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Question about performance

Terrylynn2018

New member
There is an rca in my office that can’t do some of the routes that multiple people under him can do and when he is scheduled he is telling them he can’t do them without help. Can they not schedule him for the route when he has worked over a year and half and still can’t do several routes in the office?
 
Actually, as I understand it, as an RCA who has years in on the job, You are mandated to know your route and 2 others, by the MATRIX. After that, it is only beneficial (pay-wise) to know and do other routes in the office. While Management can require (schedule) you on another route, you only get paid actual time the FIRST TIME you run a new-to-you route or one which you have not run in 12 calendar months. Performance seems a strange way to put it. The Postal Service doesn't seem to require RCAs to meet many requirements other than number of scans must match those done by clerks in morning, fast on route, show up and have minimal accidents. How you actually deliver the mail doesn't even get looked at until there is a customer complaint filed online.
 
You can carry them, but do you deliver accurately....taking into consideration dead/vacant boxes, forwards, holds, etc? I am an RCA that has followed many other RCAs that can do what you do Justasinger, but I am always picking up their mistakes and misdeliveries. Fast does not equate to good service. As long as a warm body is out there, management is happy. If you undercut the eval, you are most often doing the route a disservice and showing the powers that be that it can be done in less time...time for a route evaluation? No, we will have RRECs for that.
 
You can carry them, but do you deliver accurately....taking into consideration dead/vacant boxes, forwards, holds, etc? I am an RCA that has followed many other RCAs that can do what you do Justasinger, but I am always picking up their mistakes and misdeliveries. Fast does not equate to good service. As long as a warm body is out there, management is happy. If you undercut the eval, you are most often doing the route a disservice and showing the powers that be that it can be done in less time...time for a route evaluation? No, we will have RRECs for that.

While I think the above statement is nice, however, the Postal Service runs on fiction. This situation is not improving and I expect it to get only worse until the Postal Service falls apart.
 
Was an rca in a number of different offices for @ 8 years. If I cut corners or acted as a runner, I could beat eval on a fairly regular basis on routes I knew. If I did the route by "the book" , curb it, park it , brake it, take it, and didn't run the parcels, I had difficulty in making evaluation. After Amazon arrived, I could never beat evaluation on a regular basis. In all the offices I worked, we were never fairly counted.
As a 3 year regular now, meeting evaluation is a non starter. We get heavy Amazon and it disappeared during the 2018 count and reappeared immediately after. My route, ,like all the others in the office, averaged 55 scans/day during count. These days we get 150-180+ scans /day after the holidays. Our union has no answer and no help. We feel like we are on our own and totally abandoned. I will be in 2080 difficulties again this year, but what can I do? I take my time off, but I refuse to run and cut corners. Remember, safety depends on me. Not my employer! Too many regulars in my office have been forced to retire before their time because of Amazon. That's why I became regular. I will not let that happen to me.
Fortunately, our pm is a former rural carrier, and "gets it". Otherwise, it would be intolerable. I feel for all the carriers who have to deal with insane management. We are lucky in that respect.
Our union is incomprehensible! Where is the leadership, the guidance, the information? Where is our latest contract? Our DR/ADR just shrug their shoulders and say wait for rrecs to be implemented. 5 years later, I'm still waiting! I carried that brick for 5 years to the door thru snowstorms and nor'easters only to be told " sorry, that didn't count", do it for another year, it counts now. What am I to think?
I go in tmrw, on a Monday, looking at another s#$show. End of rant!
 
Our union is incomprehensible! Where is the leadership, the guidance, the information? Where is our latest contract? Our DR/ADR just shrug their shoulders and say wait for rrecs to be implemented. 5 years later, I'm still waiting! I carried that brick for 5 years to the door thru snowstorms and nor'easters only to be told " sorry, that didn't count", do it for another year, it counts now. What am I to think?
I go in tmrw, on a Monday, looking at another s#$show. End of rant!
[/QUOTE]
And remember what I've heard from a few sources....those times used by carriers in the time study that occurred driving/walking in the snow storms were thrown out because they aren't "representative" of typical times!! So it's just left up to us carriers that have to work them to eat that extra time required.
 
Are you being made to do the routes with less seniority and he gets help every time? I would be asking for help, they are to treat you equally.
Yes I am. I don’t get help and several others done also under me. The one right under me was 8 months pregnant right before Christmas and was made to do it and it is a heavy hard route and went into labor and they still didn’t want to send her help but finally did. Every time he takes it they call me to split it with him even though I can run it
 
You can carry them, but do you deliver accurately....taking into consideration dead/vacant boxes, forwards, holds, etc? I am an RCA that has followed many other RCAs that can do what you do Justasinger, but I am always picking up their mistakes and misdeliveries. Fast does not equate to good service. As long as a warm body is out there, management is happy. If you undercut the eval, you are most often doing the route a disservice and showing the powers that be that it can be done in less time...time for a route evaluation? No, we will have RRECs for that.
The evaluation system is broken in every way imaginable. Being under evaluation is not undercutting it. The power that be have done the route a disservice by using arbitrary time standards that make no sense. We can’t account for daily volume as it is, and seasonally it’s even more varied.

