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Mail Count 2019

There is supposed to be a union rep. (Trained in the mapping process) at each mapping. I haven't heard that it would be done by your pm, unless they were trained in that process.
 
Originally, it was the carrier, the ADR (or someone chosen by the DR) and a PM (not necessarily yours). That was taking too long. So now it's going to be your PM and you. And yes on the 2 weeks.

This is going to be a nightmare, considering the general quality of PMs and the amount of carriers who have no idea what's coming their way (because they are willfully ignorant).

Couldn't agree more, A NIGHTMARE

HOW ABOUT OFFICES WITH NO SUBSTITUTES AT ALL? HOW ARE THEY GOING TO ACCOMPLISH THIS?

Do you remember the original excuse for everything coming to a stand still after the Engineers were done?

The excuse was the USPS doesn't have the Computer bandwidth to do all this. Have they fixed that?

They just gave the first quarter report, 1.5 billion loss, was there any mention of upgrading the entire USPS Computer System contributing to the 1.5 billion loss? Seems like that would deserve a mention if it happened, right?
 
The band with issue could have been handled in the beginning by sending the mapping teams out with a cell phone with unlimited data and "hotspot" (internet Wi-Fi capabilities) ability. Why anyone would think to use this lame excuse is beyond me.
 
There is supposed to be a union rep. (Trained in the mapping process) at each mapping. I haven't heard that it would be done by your pm, unless they were trained in that process.
I have to check my notes...will be back later with correction, if necessary. :)
 
I'm curious about the whole mapping "thing". How many people does it take to " map " a route? How computer literate do you have to be to map? Are there " mapping teams " that go around to various offices to do the mapping? Can it be done in house? With over 70,000 rural routes this seems, imho, to be a very time consuming task. I thought I read somewhere that to be successfully mapped you had to run the route the same way fo 2 weeks? Anyone care to enlighten me?
Yes, it does take 2 weeks for them to "track" you. Because things change everyday on the route, we have deviations, which we have to enter in our scanners, begin and end of deviations, we have all kinds of different obstacles everyday, especially on a Rural route. They now have added 5 more extra prompts to our scanners a few days ago. This is crazy, even in the office we have to scan mail pieces and packages that have different delivery instructions, to either stop the clock or to delay delivery, and hand offs to the Po Boxes. They preach safety, how safe is it when you are focusing on the road, and the mail, and worried about if you missed a scan, trying to remember all of the scans, or if I forgot to do a "rural reach" prompt when a customer meets me at the mail box and I am idle for a few mins, I have to justify every min. And with all of the Amazon now, seems that is first priority and not the mail or USPS parcels anymore. It really showed during the Christmas time period, and before. We started getting hammered with Amazon in early Sept.. Then the dispatch was late EVERYDAY, some days we wouldn't get any mail until around 930 or 10 am, so we ran Amazon Pkgs, them came back in when the mail arrived, and absolutely NO OVERTIME. If I was going over on my hrs, I had to be back to the office by the end of my 40 hrs. IE: I had to be back and clocked out by 1200 hrs. on that day was sent home, had to take the next day off because I was still in that pay week, and report back on Saturday beginning the new pay period. Didn't matter that the days before I'd work 10 or 12 hrs a day and deliver in the dark in the rain and fog and couldn't even see the next mailbox coming up. There are No street lights out in the country, when you have your inside light on trying to gather the mail and parcels for that box, and if you had a dismount for that box pulling up in someones driveway in the dark, and walk up to deliver a pkg in the dark sucks, no porch light etc, and some people don't appreciate someone pulling up in their driveway after dark, especially in the "sticks". I have mapped my route before, as I said before, it was all screwed up because they tracked a sub for one day, that wasn't familiar with my route, and didn't follow the line of travel, and there was no way to correct it once it was in the computer. But now that they are doing a 2 week track, they see how different the mileage and line of travel differs from 2 years ago. I just can't see how this is ever going to be fair or accurate to any of us. Now the Postal Task Force is trying to implement a deal with the postal service for Fed-Ex and UPS to be able to use our mailboxes for small parcels that normally they take to the door to eliminate some of their dismounts and leave them in our mailboxes. Last time I checked USPS personnel and the customer are the only ones to have access to those boxes. I bet if this is implemented the Postal inspection service is going to be VERY busy, looking for missing mail. Hello, we deliver mail and parcels they don't, and we are responsible for that mail, and if I get to a mailbox and there is no room in that box for the mail or a parcel that will fit in the box because Fed-Ex and UPS have crammed their parcels in there, and I have to dismount to convenient them using our boxes, I'm gonna be one Pissed off Rural Carrier. Let them put their own boxes up for their crap ! Ok, VENT OVER !!
 
