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What Qualifies as a Parcel Under RRECS ?

hunchback

Well-known member
Sound Like A Stupid Question?

Not So Fast...

What qualifies as a parcel during a mail count varies from office to office depending on the person counting, that is just a fact.

Unlike the Supreme Court Justice defining pornography saying "I know what it is when I see it" A parcel is not so easy to define.

You have some offices that use the count measuring stick on every parcel during count and a parcel with a scan that can fit in the small slot it is a letter with a scan, if it fits in the bigger slot it is a flat with a scan, no consideration is given to how the item will be bent, spindled and mutilated during casing.
In other offices common cense is used, items that are handled as parcels all year long, are counted as parcels during count.

If we are to use figures generated by electronic means (scan data) Who the h**l knows what a parcel will be ?

To be sure they know the weight when the item is shipped, but dimensions? I'm not so sure about that.

If all parcels must be checked for qualification as a parcel, counted and logged each day at every office, well we will be cheated every day and the new improved system will be more time consuming and less efficient.

Yes they are supposed to count parcels every day for their reports, but they just guess or estimate, reports don't need to be done right...
the just need to be done.
 
From what I've heard, the study is more concerned about where you place the item in the vehicle and the location you deliver it.
 
With Informed Visibility (yep another new program) when the shipper buys the shipping label, the weight and dimensions are sent to the PO. Visibility tracks all the way to delivery. With the RREC program, the scan will track your movements in regard to the parcel.
 
That's the point of the study, to annotate every item that goes to the door (which takes more time) and the ones that fit in the boxes, which takes less time, but we are being paid as if a certain % all fit into the boxes, which they don't. Right now I'm going down cow paths for all the Amazon parcels that don't fit into SLOT boxes and not getting paid for any of it. FED-X, UPS and Amazon itself don't want to go to these out of the way homes, so guess who gets them for the "last mile", we do.
We currently are getting paid 30 seconds/parcel (20 to sort into order, and 10 to to deliver) because a lot of parcels USED to fit into the mail boxes. Small flat size parcels, probably should have been counted as a flat, but supposedly average out to the "actual time" to deliver the flat size and the larger (to the door) parcels, which is just not the case any more, even if it ever was. Whether the parcel is a "to the door" parcel or an "in-the-box" parcel, is all the scanner will care about and how we will be paid. If your pm was counting your flats as parcels you will probably be losing after the study is implemented, due to not actually having that many parcels, as would be the case if you get a new pm.
 
I think this whole "time study" thingy was just more about implementing tracking than anything to do with our pay... this "study" was ushered in with us getting the flippy phones to start tracking our movements, then we got the new nanny tracker scammers... and it's been all downhill since then... and our pay hasn't changed... other than maybe declined, as the tracking/spying/SPMing, etc... have all increased dramatically... :oops:
 
That's the point of the study, to annotate every item that goes to the door (which takes more time) and the ones that fit in the boxes, which takes less time,.

I agree, the packages schlepped to the door should be a parcel and because they went to the door should be given more time credit, but...

My question I guess is about the ones that get delivered in the box and are scanned delivered in or at box.
They have to be counted as something, letter, flat or parcel so you at least get counted for the item... see my point?

And of course the other question is the typical scenario of the compulsive shopper who gets 5 items every day, 3 would fit in the box, 2 wouldn't, but you deliver all 5 items to the person or set all 5 on the porch, then how are they credited.

I really don't think RRECS will ever be implemented because none of these issues were addressed by the half assed job the Engineering panel did.
Giving a time for each function was only part of the deal, determining a way to honestly collect and utilize the data to electronically mimic a mail count was the idea...
THEY FAILED MISSERABLY IN MY OPINION, AND WE ARE BARELY ANY CLOSER TO THAT OBJECTIVE THAN WHEN THEY STARTED
 
"We currently are getting paid 30 seconds/parcel (20 to sort into order, and 10 to to deliver) because a lot of parcels USED to fit into the mail boxes."

Is their any documentation on that? My PM says the 30 seconds is just for delivery and not sorting it into delivery order before hitting the street. I said it was 30 seconds total not just delivery, she said that isn't true.
 
"We currently are getting paid 30 seconds/parcel (20 to sort into order, and 10 to to deliver) because a lot of parcels USED to fit into the mail boxes."

Is their any documentation on that? My PM says the 30 seconds is just for delivery and not sorting it into delivery order before hitting the street. I said it was 30 seconds total not just delivery, she said that isn't true.
4241-m has an office column ( 20 sec.) and route column (10 sec.)

4241-m
 
RRECS is just another wishful, sugar coated, going to fix all the problems, SCAM, to fool you into thinking you're not getting SCAMMED! Does anyone know of any one new PROGRAM that the USPS have implemented that actually works, or does not cheat, steal or scam someone??? Especially Employees??
 
