The Numbers

[Joe Reeser]

I'm not exactly surprised but my numbers aren't adding up. Today is the first day of count so we'll see, I guess. I've counted my flats (bundled, pre-sort, and raw) for the last two weeks. My numbers versus their numbers are just all over the place.

The flats sorted on the AFSM100 (what I call pre-sorted and comes in tubs) were 25% short by my count.
On the other hand, the bundled flats were 32% over-counted.

Now I didn't count one day in the last two weeks because of my day off (Monday) and that's generally a heavy day. That very well may take a lot of the slack out of the bundled flats. I do have this coming Monday off and I'm going in to count. That's not going to help the fats in tubs, though. I should think those numbers would be accurate for each and every day. Some days are close and some days are way off but the number is never right unless I don't get any. Zero is pretty easy to count and get correct, I suppose.

I figure I could easily lose 5 or 6 hours a week as it is, since we were last counted with Amazon and don't have it anymore. I can't afford for pre-sorted flats to be undercounted by 25%.

What can I do to fix those numbers? Anything?

And yes, I realize it's too late to address this for the past year but I can going forward.

 

[Morty]

Dispute it. I had nearly 50% more flats than what the machine said I had. It costs nothing to dispute this stuff. Also track your walking.

There's a dispute sheet, official. You dispute, you write a letter why. You ask to dispute it. You email your DR a pic of your dispute sheet and letter, who will get the issue resolved that day.

 

[Joe Reeser]

I’m going to suggest be careful; a lot of the “flats” we get are letters but the plant doing plant things for plant reasons calls them flats. This mini count sort of should show that, but that is irrelevant to our purposes.

Our management understands that anything that comes from the plant in pre-sorted flat tubs are flats. Yes, some of them under the old system were counted as letters. Some of them may actually BE letters. It doesn't matter. They're counted as flats. It's been in the contract forever that the PO was to present flats and letters separately to the carrier. They went to arbitration and found a arbitrator that would negate that clause. They could have just fixed the system but they probably thought it would cost them too much. Maybe they were right and maybe they were wrong but they'll count as flats now. That's not our problem and it's not our doing.

 

[Joe Reeser]

Dispute it. I had nearly 50% more flats than what the machine said I had. It costs nothing to dispute this stuff. Also track your walking.

There's a dispute sheet, official. You dispute, you write a letter why. You ask to dispute it. You email your DR a pic of your dispute sheet and letter, who will get the issue resolved that day.

I will definitely be getting my ducks in a row for that. Luckily, we have decent management I our office. I don't believe the PM, the Sup, or any of the 204Bs would have a problem confirming the count of the pre-sort flats. If they do, I'll document that as well.

I will definitely be looking into this. Thanks.

 

[Gotrope]

Your experience is pretty Standard to what numbers I've seen last 6 months. They inflated presort does have an engineered inflation factor for Co mixed mail. But, it shouldn't be as wildly off as has been Evidenced.

 

[Joe Reeser]

They inflated presort does have an engineered inflation factor for Co mixed mail.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain?

 

[neciat]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain?

There is a margin of error allowance on the presorts.

 

[Ponder]

Ah. I measured my bundled flats, then counted them. I neglected to think about the plant sorted buckets. Sigh. Soooo many other things, none good to report. Management uneducated or caring, but yelling if asking questions or sharing information from website, training video, and zoom Mini Mail Survey training class. I can‘t get image of flushing toilet out of my brain.

 

[Morty]

There is a margin of error allowance on the presorts.

Margin of errors should be +/- 2%. Not +/- 32% or 25% or 45% or 60%. I had a nearly 50% discrepancy. The union hasn't officially come out with any of this information.

I was in a plant this week and talking to the lead maintenance tech. He said when they were contracting out new sorters, a machine from Norway perfectly sorted flats quickly and efficiently with zero mistakes. He then said you wanna know which machine USPS chose? They signed a contract with the cheapest machine manufacturer that failed all the tests. And we pay the price.

.0826 minutes x 100 is 8.26 minutes x 12 days is 99.12 minutes dived by 2 is is 49 1/2 minutes a week which is 2.5% of your evaluation alone. If not challenged, you're throwing away that time and money. You still have to handle those 100 flats/day that don't exist according to the machine.

 

[DB.Cooper]

....

I was in a plant this week and talking to the lead maintenance tech. He said when they were contracting out new sorters, a machine from Norway perfectly sorted flats quickly and efficiently with zero mistakes. He then said you wanna know which machine USPS chose? They signed a contract with the cheapest machine manufacturer that failed all the tests. And we pay the price.
...

It was somebody's son-in-law.....

 

[neciat]

Margin of errors should be +/- 2%. Not +/- 32% or 25% or 45% or 60%. I had a nearly 50% discrepancy. The union hasn't officially come out with any of this information.

I was in a plant this week and talking to the lead maintenance tech. He said when they were contracting out new sorters, a machine from Norway perfectly sorted flats quickly and efficiently with zero mistakes. He then said you wanna know which machine USPS chose? They signed a contract with the cheapest machine manufacturer that failed all the tests. And we pay the price.

.0826 minutes x 100 is 8.26 minutes x 12 days is 99.12 minutes dived by 2 is is 49 1/2 minutes a week which is 2.5% of your evaluation alone. If not challenged, you're throwing away that time and money. You still have to handle those 100 flats/day that don't exist according to the machine.

Correct !!!! And it gets exponentially worse as we go along in time. Between the inherent flaws in the system and the delay with the lag in the RADAR presort numbers , we are spending SO much time trying to validate what numbers we CAN see from any given previous day(s). When you stated in part that " And we pay the price" , that is literally.

 

[lovethemail]

Stinkin' numbers. My route has been under evaluated for years ( I know I know lol) so today I got NO flats in a tub and only three in hot case to be counted. Let's add a bit of salt in the wound, but I also did not get the every other month boxholder. I have never not gotten that boxholder. WHERE IS ALL THE STUFF AT?!

 

[oi veh.]

Stinkin' numbers. My route has been under evaluated for years ( I know I know lol) so today I got NO flats in a tub and only three in hot case to be counted. Let's add a bit of salt in the wound, but I also did not get the every other month boxholder. I have never not gotten that boxholder. WHERE IS ALL THE STUFF AT?

re: the boxholder...

unless it's not bundled, it's not being counted, so don't sweat that.

 

[lovethemail]

Yep, it's bundled. Brought in my someone else...so should it have been counted raw too? If so then I really am sad.