One week in the books.....How's everyone faring so far?

[D.B.Cooper]

Good question for BlameTheSub... inquiring minds wanna know...  <img title="Confused" alt="Confused" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif" />

I'm trying to remain incognito <img title="Cool" alt="Cool" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-cool.gif" />, so I don't wanna say my exact eval... but, according to the calc I'm running I held my current eval... had I gotten 6 EDDMs, well, I'd be up 5 hours too...  <img title="Embarassed" alt="Embarassed" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-embarassed.gif" />

 

[btdtret]

All  --  Quite a roller coaster in the preliminary results, at least on this thread.  Up 5 hours here and down 9 hours there!

--  Pretty sure Mother Nature had a hand in some of the big losses.

--  Now to keep an eye on the customer's mailing dates on the mail for the next 6 work days.  And to see when the BIG parcels start rolling in again.

--  Noted in the local neighborhoods, larger than usual FedEx vans making deliveries as well as white, unmarked vans ( Amazon ) doing the same.  The UPS vans I saw did not have a helper.

--  Keep an eye on "red-lining" by District when the work sheets are returned.  Although one thread indicated District was already calling to complain about scans, parcels, loading time, etc.  Manglement probably doesn't want to hear "It is what it is." even though they have no problem using it at non-count times.

--  Good luck to all on the final results.   

--  Don't forget about page 45 of the contract -- Carrier's Right in Route Adjustments.

( from someone on the outside )

 

[stillfirstclass]

  Now to keep an eye on the customer’s mailing dates on the mail for the next 6 work days.

curious.. everybody out there.. what will you do and what outcome do you expect if you find a mailing dated for this past monday in this monday's mail??

sarcastic answers expected and serious answers wanted..

 

[btdtret]

stillfirstclass -- "what will you do and what outcome do you expect if you find a mailing dated for this past monday in this monday’s mail??"

--  Realistically not much to be done.   The "numbers" are in.  If in an area not affected by winter storms, call it bad luck ( or a conspiracy or suspicions confirmed ) that certain mailings did not arrive in time for count, even though dated within the count time frame.  Might ask the supervisor / PM why Monday mail dated for the 5th didn't show up until the 12th - especially if weather or some other natural disaster did not take place to affect the shipping of the mailing.  Add it to the seasons why you won't be signing off on the validity of the count numbers.    At least the USPS actually put out a contingency plan dated 05 FEB 2018.

--  You can always walk by the supervisor and politely say "It sure would have been beneficial to have those mailing show up on time."  ( or words to that effect )

 

[blamethesub]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>FrozenToes said </strong>
<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote">
<strong>D.B.Cooper said </strong>
Wow... just wow...  9 hours... hard to believe...  <img title="Surprised" alt="Surprised" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif" />  
</blockquote>

I'm curious what the poster thinks caused this. ( not you D.B. <img title="Laugh" alt="Laugh" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif" />) Weather related . All types of mail or huge drop in a specific category.

Are these numbers coming from the PM or from the calculators here?

I would make sure to check the numbers.

BTW- D.B. what is your evaluation coming out as?  </blockquote>
FrozenToes, my numbers are from both the PM and your calculator, which was spot on by the way. 

I am in an area with country clubs and what used to be summer homes.  The clubs open May 1st.  Folks used to leave at the end of October, but more and more of them now stay until after Christmas and New Year's, and they start dribbling back in April.  These are wealthy people who get lots of mail and tons of parcels because we are in such a rural area.  I have just a few months where the volume dies down, and I get a break before they all come back.  After May 1st, my volume will be triple what it is now.  Feb/March is the worst possible time to count in this area.

My route was last counted in September, 2012, which is why the evaluation was so much higher.  We all tried to opt out and were denied.  If we have another September count, it will jump right back up again so I can be paid for what I actually do.  Or if the engineering study does rolling evaluations like it says it will, the route will average out over the course of a year.

Thank you for your calculator.  It helped me to know what was coming rather than being surprised at the end.

 

[collector]

Had some magazines to put up this afternoon, one bundle had deliver March 5-March 8.