No, none of us know any program the USPS implemented in which we weren't screwed. If you noticed this program wasn't created by the USPS, and it hasn't been implemented 4 years after the designers said it could, that should demonstrate that the USPS doesn't like it. Why would that be??? Is it possible they see $$$ floating out of their controlled tight grasp? Counts, as we all know, are completely controlled. UPS, Fed-x, and Amazon "somehow" find out and just deliver more during those weeks, as has been talked about on other threads on this site. When we get "evaluated" for 3 months at a time by our scanners' info, that info can't be less unless the USPS messes with the true #'s. There will be carriers like me that will be keeping a daily tally to "check" their work. I don't see how we can get less from this system than we are right now. 30 seconds/parcel, vs driving a box of dog food 1/2 mile to the door and walking up 3 levels of steps and actually getting the time it takes to do it. I see no contest, on my route I will make more $ with RRECS. One dog food box to the door would pay me for 20 parcels at the current rate of 30 seconds/parcel.
 
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Anything bigger than a SMART car will merit parcel credit.

I've been trying to wrap my feeble brain around this study and the possible 3 month window frame to base our EVALS. What 3 months? Why not quarterly like corporate tax claims and include the Christmas push? If consecutive months in the early year as counts have been going it will impact those with SNOWBIRDS and benefit those carriers in warmer climates.

What about all the arriving cart/cage/skid/jumbo fort building cardboard box with MTEL scans the clerks do before distribution as to appropriate credit for us. We have all seen loose items tossed atop random office items "to make more room in the truck" for office drops. Why aren't these office drop trucks mandated to have the same height inside as the office doors they serve? There have been times at my office items had to removed off an implement to get items through the office doors.

The distance driven-walked down a long driveway I understand from scanner pings. Yet will the GPS plotting factor a rise or decrease in elevation for the stairs we walk up or down? What about those locations with a secure mail box? Are these a consideration when the regular mail will fit into this slot but that 1 other item in the single grab will not? Is this a part of plotting for the up and down or double handling of the mail?
 
Windindaface -- "I've been trying to wrap my feeble brain around this study and the possible 3 month window frame to base our EVALS. "

-- Don't forget the Christmas Crunch period won't be apart of it.

From the Study Q&A:

Q -- Why does this not include the 4 weeks around Christmas?

A -- I ( Mericle ) think that the main thought on that and if you base the route on a high volume from just Christmas season it is not a true average of the year. ( but if it is supposed to be a year-round average that is constantly updated via scanner info, taking the 4 weeks of Xmas really skews the data -- IMHO )
 
Windindaface -- "I've been trying to wrap my feeble brain around this study and the possible 3 month window frame to base our EVALS. "

-- Don't forget the Christmas Crunch period won't be apart of it.

From the Study Q&A:

Q -- Why does this not include the 4 weeks around Christmas?

A -- I ( Mericle ) think that the main thought on that and if you base the route on a high volume from just Christmas season it is not a true average of the year. ( but if it is supposed to be a year-round average that is constantly updated via scanner info, taking the 4 weeks of Xmas really skews the data -- IMHO )

Using this philosophy would also mean that the time period during a three week count would also not be a true average of the year!!! :unsure:Therefore taking the three weeks during a mail count really skews the data!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
I agree, the packages schlepped to the door should be a parcel and because they went to the door should be given more time credit, but...

My question I guess is about the ones that get delivered in the box and are scanned delivered in or at box.
They have to be counted as something, letter, flat or parcel so you at least get counted for the item... see my point?

And of course the other question is the typical scenario of the compulsive shopper who gets 5 items every day, 3 would fit in the box, 2 wouldn't, but you deliver all 5 items to the person or set all 5 on the porch, then how are they credited.

I really don't think RRECS will ever be implemented because none of these issues were addressed by the half assed job the Engineering panel did.
Giving a time for each function was only part of the deal, determining a way to honestly collect and utilize the data to electronically mimic a mail count was the idea...
THEY FAILED MISSERABLY IN MY OPINION, AND WE ARE BARELY ANY CLOSER TO THAT OBJECTIVE THAN WHEN THEY STARTED
what about when 3 packages by themselves would easily fit,, but together require a trip to door.. and what about a package by itself fits in the box but the cosmo and car add with it don't
 
I'm planning and hoping (hope is all rural carriers currently have to keep us going) that when I have parcels that fit in boxes and some that don't for the same stop, I get credit for all of them as "to the door" parcels. I plan on leaving all of them at the door (Chinese crap included) for this purpose. You may say that is "against the rules", I say the "rules" that I have worked under for 32 years have had me "donating" (hours/week) to this "non-profit" USPS without even the ability to deduct the donation from my taxes, are not "Just" rules. Therefore when I get the chance to even any of the imbalance, with out impunity, I will do so.
 
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