I have to check my notes...will be back later with correction, if necessary. :)
Yes, there has to be a Union Rep from both side present at the time of mapping, and trained on mapping, observing the carrier inputting the data into the computer, last time I did that it took me about 5 hrs.
 
There is this:
First, each area will be required to send their rural analyst or designee to an RSD refresher training in Memphis, TN on January 15-16, 2019. This will be a train the trainer session as was done in the initial roll-out. The areas will then be responsible for training the districts and in turn the districts will train the units on mapping and recertification of the study routes. April 1, 2019 is the expected competition date for study routes to be recertified in RSD.

Both sides? What other union besides ours?

No where in the linked update does it say who else besides "the unit" and the carrier would be present.

But I was quite sure that I had heard what I wrote a few weeks ago...but can't be certain. lol Have been gone all day and have not taken the time to look for and read my notes.

You are in a study office, yes? Have you mapped again? If so, who was there? If not, then please let us know who is when you do! :)
 
There is this:
First, each area will be required to send their rural analyst or designee to an RSD refresher training in Memphis, TN on January 15-16, 2019. This will be a train the trainer session as was done in the initial roll-out. The areas will then be responsible for training the districts and in turn the districts will train the units on mapping and recertification of the study routes. April 1, 2019 is the expected competition date for study routes to be recertified in RSD.

Both sides? What other union besides ours?

No where in the linked update does it say who else besides "the unit" and the carrier would be present.

But I was quite sure that I had heard what I wrote a few weeks ago...but can't be certain. lol Have been gone all day and have not taken the time to look for and read my notes.

You are in a study office, yes? Have you mapped again? If so, who was there? If not, then please let us know who is when you do! :)


Yes, I am in a study office. Thank you for your post from Rural info. The union rep for "us" and union rep of "pm" clerks etc. are supposed to be present during mapping. I was supposed to be mapping my route in March, but management got a E-mail stating that the mapping is on hold for now. That's all I know when we were read the E-mail, not sure if there was anymore info in that E-mail, or a explanation for the "on hold" statement. I have been in the study since Feb 2015, as far as I can remember, I know it's been around 3 years .
 
Not a positive sign for implementation if the mapping is on hold . Could it be that the USPS hasn't solved the band width problem and isn't in a hurry to do so?
 
Not a positive sign for implementation if the mapping is on hold . Could it be that the USPS hasn't solved the band width problem and isn't in a hurry to do so?
I know, I agree, this just came out of the blue ! I'm sure they have a ton of issues they have no knowledge how to solve them. I know there are several spots on a route that you can not track the carrier. The mountains etc in this area the satellite can't communicate with our scanners
 
So here's a question. If your office mapping is delayed past the April 1st deadline, will your office be booted out of the RRECS test, or will the entire test be delayed because some offices are unable to participate? Any guesses?
 
So here's a question. If your office mapping is delayed past the April 1st deadline, will your office be booted out of the RRECS test, or will the entire test be delayed because some offices are unable to participate? Any guesses?
if they can boot those out, what about in snow,mud,ice, country where the carrier is taking for ever? or a carrier who is not comfortable fingering the mail while driving in said conditions? guilty as charged while driving and fingering the mail, saves me at least an hour, and hate it when the roads are bad, i like getting done before dark.
 