 

[Rt2mailman]

Anytime there is a late arrival of mail, it is noted and the mailer gets to see that their mailing was late (the union also can see those "lates" on the same report) and when it was delivered, so they can be prepared for patrons arriving for sale items etc. If anything arrived before/during count it was checked at (every plant as far as I know) our plant by a union official on  the day before and the last day to make sure all normal volumes were moving through the plant. Our steward also checked the pieces per hour that the DPS machines handled during and before count to make sure DPS wasn't run extra times. The #'s all checked out, but the pull outs were higher, meaning they gave us cleaner DPS by giving us more raw "letters" in our flats, which still helps us anyway, by having more raw.  The volumes were down somewhat for flats and letters, overall, but that is something that the USPS is able to claim "innocent" because the movement of those pieces were chosen by the mailers, whom they wine and dine at least twice a year in Wa. D.C. If we had a mailer that would come forward and produce that correspondence with the USPS advocating holding back any of their usual mailings, we could easily fight and win that grievance, but that has/will never happen. If there is a mailing that you receive after count that would have moved you up to the next hour (it rarely does) I have seen carriers grieve that fact and win that extra time towards that extra hour added onto their count stats. Over all around my area the count was good and all moved up one to two hours if not more.

 

[incognito]

I'm so pissed......... Went into count as a mid 47K, and after being up to an evaluated 59 weekly hours, settled back in at 13 minutes under previous eval.  still a solid 47, which I'd be content with.   Problem being a cheating carrier in the office, brought in tubs of packages picked up on the route, that they had the pm count as indivigual picked up parcels.  They got their eval to jump from 42-43K to 48K.  So now, being that an aux. will be built,  another carrier and I are going to be knocked down with them as well.  They get to have their route cut, and keep their pay grade, while anyone playing by the rules, get shafted, $7-8000  PM had to know they take tubs out to be filled by customer, as we had a  recent route inspection.

 

[Shafted]

That carrier must be related to the lying cheating scamming piece of garbage carrie that works in my office.  

 

[Shafted]

Funny thing.  Bank statements that ALWAYS come either the 6th or 7th of month haven’t shown yet.  Where we live there is one huge major credit union that basically everyone belongs to with each member getting an individual statement.  Nada, zip, nothing.  Same for the electric bills that are the 5-6th.  They will be here tomorrow or Monday for sure.

 

[12345]

Could go either way between one or two hours up. Could be just the difference between our calculator and the official one.

 

[sonofnothing]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>D.B.Cooper said </strong>

6 EDDMs would be more flats than I got for the ENTIRE past 2 weeks... <img title="Frown" alt="Frown" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-frown.gif" />

Again, I got ZERO EDDMs...  <img title="Cry" alt="Cry" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-cry.gif" />

RIGGED!!!  <img title="Yell" alt="Yell" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif" />  </blockquote>
EDDM are boxholder, not flat counts. They are unaddressed. We didn't get DPS on thursday after the storm. So for that day I had zero markups, 17 letters, 555 flats (addressed dental flyer) 1 acct (key). Hopefully they do something about Thursday's numbers. As it stands, I went from a few minutes over 41J to about 20 minutes over a 43J. Good luck all.

 

[sonofnothing]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>incognito said </strong>
Problem being a cheating carrier in the office, brought in tubs of packages picked up on the route, that they had the pm count as indivigual picked up parcels.  </blockquote>
We get either letters/flats collected and parcels collected. There's no distinguishing whether they were picked up in tubs/boxes or individually. You still have to scan each one arrived. Which column donates whether the parcels were in tubs or individual?

 

[incognito]

Sonofnothing     we get one letter credit when we pick up a tub of 2000 letters.  how do we get indivigual parcel credit for picking up 20 parcels in a tub.  they were not scanned by carrier as they come with pickup request and manifest.

 

[D.B.Cooper]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>Sonofnothing said </strong>

EDDM are boxholder, not flat counts. They are unaddressed. We didn't get DPS on thursday after the storm. So for that day I had zero markups, 17 letters, 555 flats (addressed dental flyer) 1 acct (key). Hopefully they do something about Thursday's numbers. As it stands, I went from a few minutes over 41J to about 20 minutes over a 43J. Good luck all.  </blockquote>
The EDDM's we get here are usually addressed with "Current Resident" and the street address, so we would get flat credit normally, that is, if they would show up during mail counts, which they did not...  <img title="Confused" alt="Confused" src="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif" />

 

[Cliff Clavin]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>blamethesub said </strong>
Every route in our office dropped quite a bit.  I lost 9 hours down to a 42H.  I'm putting in for vacation the first week in May.  I doubt my sub will stick around much after that.

