.

 

[btdtret]

Ibpd16 -- "Had my first crappy day today.....and ready to rant."

-- Sorry to say, but get used to it -- and learn from your mistakes. There will be a lot more crappy days before getting to the really good days. But the good days will come -- with time and repetition.

-- Cherish the good days and forget the bad days. You are going to have to become the QB who throws a Pic-Six or the pitcher who just have up a grand slam home run. Darn it -- I won't do that again! And move on.

-- The problem: Customer searching for change while you wait, and wait, and wait. The cure: get a multi-pocket small purse, yes a purse! I took mine to the door when knowing there would be a postage due or something else requiring change. In one compartment, I kept lots of coins to make change. In another pocket of the purse, I carried books of stamps. For customers requesting a roll of stamps, I'd tell them I'd bring the roll out the next day.

-- Back to the postage due items. For those items under a dollar, I'd pay when the Accountable Clerk brought accountables and postage due items around. I'd leave the brown envelope, noting how much the customer owed me, with the customer's mail. Kept the address and amount owed me in a small spiral note book. If the customer "forgot" to repay me, then the customer just got a 3849 with the amount owed for the next postage due item so they'd have to go to the post office to get the item.

-- Okay, you got the rant out of your system. Tomorrow is a new day. Do better so you won't have to rant.

 

[Bud Budderly]

If you made it back on a Monday without help you're probably ahead of the curve so focus on the positive. Wednesday was one of those "perfect storm" outliers that we all (regulars and subs) have from time to time. As Gotrope said, your regular carrier's inefficiencies are unlikely to change so think about what you can do to make yourself more efficient. Take notice of some of the more efficient carriers in your office and what they are doing to get out the door early. You will develop your own system but they might be a good resource for tips on things you may doing to waste time that you don't even realize yet. Hang in there you will get faster.

A couple other things:

-We're not obligated to go to the door to collect postage due unless it's a parcel so notice can be left in the box on those. If management tells you otherwise have your union steward enlighten them.

-Try make sure you get those Signature Confirmation scans even if it means retracing your steps to find the one(s) you missed. Cancelling out the scans will eventually come back to bite you in the backside.

 

[George]

All i can say is we have all been there (and worse). I don't know how many times i quit (in my mind) but luckily showed up the next day; because it is waaaaay too easy now! Because i have made a tremendous amount of money while working steady dayturn, with a huge pile contributed to my 401K among other reasons. Hang in there!

 

[dumbolehickfromms]

I liked the part about 2 address per slot in a few areas........   and only 5 rows..........     hell, for the last 20 years I've had 2 addresses and 6 rows

 

[faceindawind]

The Machine will make every effort to keep you at 40 or route EVAL through the guarantee period of the holidays. My APO/RMPO in this period has reached out to other offices with RCA's not under our umbrella with RCA'S not effected by this. So far in the past 2 years it has worked for coverage. Granted some of these RCA'S are out late.

 

[faceindawind]

One key way to get rid of time wasted is to end the "spin" case. All cases should be set up like a book we read. Top to bottom. This saves time in tying out. Also have learned as a REG easier for RCA to learn.
One can set a tray or whatever on smaller shelf and pull down directly into said item until a comfortable/workable bundle is created.

 

[lbpd16]

Today was a better day, but still got back late.  I got out the office at 1120.  Today's problem is that we had junk mail from a fast food restaurant and it had to go to every box on the route.  I delivered to numerous boxes where that was the only mail delivered there, and only mail delivered in several days.  If it were not for that I think I would have made it back before dispatch time.

 

[callofthewild]

There is always going to be something to slow you down.....worked many years ....having a good run and something will happen to slow you down.  Personally,  I don't even think like that anymore.  Just take it one box at a time..... the route takes what it takes to run.  At the last box....hooray I am done. It is very obvious you take a lot of pride in your work/job Ibpd16......wish you all the luck in the world with your new career.  

 

[lbpd16]

I am pretty much at the point now where I've just thrown up my hands and said to myself "this is as fast as I can go safely and accurately, and when I'm done, I'm done, whether its 30 min before dispatch time or an hour after dispatch time"I also found out what is causing me valuable time.  At CBU's that have no available parcel lockers my regular delivered to the door, so thats what I did.  After speaking to my super she said that the procedure is to leave a 3849.  Now that I know that it should shave 30 to 45 min off my route  every day.  Its things like this that I was not told that cause me time.  I think it all goes back to the lack of proper training.