A question? If the scanners are supposedly so good at tracking our exact location at all times and the PMs have programs(DIMS or RIMS or whatever it is called), what is the big deal about this mapping? I know they can already call up the exact Google map that shows what address you were at when you delivered a package, along with the time. And this is days later when the customer comes in to complain they did not get said package(but didn't bother to look on their front porch for it.) This mapping shouldn't be that big of a deal if the scanners are as good as they say for exact GPS distance and location. Could it be that the scanners are not as accurate as purported to be?
 
A question? If the scanners are supposedly so good at tracking our exact location at all times and the PMs have programs(DIMS or RIMS or whatever it is called), what is the big deal about this mapping? I know they can already call up the exact Google map that shows what address you were at when you delivered a package, along with the time. And this is days later when the customer comes in to complain they did not get said package(but didn't bother to look on their front porch for it.) This mapping shouldn't be that big of a deal if the scanners are as good as they say for exact GPS distance and location. Could it be that the scanners are not as accurate as purported to be?

My thought exactly, use the scanners to map the routes, you at least drive by every address everyday. So when you stop the bread crumbs change color so that must be a mail box & if they leave the route that must be a to the door delivery. I mean, this isn't rocket science!
 
It isn't rocket science - more like smoke and mirrors. We've been promised this wonderful technology that doesn't work. USPS has figured if they delay long enough, the technology will catch up, but it hasn't. This test is looking more likely to be delayed, and some BS reason will be given. If they can't get it to work on a 4200 route sample, it'll never work nationwide. At what point will the delays turn into a permanent scrapping of this system, and who will be left to wipe the egg off their faces?
 
Knowing a mapper (union member in good standing that applied for the position, that has many openings still available for any of us to apply) the reason given for the delay was the refresher (computer) course was not operating correctly.
The reason scanners don't pick up in areas with no cell service is because they are linked in by cell tower, not satelite. They "project" in areas with out cell coverage and are quite accurate, but not prefect.
Scanners "ping" every minute or more when an action (scanning) is applied. They are generally accurate within 8 feet. They continuously leave a trail of blue dots (bread crumbs) every minute or less. After a 2 week period the bigger blue dots are usually box stops, traffic stops, break spots, or some other regular "pit" stop point. That's how they can tell if a carrier regularly runs a stop sign, no conglomeration of blue dots, no stop.
The delivery point scan is especially important to do correctly, because during the mapping, when you show where you deliver packages, there should be a blue dot there or nearby. If only at the place you park, that looks like "that" is your delivery point. The scanner info also shows if you back up in your vehicle, or if you are walking. You may have noticed safety talks have changed from NEVER BACK to back safely, after "seeing" there are good reasons to back.
With much of this scanner knowledge you are able to have some fun with the district scanner watchers, as has been posted on other threads. I can't wait to try the one DB has mentioned, tying a 10 foot rope to your scanner strap and swinging it around your head for a few minutes, when ever you stop and no people are home.
 
Peeps will do what gets them paid... and that's a known fact... if and when peeps start getting paid for actual stops, then every box will be stopped at... no mail, well, I guess the flag must have been up... and yes, this will slow carriers and reduce our efficiency... is that really what they want, decreased efficiency and speed??? :unsure:
 
union rep of "pm" clerks etc. are supposed to be present during mapping.
Interesting. Especially the clerk part. Somethng sounds jacked up.

or a carrier who is not comfortable fingering the mail while driving in said conditions? guilty as charged while driving and fingering the mail, saves me at least an hour, and hate it when the roads are bad, i like getting done before dark.

Oh. my. goodness. :eek: Don't be so blase about it in public - you can get in a heap of trouble, including being fired, for that. Not to mention putting your life and others in danger. The goal is to safely go home to your loved ones every night.
 
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