How should I not undercut my evaluation on a rare day with two trays of dps, 3 feet of flats, and 45 parcels? Let alone how should I maintain the same speed that would stretch my time when I have a torrential downpour of flats and parcels?
 
The RCA assigned to the Route I am, gets help EVERYDAY she runs the route and she has been a RCA going on 5 years. I agree the Evaluated system is broken and I don't have a good answer to what would help. Work ethics (not everyone) have declined over the last 5 years. My own personal opinion is work ethics seem to decline about the time the Postal Service cut RCA starting wages and implemented Table 2. You get what you pay for, once again this isn't all RCA's just all the ones I work with.
 
Was an rca in a number of different offices for @ 8 years. If I cut corners or acted as a runner, I could beat eval on a fairly regular basis on routes I knew. If I did the route by "the book" , curb it, park it , brake it, take it, and didn't run the parcels, I had difficulty in making evaluation. After Amazon arrived, I could never beat evaluation on a regular basis. In all the offices I worked, we were never fairly counted.
As a 3 year regular now, meeting evaluation is a non starter. We get heavy Amazon and it disappeared during the 2018 count and reappeared immediately after. My route, ,like all the others in the office, averaged 55 scans/day during count. These days we get 150-180+ scans /day after the holidays. Our union has no answer and no help. We feel like we are on our own and totally abandoned. I will be in 2080 difficulties again this year, but what can I do? I take my time off, but I refuse to run and cut corners. Remember, safety depends on me. Not my employer! Too many regulars in my office have been forced to retire before their time because of Amazon. That's why I became regular. I will not let that happen to me.
Fortunately, our pm is a former rural carrier, and "gets it". Otherwise, it would be intolerable. I feel for all the carriers who have to deal with insane management. We are lucky in that respect.
Our union is incomprehensible! Where is the leadership, the guidance, the information? Where is our latest contract? Our DR/ADR just shrug their shoulders and say wait for rrecs to be implemented. 5 years later, I'm still waiting! I carried that brick for 5 years to the door thru snowstorms and nor'easters only to be told " sorry, that didn't count", do it for another year, it counts now. What am I to think?
I go in tmrw, on a Monday, looking at another s#$show. End of rant!
Is there any detail work that you can do? I like yourself have very similar situation. 2080 issues only due to under evaluated route. I like yourself, never cut corners and do it as close to by the book as I can. I started asking if I could help out with the Safety Drivers Evaluations. I also helped with Teaching Rural Academy. Those hours are to be charged to District but they go to 2240 instead of 2080. Taking annual with note of 2080 issues generally will not get denied. No LWOP!
 
You can carry them, but do you deliver accurately....taking into consideration dead/vacant boxes, forwards, holds, etc? I am an RCA that has followed many other RCAs that can do what you do Justasinger, but I am always picking up their mistakes and misdeliveries. Fast does not equate to good service. As long as a warm body is out there, management is happy. If you undercut the eval, you are most often doing the route a disservice and showing the powers that be that it can be done in less time...time for a route evaluation? No, we will have RRECs for that.
While I cannot say I'm perfect, I try very hard to be accurate. If the mailbox is numbered (which I'm not sure in other areas of the country, but here in Maine it seems optional) I am highly accurate. When I say I'm under eval, I'm not referring to day after a holiday or christmas period or mondays. What I was told when I was hired is that the evaluated time is over the course of a week, so on monday they expect you to be over the evaluated time, and under it the rest of the week and come out at the end of the week on average. I know a handful of routes good enough that I could write down in order every mailbox on the route, the 25-30 routes that I know well I can write down every turn and every street name, and know at least half of the mailboxes before they come into view.
 
While I cannot say I'm perfect, I try very hard to be accurate. If the mailbox is numbered (which I'm not sure in other areas of the country, but here in Maine it seems optional) I am highly accurate. When I say I'm under eval, I'm not referring to day after a holiday or christmas period or mondays. What I was told when I was hired is that the evaluated time is over the course of a week, so on monday they expect you to be over the evaluated time, and under it the rest of the week and come out at the end of the week on average. I know a handful of routes good enough that I could write down in order every mailbox on the route, the 25-30 routes that I know well I can write down every turn and every street name, and know at least half of the mailboxes before they come into view.

Do you have Amazon? How many/route?
 
justasinger et al -- "If the mailbox is numbered (which I'm not sure in other areas of the country, but here in Maine it seems optional)"

-- Anything preventing you from putting the address number inside the mailbox?

-- A white Sharpie "MEANSTREAK" permanent marking stick works well.

-- RCA's following you will appreciate it -- especially if working in the dark.
 
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