 

[12345]

I am curious where your super came up with the procedure of leaving a 3849 if no parcel locker available. I guess that would apply in a no access complex but normal rural carrier procedure is to deliver to the door if the address is within 1/2 mile of your line of travel.

I agree your super is not properly trained.

 

[dumbolehickfromms]

Leaving notices for CBU's............. there is a step 4 or memo stating something to that effect.   Also samples that are too large for the slots are to be left on top of CBU or somewhere close by so the customers can have access to their sample.     Again, that's in a memo or step 4.   The policy on parcels to large for slot has changed over the years and maybe the supervisor remembers seeing the same step 4 or memo.  If I were a supervisor this would be my take based on my memory of papers I've actually seen........  I don't remember seeing delivery policy telling go to door, but I seem to recall there is something new.   But if I couldn't easily find the new policy and just remembered the "OLD" policy and told my carriers to follow my memory, would I be "untrained and stupid"? 

 

[csparks]

On the full lockers/3849 issues, I'd think it may just the PMs way of dealing with reality. Once you know this route inside out, running a box to the right place will be no sweat.

Until then, cut the stress cycle out, and go for the way to get back on the route: leave a notice, and get back moving. I'd bet many of the addresses are not marked properly, plus you just can't know everything right now.
If someone complains, there is a reasonable excuse. New carrier, overloaded, no lockers, no time to chase down addresses....
Kind of a "needs of the many" issue.

If you're not already, it might be smart to clearly mark those parcels you left notice for at that time, then stash them somewhere you won't be bothered with them while delivering the rest. Personally, I absolutely hate leaving notices, it breaks my rhythm, but realize at times, it might sure be a time saver.

 

[nickiegirl62]

Regarding leaving a notice for full/broken nbc lockers; that must be another one of the depends on the office as we are told to go to house and leave package especially if it is Amazon. I would rather run it up to door than sit and write out a notice any day plus I personally would be pissed if I was at home 2 houses away from nbc unit and had to go po to retrieve package.

 

[lbpd16]

These people order all this crap from Amazon, then I deliver it to the parcel lockers and it sits for several days before they come get their stuff.  Meanwhile, the packages keep coming and I have to run them to the door.  I started writing the deliver date on the packages.  My plan is ask my super how long they should stay in the parcel locker before doing something.  We aren't running a storage service.I also had to empty out 8 mailboxes on my route that were so full nothing else would go inside.The regular will be back next week.  I hope he don't mind, but if you can't pick up your mail regularly thats not my problem.

 

[callofthewild]

On the topic of cleaning out overfilled mailboxes....Ibpd16....your Regular is going to mind.  Depending on YOUR OFFICE policy....I have had PM's that you brought the mail back in 3 day, 10 days and 30 days or like you described never.....in the case a rural route customer doesn't pick up their mail out of the mailbox.  There is postal policy on this topic....but there is such wide interpretation it is best to go by your Office Policy.We had a situation exactly like you described in 2012 at our Post Office.  The Regular was on vacation and the new RCA was running the route.........this Regular had over 20 boxes stuffed full with mail.  The RCA came in and told the PM that she couldn't get any more mail in the boxes.  PM told the RCA to pull the mail.....OVER a hamper full of mail later...all boxed in the hold case, notices left in boxes that the mail will be return if not picked up in 10 days.....the Regular came back....saw all the mail in the hold case.....realized she was going to lose over 20 boxes....threw a fit and the PM let her take the mail back out....refilled the mailboxes and the mail sat there for years....while the Regular SLOWLY  closed the boxes.........so the evaluation of the route wouldn't be affected.   

 

[lbpd16]

I was just doing what my super told me to do after I told her I could not get any mail in those boxes

 

[Shafted]

Call of the wild - same shenanigans by the dirty scammer regular that our office had. And when exactly did this lying cheater whittle down the boxes??? You guessed it, right before she retired. She was a criminal considering how she defrauded every aspect of this job. She had a student as well. Now we have a carbon copy clone of her scheming ways, and now that dirtbag is going on to be a 204b. Disgusting.