To get routes around here evaluated properly, we'll need either a September count, or the engineering study will have to deliver as advertised.  Not holding my breath for either option.  </blockquote>
I lost 4 hours. No credit for sectors (same Zip Code), 30 seconds for blue boxes. It's not hardly worth going to work to tear up your body and your vehicle daily for peanuts.

 

[btdtret]

Shafted -- "Where we live there is one huge major credit union that basically everyone belongs to with each member getting an individual statement.  Nada, zip, nothing.  Same for the electric bills that are the 5-6th.  They will be here tomorrow or Monday for sure."

--  Why not give the credit union and electric company a call:  "Where is my statement or elective bill?  It is usually here between the 5th and 7th -- what gives?"

 

[FrozenToes]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>blamethesub said </strong>

FrozenToes, my numbers are from both the PM and your calculator, which was spot on by the way. 

I am in an area with country clubs and what used to be summer homes.  The clubs open May 1st.  Folks used to leave at the end of October, but more and more of them now stay until after Christmas and New Year's, and they start dribbling back in April.  These are wealthy people who get lots of mail and tons of parcels because we are in such a rural area.  I have just a few months where the volume dies down, and I get a break before they all come back.  After May 1st, my volume will be triple what it is now.  Feb/March is the worst possible time to count in this area.

My route was last counted in September, 2012, which is why the evaluation was so much higher.  We all tried to opt out and were denied.  If we have another September count, it will jump right back up again so I can be paid for what I actually do.  Or if the engineering study does rolling evaluations like it says it will, the route will average out over the course of a year.

Thank you for your calculator.  It helped me to know what was coming rather than being surprised at the end.  </blockquote>
Check out this thread. Post # 5. Might help. <a href="https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/forum/mail-count/count-data-certified-to-be-correct/">https://www.ruralmailtalk.ruralinfo.net/forum/mail-count/count-data-certified-to-be-correct/</a>

 

[Surf]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>btdtret said </strong>
Shafted -- "Where we live there is one huge major credit union that basically everyone belongs to with each member getting an individual statement.  Nada, zip, nothing.  Same for the electric bills that are the 5-6th.  They will be here tomorrow or Monday for sure."

--  Why not give the credit union and electric company a call:  "Where is my statement or elective bill?  It is usually here between the 5th and 7th -- what gives?"  </blockquote>
I did this.  We have a magazine that is almost full coverage every other month (which did fall into this count) that we had not received yet on Wednesday the 7th.  The time dated pictures I took of these mags for the last year had them in our office no later than the 3rd every time.  I called the publisher and was told "we had an issue at the printers."  We "should" receive them in our homes by Thurs or Fri.  Luckily, we did get them Friday.  

On a side note:  My route jumped 5 hours (as I did state on another thread).  The other 2 routes gained 3 each.  All in all, a very good count for us.  

 

[blamethesub]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>Cliff Clavin said </strong>

I lost 4 hours. No credit for sectors (same Zip Code), 30 seconds for blue boxes. It's not hardly worth going to work to tear up your body and your vehicle daily for peanuts.  </blockquote>
Sorry to hear that, Cliff.  This summer I'll have been on my route for 3 years.  I've asked myself if I would have bid on it as an RCA if it had been a 42H route at the time.  The answer is yes, of course I would have.  So I'll keep showing up and doing what I do.  We all have our decisions to make now, don't we?

I stopped in this morning and had an honest chat with my sub so she can make her decisions based on reality and not whatever the boss is going to tell her.  She's the one who is getting hurt by this count.  I talked to her about learning other routes and about farming herself out to other offices nearby since she seems to like the job.  It's entirely possible one of our other subs will quit in the near future, which would help her a lot.  I told her the PO is like the weather.  Stick around awhile and it will change.  But if her family really needs a regular paycheck, she'll need to look elsewhere.  Tough position to be in.